Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F

Nothing says 1985 more than "Axel F". And I mean that in a good way; I wore out my MCA 45 of this as a kid. I always liked the particular sound of this song. The shaky and squiggly percussive synth sounds, the big expansive drum machine sounds, the break that's directly ripped off from Yaz's "Situation" - much to love.

The 45 and LP version are the same. There's a 12" version that runs over 7 minutes, but there's no ambiguity in identifying that one.

The song first appeared on CD on the Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack, where it sounded pretty good, but the levels were a little low (a common ailment for CDs around 1985).

There were lots of later compilations that all use the same analog transfer as the Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack:

• Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol. 11 (1994)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 12 1985-1986 (1995; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• JCI's Only Rock 'N Roll #1 Radio Hits 1985-1989 (1996)
• Madacy's Rock On 1985 (1996; digitally exactly 3 dB louder)
• Sony's Retro Lunchbox: Flashback Flix (1998; digitally identical to Rock Of The '80s Vol. 11)
• Time-Life's Modern Rock Vol. 13 1984-1989 Disc 1 (2000; digitally identical to Sounds Of The Eighties)
• Time-Life's Another Lost Decade The '80s At The Movies (2005; about 2.9 dB louder than Sounds Of The Eighties

None of these sound bad, not even the Priority disc.

There have been a smattering of other masterings over the years:

• MCA's 4-CD promo MCA Hits Sampler Vol. 1 (1988; sounds good)
• Cema's 2-CD Instrumental Magic (1991; a little more high end than the MCA disc, which is good)
• Swaitek's 50-CD promo A List Disc 28 (1994, possibly a small amount of noise reduction)
• EMI Australia's 5-CD box Eighties Complete Vol. 2 (1999; sounds quite muffled compared to all the others)
• Skifan Iceland's 2-CD Pottþétt 80's 2 (2001; sounds somewhat like soundtrack, but with additional compression - avoid)

Soundwise, my favorite is actually Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002). It's a brand new analog (digital?) transfer, and the high end really sparkles on this track. There's a miniscule amount of clipping on the drum fill after the bridge, which is really inaudible. The dynamic range is huge on this song, so the tiny amount of clipping is certainly forgivable, and is far preferable to adding compression/limiting.

Other unimportant notes for this song:

• At one point, I owned the full-length CD Harold F. I can't recall at all what the rest of the album sounded like. Probably shouldn't have sold it, because I've never seen one since.
• There was a knock-off/cover version on a 12" single at the time, which actually got some club play at the time. I sold it many, many years ago, and I don't recall the exact artist. I have a BPM catalog which lists "Beverly Hills Version" as the artist, on Club Records, from 1985. Anyone else have this?
• As part of a high school physics project, my friend Jason built a small xylophone out of different lengths of pipe, built a pseudo-drum kit (the snare was a metal butter cookie tin with a broken glass in it), and had one more percussion instrument (I forget what). He performed "Axel F" with two other guys. They lost count during the break, though, and crashed and burned at the end of the song. A+
• The 2005 cover version by Crazy Frog is part of my permanent on-air library, in case I need to inflict torture on the audience on short notice. All songs should have a "bing, bing" lyric.

Edited by crapfromthepast

crapfromthepast wrote: There was a knock-off/cover version on a 12" single at the time, which actually got some club play at the time. I sold it many, many years ago, and I don't recall the exact artist. I have a BPM catalog which lists "Beverly Hills Version" as the artist, on Club Records, from 1985.

That cover version is by Eddie's Rascals and the 12" is on Club 101 (peaked at #8 on the BB Club Play chart in 1985).