"Tarzan Boy" is one of those tracks everyone knows, and almost no one can name the artist. Baltimora's 1985 song played in Hollywood films, gum commercials, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, and thousands of clubs worldwide. Behind it was a tragic story of one man - an Irishman who briefly became an Italian star.
How an Irishman Became an Italian
The artist's real name was Jimmy McShane. He was born in Ireland in 1957, moved to London, and tried his hand at various jobs. In the early '80s fate took him to Italy, where he worked as a dancer and model.
Italian producer Maurizio Bassi spotted him - McShane had the right look and charisma to become a new star. Bassi needed a face for a project he was putting together with composer Giacomo Maurizio Paganelli. That's how Baltimora was born.
The Project's Secret
An important detail not every fan knows: Jimmy McShane didn't sing "Tarzan Boy." The vocal on the track was recorded by Maurizio Bassi himself. McShane was the project's "face" - he appeared in the video, at concerts, in interviews, but the voice on the record belonged to someone else. This setup was typical for '80s Italo Disco: Den Harrow, La Bionda, and many other artists ran on the same formula - the producer writes and sings, a handsome frontman represents the project to the public.
Tarzan Boy: How the Hit Was Written
"Tarzan Boy" came out in May 1985. The track's formula is brilliantly simple:
- A synth riff you remember from the very first spin.
- The "Ah-ee-ah-ee-ah" cry in the chorus - done on a synthesizer, not recorded with a real voice.
- A Tarzan-themed lyric - childishly simple, but with instant associations.
- A classic Italo Disco beat - 120 BPM, electronic drums, a springy bassline.
The song first became a hit in Europe - #1 in Italy, top-5 in Germany, France, and the UK. A few months later it unexpectedly landed on the US Billboard Hot 100, reaching #13. For an Italian artist, that level of US success was rare.
One Hit and a Drop
After "Tarzan Boy" came the debut album "Living in the Background" and a few more singles. But none of them came close to the main hit. By 1987, Baltimora had effectively ceased to exist.
McShane tried to keep the career going, performed concerts, recorded new material, but no serious success followed. Italo Disco was making way for new styles, and Baltimora lived on in memory as "the project with Tarzan Boy."
The Song's Second Life
Paradoxically, "Tarzan Boy" outlived its genre. In 1993 the song unexpectedly returned to US charts - it was used on the soundtrack for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III." After that came a Listerine commercial, films, TV shows, video games.
By the 2000s, "Tarzan Boy" had become one of those tracks permanently welded to the '80s aesthetic. Any director shooting a film set in that era will consider this song for the soundtrack at some point.
A Tragic Ending
Jimmy McShane's story ended sadly. In the 1990s he was diagnosed with AIDS, and in 1995 he died at 37. He barely got to see the second wave of his main hit's popularity in the '90s - and he never saw the third one, which started in the 2010s with the retro boom.
Maurizio Bassi is still very active in music and sometimes performs the old project hits. But the real Baltimora is gone - and probably will never come back.
"Tarzan Boy" keeps playing. In the 2010s young listeners rediscovered the track through synthwave, TikTok, and film nostalgia. It makes every Italo Disco top-list and reliably shows up in '80s-party playlists.
Between 1985 and 2015 the song served as the soundtrack to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III," a Listerine commercial, a few episodes of The Simpsons, and dozens of other pop-culture moments - each new use sent "Tarzan Boy" back into the charts of one country or another. One track, four waves of popularity, three decades of rotation - a rare biography for a four-minute record out of a 1985 Italian studio.