Harold Faltermeyer: Home and Hollywood

The Tannenhof in Baldham is Harold Faltermeyer's home. In the 1930s, his grandparents moved here by force—Josef Thorak, a sculptor by trade and one of Adolf Hitler's favorite artists, inherited the original family estate in Baldham.

Faltermeier was born into the world on October 5, 1952 as the son of parents Hugo and Anneliese (pictured here on a walk in Klais near Mittenwald in 1942) at six o'clock in the morning. "His brother Ralf was born almost three years later. The two of them played together and went on many adventures in the meadows and forest on the Tannenhof grounds. "We were like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer."

But with all the first-born males in the family being called Hugo, why was his name Harold? This was the fault of a car accident caused by his father Hugo in 1945 after crashing into a US Army wagon. He was only sentenced to three days' imprisonment and no more due to the mercy of official Harold C. Clark, who later became a close family friend and the godfather to his first-born.

Harold also loved to play with his grandparents' two Komondor dogs, Harpia (photo) and Erco. For Harold, the Tannenhof was a paradise—an impenetrable fortress, as he puts it. "A tribe you could not break into. It gave our family a lot of value."

Faltermeier (right) received a lot of support on his musical journey, but especially from his father. Pictured on left: Harold's younger brother Ralf.

Art, culture, and most importantly music always played a huge role in the Faltermeier family. His grandfather Hugo (pictured here on the piano) especially loved classical music. When he delivered extra coal to the unheated Munich opera house one cold winter's day so a performance could take place in the evening, general music director Georg Solti also took notice. From then on, Solti would often visit the Tannenhof. Harold's father Hugo even set up a bench and table for him in a secluded corner of the grounds—a refuge that Solti often sought, particularly for rehearsing scores.

As a boy, however, Harold was mostly interested in beat music. At the age of 13 he started his first band, The Four Juniors, who performed at birthdays, weddings, and Christmas parties. They even played in the tavern in the Tannenhof basement for one of their neighbors, Udo Jürgens. The crooner was impressed by his visit and could hardly get enough of it. This was more to do with the apricot cakes made by Harold's mother than the band's sound, however. Harold formed his next band Melodic Sounds at 16 with brother Ralf (foreground on left) and brothers Thomas and Stefan Zauner (background on left). He later founded the band Münchener Freiheit.

While working in the recording studio one day, he met Giorgio Moroder (background on left), who recognized Harold's talent immediately and called him late one evening to ask whether he'd like to work together. The first project the two of them took on was the soundtrack to Midnight Express, characterized by pulsating synthesizer sounds, which won Moroder an Oscar in 1979.

1979 was also the year when Faltermeier achieved his first major hit: composing Hot Stuff for Donna Summer together with Keith Forsey and Pete Bellotte.

Faltermeyer, who wrote his name with a y for ease of international pronunciation from then on, went back and forth between Bavaria and California, Baldham and Los Angeles. Together with his wife Karin whom he married in March 1977…

In the early 1980s Faltermeyer continued to return to his hometown. He switched back and forth, working at home with people like Udo Jürgens, a neighbor who had once been more captivated with Harold's mother's cooking than Harold's music.

Back in Hollywood, Faltermeyer worked with Moroder on the soundtrack to the 1984 erotic thriller Thief of Hearts—not really a box office hit. Its producers were Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who would one day commission Faltermeyer to create the music for another movie: Beverly Hills Cop, with Eddie Murphy playing Axel Foley.

His work proved quite rough at first. What was missing was a central theme. Then one day the dazzling idea came to him, which would later be a global hit...

For anyone interested at this point in the instruments Faltermeyer played Axel F. on, a Roland Jupiter-8 was used for the melody, a Yamaha DX7 for the marimba sounds, a Moog Model 15 and an Oberheim OB 8 for the bass, a Linn LM-1 drum machine for the drums, and a Roland TR 808 for percussion and claps, as well as modular synthesizers Roland Series 700 and M100 for the water drops.

His soundtrack to Top Gun with Tom Cruise was also a resounding success and earned him a Grammy, together with guitarist Steve Stevens.

No matter how much success he had in Hollywood and how many more soundtracks he composed, including the soundtracks to Beverly Hills Cop II, The Running Man, and Tango & Cash, Faltermeyer was sure that his long-term home lay in Bavaria. He first became aware of this when his wife Karin fell pregnant for the first time. Their daughter Elena was born into the world in May 1989. Twins Bianca and Florian followed two years later. "I didn't want my children to grow up in America," Faltermeyer said.

Back in Baldham he produced the album Behaviour by the Pet Shop Boys, and later composed the soundtracks for shows like Days of Our Lives and The King of St. Pauli, as well as the title song for Asterix in America with Bonnie Tyler.

Alongside his work in his recording studio in the Tannenhof basement, he still enjoys forging…

…woodwork…

…spending time with his life partner Birgitt Wolff…

…and cooking. Together with his daughter Bianca—a professional photographer—he published the cookbook Sweet Home Bavaria in 2017 which included traditional Bavarian recipes.

Even when he returned to Hollywood in 2020 to compose the soundtrack to Top Gun 2 for Tom Cruise, Faltermeyer prefers being at home, where a friend gave him a place name sign for his 50th birthday: Faltydorf. This is where we were able to meet with him in the Tannenhof and where he gave us a tour…