Lady Gaga sings for Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise is today’s biggest movie star. Check out the news clips from the recent premiere of Top Gun: Maverick at the Cannes Film Festival or the one in London which had members of the royal family in attendance. And I must say he looks good with that new hairstyle. Not bad for a guy of 59.

I do not like Tom most of the time, though. He could be okay, even great as in Rain Man, A Few Good Men or in his early Risky Business. He also did very well in Magnolia. No not Jerry Maguire. Cuba Gooding Jr., ran away with that one.

I cringe in my seat whenever I see Tom trying hard to be a great actor as in Eyes Wide Shut or Valkyrie or Born on the Fourth of July or when he is being the big action star as in War of the Worlds or the Mission Impossible series. Of course, I do give him credit for doing all those stunts which it is always bruited about, he does himself. Plus those movies do make a lot of money.

I can watch The Firm again and again though and I must say, he does have great taste in soundtrack music. To this day it is often said that a huge part of the success of Top Gun, the Tom Cruise movie from 1986 about a school where pilots attend a sort of master class for fighting battles while airborne, was the song Take My Breath Away.

Played during a lovemaking scene between Tom and leading lady Kelly McGillis, Take My Breath Away became one of the biggest selling movie songs of all time. It is a soft rock ballad that was composed and performed by the New Wave band Berlin. It was just too bad that the group disbanded soon after that huge success and has not been heard of since. But its song lives on.

I read somewhere that the love scene and Take My Breath Away were added as an afterthought to the finished movie. True or not, it turned out to be an excellent decision for Top Gun. Take My Breath Away won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. The soundtrack album was No. 1 in the charts for several months and became a multi-platinum seller.

I can listen to the Top Gun soundtrack again and again. It was very well produced and included a mix of then new songs like Danger Zone and Playing with the Boys by Kenny Loggins and I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic and pop classics like You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by the Righteous Brothers and Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Of course, the piece de resistance of the album was Take My Breath Away. I do not know if they do it to the tune of the theme from Mission Impossible these days. I mean playing the song whenever Tom makes his entrance. But if you want music to accompany Tom while he is walking before crowds of fans the movie star way, then it will have to be Take My Breath Away.

Watch out though, a likely replacement has entered the scene. This is the theme from one of the most anticipated sequels of all time, Top Gun: Maverick, which came after a very looooonnnng 36 years starring Tom, of course. The song is Hold My Hand and it was composed by Lady Gaga herself. She also produced the song together with Bloodpops.

Hold My Hand is an inspiring anthemic rock ballad and as expected every time she releases a new recording, The Gaga’s singing which is so emotional, is in top form. She calls it her “love letter to the world.” It is a reassurance that there will be happy, peaceful times again after what we are now going through. If one has doubts, there is no need to feel bad because there is always The Gaga or someone else who will be there for you no matter what.

This early Hold My Hand is already being talked about as a big hit and a likely award winner. Well, it looks like Tom Cruise did it again.