Baltimora was an Italian music project from
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
, active from 1984 to 1987.
They are best known for their 1985 single "
Tarzan Boy" and are often considered a
one-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...
in the United Kingdom and the United States. In other European countries, including their native Italy, Baltimora scored a follow-up hit "
Woody Boogie" the same year.
History
Early years
In early 1984,
Maurizio Bassi, a music producer and musician from Milan, met
Jimmy McShane, a native of
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...
, Northern Ireland. They decided to form an act fronted by McShane, a trained singer, dancer and actor, who had previously tried to break into the
West End theater scene and toured with
Dee D. Jackson. McShane and Bassi chose the name Baltimora when, one evening together, McShane took a map of the United States, closed his eyes and happened to place his finger on
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
. They changed the final letter to an 'a' to make the name more in keeping with the act's Italian roots.
Bassi recruited prominent Italian
sessionmen to record their first album, including Giorgio Cocilovo on guitar and Gabriele "Lele" Melotti on drums. Fellow Italo disco producer
Tom Hooker has claimed that Baltimora's lead vocals were performed by Maurizio Bassi,
as he'd done with
Carrara
Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...
, with McShane sometimes providing the backing vocals. The bulk of Baltimora's song writing fell on Bassi and American lyricist Naimy Hackett, though McShane wrote the lyrics to their track "Survivor in Love".
Success with "Tarzan Boy"
Baltimora's first single, "
Tarzan Boy", was released in April 1985, and became a huge European success, peaking at No. 6 on the Italian single chart and entering the top 5 in numerous European countries, including West Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Norway.
The song eventually made it to the United Kingdom charts, where it reached No. 3 in August 1985.
"Tarzan Boy" was released in Canada in October 1985 and peaked on the Canadian charts at No. 5 by the end of the year. However, it took a while for the single to enter the Hot 100 single chart in the United States (where it was released on
EMI
EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
). When it did, it remained on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart for six months, peaking at No. 13 in February 1986. Baltimora performed on the American TV show ''
Solid Gold'', which helped further their success in America. The second single, "
Woody Boogie", which also gained notable success, entered the top 20 in West Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
Baltimora's first album, ''
Living in the Background,'' was released in Europe at the end of 1985 and in United States in 1986. Despite the success of "Tarzan Boy", ''Living in the Background'' only charted moderately, entering the top 20 album charts only in a few countries in Europe, including Sweden, reaching the no. 49 spot on the US charts.
When Baltimora's second album, ''
Survivor in Love'' (1987) and the single "
Key Key Karimba" failed to chart, Baltimora lost label support and Bassi decided to disband.
Jimmy McShane died of an AIDS-related illness in March 1995.
Studio personnel
*
Maurizio Bassi: session arranger, musician, producer, and songwriter from Milan, Italy.
*Gaetano Leandro is an Italian pop keyboardist known for his collaboration with American singer
Amii Stewart.
He joined the group in the studio for the ''Survivor in Love'' album, supplementing Bassi's keyboards.
* Giorgio Cocilovo (born 1956) is an Italian jazz fusion guitarist and music teacher from Milan.
*Claudio Bazzari (Milan, 12 September 1949) is an Italian
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
and
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
rhythm guitarist, he has played in various groups and as a session musician and has collaborated with many artists, including
Fabrizio De André and
Mario Lavezzi.
*Pier Michelatti is an Italian session bassist, known for his collaboration with Pink Project, Fabrizio and Cristiano De André and Baltimora.
*Dino D'Autorio (born 1 February 1954) is an Italian pop, rock, jazz, funk and blues bassist, and music teacher/arranger from
Penne, Italy.
He replaced Pier Michelatti as Baltimora's bassist in 1987.
*Gabriele "Lele" Melotti (born 20 September 1953) is an Italian session drummer and percussionist from
Bologna, Italy
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
.
Style
Baltimora's music style is mainly described as
Italo disco
Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, pop, ...
and sometimes as
new wave,
including their first album, ''
Living in the Background''.
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Singles
References
{{Authority control
1984 establishments in Italy
1987 disestablishments in Italy
Italo disco groups
Italian new wave musical groups
Musical groups established in 1984
Musical groups disestablished in 1987
Musical groups from Milan