Article: Giorgio Moroder 10 of the best
The Guardian (August 14, 2015)
Giorgio Moroder – 10 of the best
4. Sparks – The Number One Song in Heaven
Another duo who called upon Moroder to sprinkle some of his disco dust on their careers in 1978 was Sparks, who’d not had a major hit for a few years. Having expressed their admiration for the producer to a German journalist who happened to be a personal friend of Moroder’s, they were soon hooked up, and the chance encounter reaped dividends too: the Number One Song In Heaven not only achieving empyrean supremacy but also charting in the Top 20 in the UK and Ireland.
Written collaboratively between Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, and Moroder, the song is a high-octane slab of disco campness, with a cerebrally comedic concept in keeping with much of Sparks’ tongue-in-cheek oeuvre, while the galloping space groove underneath was perfect for Russell’s firmament-bothering castrato. So pleased were they with the results of album No 1 in Heaven that they worked together again on the 1980 follow up. The Mael brothers achieved an unexpected smash in France with When I’m with You, and spent the best part of a year there promoting album Terminal Jive.