What a Feeling: Giorgio Moroder Rarities Due from Repertoire

What could be cooler than the recent news that disco super-producer Giorgio Moroder joined music-sharing site SoundCloud and started posting high-quality rare and unreleased tracks for fans to stream? How about Moroder making not one, but two more accounts holding such audio treasures?

But what could be cooler than that for fans of physical discs? Simple: Repertoire Records is releasing a double-disc set of rare gems produced by the man who gave us the greatest hits of Donna Summer, Blondie’s “Call Me” and the soundtracks to Flashdance, Top Gun and Scarface.

On the Groove Train Volume 1: 1975-1993 focuses on some of the least-known works Moroder had a hand in during his early and later career, including producing singles for artists on his Oasis Records label, including Trax, Roberta Kelly and Munich Machine, as well as a handful of instrumental tunes under his own name. That’s not to say his most famous collaborators are ignored on this compilation, though; the first disc closes with the sought-after 1975 Netherlands-only single “Virgin Mary” by the late, great Donna Summer (included on Dutch pressings of The Queen of Disco’s Love to Love You Baby album), while the second CD features “Carry On,” Summer and Moroder’s collaboration for the producer’s Forever Dancing album in 1992. (That track was included on a U.S. compilation, The Donna Summer Anthology, the following year.)

Also present is Keith Forsey, who cut two solo singles produced by Moroder in 1981 but was of course far better known as a drummer on Summer’s recordings, a co-writer of Summer’s “Hot Stuff,” Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What a Feeling” and “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds and a producer for Billy Idol. Helen St. John makes a few appearances, including her “Love Theme from Flashdance,” as does Paul Engemann, best known for the Moroder-produced “Push It to the Limit” from Scarface but featured as a vocalist on the European single “Shannon’s Eyes.”

This 33-song compilation has an October 30 release date in America, but a November 12 street date in the U.K.; odd, considering Repertoire is a European label. Order it from Amazon U.S. and U.K. and hit the jump for a detailed look at the track list.