“I remember saying, ‘Come on, you’re gonna edit it down to, what, four bars?’ Harold goes, ‘No, we’re gonna keep everything.’ And they did!”: How a guitar hero's epic 64-bar solo lit up a classic movie theme

Steve in the Top Gun Anthem video.

In 1986, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, was the biggest grossing movie in the world — a genuine blockbuster which, of course, had an epic central theme.

The Top Gun Anthem was written by German composer Harold Faltermeyer, who knew — being that this was the ’80s after all — that said theme would need an equally epic guitar solo.