Italo Disco greats The Creatures, Maurizio Sangineto

Maurizio Sangineto based out of the beautiful northern Italian city of Vincenza made some Italo Disco magic back in the early 80's from involvement with Firefly and The Armed Gang to his productions for Passengers, Amanda Lear, The Creatures and Valery Alington. All great material!

Though I have posted about Believe in Yourself, one of my very favorite Italo Disco tracks here I will provide you with two albums by The Creatures 1983's Believe in Yourself and 1985's Illusion. Quite prolific there is other great Creatures material to collect.

As usual until I figure out how blogspot has changed it's format I'll be putting the links in the comment section. But who cares as long as you can get your hands on them!

Endless Road

I know it's been a while. I don't think I've ever taken this long between posts. So I thought I better dazzle with this one.

This time it's Endless Road by the Time Bandits. A dutch alternative band who scored a few pop hit and dance hits around the world. Endless Road from 1985 is the one that tickles me the most. Probably due to it's status as a morning music classic at The Saint. It has that morning music x factor that always gets to me. It's got a bit of the melancholy mixed with yearning and wonderment. Moody to say the least. Not really sure how it became a huge pop hit in Australia and Belgium but kudos to them.

In my zip I include an edit from my dear friend the DJ Paul Goodyear who also happens to be an Aussie. And interestingly enough the B side Fiction which is also the name of the album in which Endless Road is culled yet the single didn't make the cut onto it. Check out the video. Especially if you love Sydney. It was filmed during their 1985 tour of Australia.

I Know Magica

So on a lark I did search in iTunes podcasts with the term "italo disco" and I came upon a podcast called The Breakfast Club.  Not all of the selections they had were italo disco mixes, they also have other genres and dedications to particular producers like Stock, Aitken and Waterman and Nile Rodgers.

SWEDISH PODCAST THE BREAKFAST CLUB

I found all of their italo disco selections great.  A few I hadn't heard before.  All of them were a pleasant surprise.  This song though I Know Magica by Magika from 1985 on Italy's Time Records had to be my favorite.

It turns out I did already have it on one of my external hd's and I've been listening to it on repeat for a while now.

I KNOW MAGICA

Like many italo disco tracks it was a one-off.  Of course there are names on it that you see on many italo disco productions.  For example Giacomo Maiolini.

 He also brought us Danny Keith, Radiogram, Miko Mission and Silver Pozzoli to name a few.

Then we have Mario Natale who worked on Dan Harrow, Paul Sharada, Tom Hooker, Bravo, Silver Pozzoli and others.

There is also C. Cattafesta, G. Caria and S. Oliva.  I'm not going to list artists for them.  But you get the picture.  In Italo Disco we have many names and artists but they often are working on each others records.  The same artist using many different monikers, or even a variety of made up names.

Life Force with the vocals of Dotty Green had a few Hi Nrg releases in 1984 and 1985.

Pretty frivolous and light and very much synonymous with the Hi Nrg sound that was so popular after the disco era.  Songs like this got a lot of play at Heaven in London and The Saint in New York City and Trocadero Transfer in San Francisco.  

As A.I.D.S. decimated the community this sound pretty much went to the wayside.  House became the standard and more Euro Dance was being made which brought that lightweight dance sound into the late 80's and 90's.  

At the time it wasn't my favorite.  But as entries in my disco museum they are valid to be aware of and to be embraced by some, why not?

What a Way to Go was the first Maxi Single

Invitation was the second dance hit for Life Force

My Sweet Dream Simon Bennett

This Italo Disco obscurity from 1985 takes some inspiration from darkwave and certainly has some of that new wave kinda deadpan delivery.

Nothing special for the genre but you know how I love to share all things Italo Disco with you all.
MY SWEET DREAM

Via Verdi Diamond, a Discoring theme and Italo Disco Legendary

The debut single by Via Verdi Diamond was a number 1 hit in Italy and rode the charts from 1985 into 1986.  
It in fact was the #21 record of the year in 1986 and became the theme song for the hit t.v. show about pop music called Discoring.
Oh Oh Diamond




Not only was it a huge pop hit but it's considered a classic of the Italo Disco genre.

DIAMOND ZIP

Mozzart

another zip for you
Mandy B. Man, Paul Lander and Mozart are aliases for this Euro Disco artist.
I LOVE A FEMMY VOICE ON A EURO DANCE RECORD ZIP

A bit more on the Hi Nrg type then something I would ordinarily write about.  I do find his songs to be fun.  His debut single was Malice and Vice in 1985.  I especially enjoy how camp the lyrics are to this one.  It's my favorite today on refreshing some links.  When I originally wrote this a few years ago I was leaning towards another one.

