Besides working as a session musician with the likes of Laura Branigan, Pet Shop Boys, and Billy Idol, Faltermeyer’s music was the lifeblood of three 80s classics: Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, and Fletch.

If you find yourself wondering what is “Fletch”, congratulations, you still have a long life ahead of you. If you do know the movie and can hum the song, remember to have a blood test every six months.

Crass humour for today’s subject is right on point, as it was Chevy Chase’s signature. For the majority of the 80s, his exile from SNL meant he had a meteoric rise on cinema, but just like shoulder pads and plastic boondoggles, it never made it past 1990.

If you’ve seen I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not, the CNN documentary about Chase’s life, you’ll know why. As funny as you may think he is, he truly is an arrogant person. The confrontational nature of the documentary feels almost as a hatchet job, until you realise it’s a self-inflicted one.

Not gonna lie, I did watch a lot of his movies as a kid, and laughed at most of them. Rewatching them now, I hardly get a chuckle. Caddyshack bored me, the first two National Lampoon vacation’s laughs only come from anyone but him. The latter applies to Spies like us and Three amigos. Where it really came tumbling down for Chase was Memoirs of an invisible man, Nothing but trouble, and his late night show.

It’s kinda sad, because there was a lot about his comedic timing on SNL that really worked. I genuinely think he can be funny when he is part of an ensemble that can (or try to) reign him in, like in Community. But all his misery and all his bad reputation really comes down to him.

It’s a shame I’m wasting so many words on Chevy Chase when really I should talk about Harold Faltermeyer. The German musician’s refined synth work screams 80s, but never quite feels dated. That Axel F riff comes back to life every decade, crazy frog or not, and with Top Gun: Maverick’s bazillion dollar earnings, you’ll hear from the guy again.

Fletch is a better display of Chevy Chase, and it’s very rewatchable. Faltermeyer’s score does ape a few structure ideas from Axel F’s theme with it’s repetitive hook, but it’s the breakdown what I feel interesting. Like Fletch’s investigative journalist career, you find the one clue that leads to another branch of a story and that’s where Faltermeyer’s breezy synth part really shines. That Yamaha DX-7 and those Rolands are doing wonderful stuff. Intrigue, pause, discovery, then a march to a new adventure.

-Sam J. Valdés López