Tom Whitlock
American songwriter (1954–2023)
Thomas Ross Whitlock (February 20, 1954 – February 18, 2023) was an American songwriter, best known for co-writing the Academy Award– and Golden Globe–winning song "Take My Breath Away", performed by Berlin from the film Top Gun, with Giorgio Moroder. He wrote the lyrics for another song for the film, "Danger Zone", performed by Kenny Loggins.
Career
Whitlock was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Many famous musicians visited the city as it hosted the television show Ozark Jubilee, influencing Whitlock to play drums. Soon, he was a session musician working with notable composers like Wayne Carson, as well as a drummer for live bands. At the age of 15, Whitlock began writing songs at the piano. During his high school years at Glendale High School, in Springfield, Missouri, he divided his time between studying during the day and playing drums with rock bands on the weekends throughout the Midwest. He entered Drury University in 1971 to major in music. The university honored him as one of its Distinguished Alumni in 1998, and with an honorary doctorate in music the following year.
In 1983, Whitlock travelled to Los Angeles, California, planning to start a band there.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7818040. VIAF identifies the subject as 18893366. The Library of Congress control number is n93051756. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2023, 1971 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tom Whitlock” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.