Then Money came out in 1987 and Devil's Rendezvous was from his solo l.p. from 1988 called Jasmin China Girl.  I'm tempted to say I found Devil's Rendezvous the most enchanting.  Did you have a favorite Mozzart song?

FACES and FEEL THE FIRE and especially EYES by CLIO

 Moved up to the front again because I'm pineapples crazy.
another fruity file Maria Chiara Perugini is Clio.  Guess where she's from?

Clio was a tasty italo disco double A side released in 1985 on Crash records.  Superior production, great synths and pleasant vocals.   GET YOURSELF SOME CLIO

Her debut single Eyes from the year before is even better.  It directly bites my pretty much all time favorite italo disco song Come on Closer by Pineapples AND if that wasn't enough she seems to have a chorus in a made up language.  I CAN SEE YOUR EYES

If that wasn't enough here we have a zip of Clone's re-release of Eyes along with a French Version and a newer edit....only one word necessary...HAWT!!! CLONE THOSE EYES

I guess I didn't realize there were samples in 1984.  Here's my Pineapples zip listen for yourself.  I LOVE PINEAPPLES For more info. on this gem just go to search above as I've blogged Come on Closer before.

REAL MEN is by TOM HOOKER and don't ever mistake him for Den Harrow!

Refreshed Links

Tom Hooker really hates that fact that the record company used Den Harrow's picture on a lot of his releases.  Den Harrow had some success doing shows lip-synching those songs.  But who knows really why this decision was even made?  It's not like Den Harrow is all that more attractive then Tom Hooker.  Furthermore Tom Hooker's Looking for Love to me is the most famous of either of their entire discography.

But there is no doubt that here in Italy Den Harrow is the more famous of the two.  Maybe cause Den lives in Italy and has taken part in reality shows and such.  I mean do you blame him?  Why would he go around saying I didn't really sing those songs if he could make money pretending that he did?  That's just the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.

Not only that but Tom Hooker is a successful artist living in Las Vegas.  What does Den Harrow have?  A part ownership in a gym in Brescia?  A steroidal muscle body while pushing 50?

Ironically the song I'm going to spotlight today is Tom's sublime italo disco nugget Real Men but in it's Swedish Remix version which came out on Beat Box Records in 1985.  I sold mine on ebay ages ago but luckily I still have a decent rip of it for you. 

 some Den

I can't say I have much pity for Tom though.  Turns out he's a right winger Trump fan...Yikes!

some Tom including the Looking for Love follow-up Only One (which I had a transparent vinyl back in the day)

More Than Ever by Glam

More than Ever by Glam is a 1985 italo disco release on Crash records which is associated to il Discotto one of the three or four most important labels of the genre.

It's a bit poppy and not particularly edgy but it's got a sweet sound to it.
FEELING GLAM, FEELING LIKE AN ORCHID

Lyrics and music More by Maria Chiara Perugini (Clio). 

Fancy more then just Come Inside and Chinese Eyes

Manfred Alois Segieth is Fancy.  Based out of Munich he was a campy hi Nrg artist and producer who worked with many artists and under the alias Fancy for himself.  I don't usually write about songs that had a huge crossover success.  Though Fancy had hits in Europe and especially Germany, in 1985 his double A side of Chinese Eyes and Come Inside managed to have a huge impact on U.S. dance floors climbing all the way to #2.

HE's DESCRIBED AS A LIVING LEGEND ON HIS WEBSITE

One of the aliases he has used was Tess and that's the one that can be seen on the Psychic Interface single Tribal Stomp.

The first charted single was 1984's Slice Me Nice so it wasn't until his 3rd that he had his biggest and most well known hit.  I'd venture to say 1987's Raving Queen is one of the lesser known ones.  The single cover alone is a scream, you go Raving Queen.

Fancy Facebook

I've got a Blogspot, Fancy's got a Blogspot

Tess was even charting in the sixties

Huge Fancy Zip (sorry no Raving Queen)

Usually in my posts you can see that I'm super enthusiastic and raving.  As you noticed you're not getting much of that here.  I do like some of these songs and I really enjoyed the double A side in 1985 but I can't say that Fancy is one of my favorites.

There are Four Fancy Videos 

You Satisfy my lust
You do it til I bust and more
Got those Chinese Eyes