Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Giorgio Moroder!

It’s April 2026. We’re at war with Iran. The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about birthright citizenship. The global economy is on a slow-burn collapse. Everything is awesome. Oh, and he’s still alive. 

But we still have music, friends and community, y’all. And hopefully JOVM offers a bit of respite in our mad, mad, mad world. 

So while I do focus on new music, there’s always room to celebrate our legends — both living and departed. 

• The Isley Brothers‘ co-founder Rudolph Isley was born 87 years ago on April 1
• Gil Scott-Heron was born 77 years ago on April 1
• The legendary Marvin Gaye was born 87 years ago on April 2
• Bella Union Records founder and label head, singer/songwriter, musician and Cocteau Twins‘ Simon Raymonde celebrated his 64th birthday on April 3
• Jill Scott celebrated her 54th birthday on April 4
• David Roback, one-half of acclaimed and beloved dream pop duo Mazzy Star was born 68 years ago on April 4
• The legendary  Muddy Waters was born 113 years ago on April 4
• Smash-hit producer, songwriter and artist Pharrell Williams celebrated his 53rd birthday on April 5
• Robert Glasper celebrated his 48th birthday on April 6
• Merle Haggard was born 89 years ago on April 6
• John Oates, best known for his work with the blue-eyed soul duo Hall & Oates one of the most commercially successful duos ever, celebrated his 77th birthday on April 7
• Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider was born 79 years ago on April 7
• The legendary and incomparable Billie Holiday was born 111 years ago on April 7
• The legendary Biz Markie was born 62 years ago on April 8
• Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds celebrated his 67th birthday on April 10
• A Tribe Called Quest‘s Q-Tip celebrated his 56th birthday on April 10
• The legendary and pioneering Herbie Hancock celebrated his 86th birthday on April 12
• Echo & The Bunnymen‘s Will Sergeant celebrated his 68th birthday on April 12
• The legendary Al Green celebrated his 80th birthday on April 13 
• Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien celebrated his 58th birthday on April 15
• Midnight Oil‘s frontman Peter Garrett celebrated his 73rd birthday on April 16
• The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith was born 134 years ago on April 16
• Liz Phair, one of the most beloved singer/songwriters of the 90s and early 00s celebrated her 59th birthday on April 17
• Redman, one of the most dynamic, entertaining and wildly talented emcees to ever spit a bar celebrated his 56th birthday on April 17
• Luther Vandross, one of the greatest male R&B vocalists to ever live was born 75 years ago on April 20
• Legendary vibraphonist, percussionist, composer and bandleader Lionel Hampton was born 118 years ago on April 20
• The legendary El Rey de los Timbales, “The King of the Timbales,” Tito Puente was born 103 years ago on April 20
• The Cure‘s founding member, frontman, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith celebrated his 67th birthday on April 21
• The legendary Iggy Pop celebrated his 79th birthday on April 21
• Glen Campbell was born 90 years ago on April 22
• Charles Mingus was born 104 years ago on April 22
• The great and legendary Roy Orbison was born 90 years ago on April 23
• David J., best known for his work with Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, celebrated his 68th birthday on April 24
• Ella Fitzgerald one of the greatest and most influential vocalists to have ever lived was born 109 years ago on April 25
• TLC‘s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins celebrates her 56th birthday today
• Duran Duran‘s Roger Taylor celebrates his 66th birthday today

Back in 2013, Red Bull Music Academy invited the legendary electronic music artist ad producer Giorgio Moroder to speak in front of a small group of music students about music, his creative process and more — and to what was then-billed as his first ever live DJ set at the now-defunct Williamsburg, Brooklyn nightclub Output. 

Along with his long-time collaborator and musical director Chris Cox, the electronic music legend played a 75 minute set of re-arranged and exclusive remixes of some of his massive hits, medleys of other big songs, an exclusive song commissioned by Google — and famously, his collaboration with Daft Punk, “Giorgio by Moroder,” which appeared on the French electronic outfit’s last album, Random Access Memories.

Moroder’s DJ set is an encompassing and thoughtful primer on his pioneering work and sound, as well as roughly 50 years of disco and electronic music. Importantly, the set is a bold and swaggering reminder that along with Kraftwerk and a handful of others, Moroder is part of a Mount Rushmore of electronic music, who helped create an enduring “sound of the future” while popularizing the use of synthesizers in just about anything and everything since. 

Personally, Moroder’s Red Bull Music Academy set brings back fond and very dear memories during the most formative periods of my life: I can vividly picture myself as a small boy and watching my mother cleaning and singing along — incredibly off key, I should add! — to Donna Summer‘s “Bad Girls,” “I Feel Love” “Hot Stuff,’ and “Love to Love You, Baby” as though it were yesterday.

Moroder celebrates his 86th birthday today and we should give the legendary man, his flowers because his work is that important — for all of us. Happy birthday, Giorgio! May there many, many more!

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