Gigolo

Writer/director John Turturro's Fading Gigolo centers on an elderly New York bookstore owner (Woody Allen) who becomes a pimp when he turns his middle-aged friend (Turturro) into a gigolo hoping to raise enough money when it looks like their store is going to close. Eventually, they begin to make more money than they ever expected.

A six-song EP released while fans waited (and waited) for the Gigolo Aunts to follow up Flippin' Out, Learn to Play Guitar features some of the band's finest work. The unforgettable lead track, "Kinda Girl," is guitar-driven power-pop at its best, featuring clever lyrics and infectious hooks, while "Wishing You the Worst" is a resentful and melancholy ballad reminiscent of Grand Prix-era Teenage Fanclub.

While this soundtrack is arguably most notable for introducing Middle America to Blondie, there is also some interesting incidental music written by legendary producer Giorgio Moroder and performed by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey – the latter of which may be familiar to some as percussionist for the German prog/art rock collective Amon Düül. There is likewise a vocal contribution from actress/vocalist Cheryl Barnes on "Love and Passion." The album's pervading heavily manufactured and synthetically generated atmosphere is convincing in its aural depiction of the shallow decadence portrayed on the screen. It took almost two decades before American Gigolo was issued on CD in North America. The primary impetus for the release was the "extended version" of Blondie's "Call Me," which was unavailable on any Blondie album and was too long – at over eight minutes – to fit onto a single. The song was co-composed by Debbie Harry and Moroder specifically for this project, becoming the second chart-topper for the band, ultimately staying at number one for six weeks in March of 1980.