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Sign upThe core of Disco Magic - Italo Disco of the 80s: history, formula, artists.
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May 1980: Steven Greenberg of Minneapolis under the alias Lipps Inc. #1 Billboard for 4 weeks and #1 in 28 countries - a single's world record until 1984. Vocal: Cynthia Johnson (Miss Black Minnesota 1976), Oberheim OB-X, EMS Vocoder 2000, $8,000 budget.
December 1984, Milan: Den Harrow was fronted by Stefano Zandri, but every vocal was tracked by American Tom Hooker on 1.5% royalties. Four years - 12M records, 240 shows a year. Italian TV exposed it in February 1988, two years before Milli Vanilli.
October 1984: the Juno-106 at $1,295 - an affordable 6-voice polysynth with built-in chorus and MIDI. 66,000 units in four years, second best-selling 80s analogue after the DX7. Heard on Madonna's “La Isla Bonita”, Sting's “Russians”, a-ha, Human League. The BBD chorus burns out; in 2024 originals sell for $1,500-2,500.
Summer 1987: 19-year-old Sabrina Salerno from Genoa with producer Cecchetto. #1 Italy, France, Germany, #3 UK, 5M copies. The Grand Hotel Alassio pool video with a “slipped” strap was BBC-banned by day - only fuelling demand.
March 1983, Rome: Paul Mazzolini (Gazebo) with Pierluigi Giombini. #1 Germany for 6 weeks, plus the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Japan - 8M copies. UK and US never noticed. Yamaha CP-80, Jupiter-8, LinnDrum; the melody echoes Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 7 - heirs considered suing in 1985.
June 1979, New York: #1 Billboard for 6 weeks, 5M copies. Bernard Edwards plays an E-D fingerstyle riff on a Music Man StingRay through an Ampeg SVT. Sugarhill Gang copied it on “Rapper's Delight” - the first hip-hop hit. Queen paraphrased it on “Another One Bites the Dust”. 1,900+ samples by 2024.
January 1980, San Rafael: 25-year-old Roger Linn ships the first drum machine with digital samples of real drums. $4,995, Intel 8048, 12 voices, 8-bit. Prince owned ten and cut Purple Rain on them. In four years - 525 units sold and the sound of an era; Linn went bankrupt in 1986 and Linn moved to Akai to design the MPC60.
April 1983, Rome: Discomagic Records issues the single by Milan's Fabio Roscilli as Ryan Paris. Producer Pierluigi Giombini reuses his “I Like Chopin” template: piano intro, Jupiter-8 bass, LinnDrum, 118 BPM. Summer at UK #5, #1 Germany, 2.6M copies.
June 1985, Milan: EMI Italiana drops Baltimora's debut. Front of the band - 28-year-old Irish dancer Jimmy McShane. By 1986 - #1 Italy, UK #3, US #13, 3.2M copies. But McShane wasn't singing: every lead vocal was tracked by producer Maurizio Bassi himself. The public didn't know until 1993.
February 1984, Milan: 25-year-old Raf writes “Self Control” with Bigazzi. In six weeks - #1 Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France. In April Laura Branigan buys the English rights for $45,000 and her cover hits Billboard #4. William Friedkin shoots the video; MTV pulls it for being “too sexy”. Both versions top-5 at once.
September 1985: Dieter Bohlen runs his own template a third time - minor verse, major chorus Am-F-C-G at 118-122 BPM. 5 days at Rüssl Studio, 18,000 Deutschmarks budget. #1 Germany plus four more; the USSR took 10M+ cassettes.
October 1978: failed chansonnier Patrick Hernandez cuts a disco single in one night on an ARP Odyssey. #1 in five European countries, 25M copies by 1980 - the 8th best-selling 70s single. A 21-year-old Madonna danced on his tour.
December 1984: Virgin Germany releases a single by an unknown Sandra Lauer. By April 1985 - #1 in five European countries, seven weeks at the top of the German chart, 2.5M copies. Michael Cretu rebuilt a rejected Arabesque recording, made Sandra do 23 takes and set the chorus in C Mixolydian.
July 1977: Donna Summer at Musicland. 36 hours of tracking, 6,000 Deutschmarks, the whole backing built on one Moog Modular. Brian Eno will hear it in Berlin and tell Bowie: “The next fifteen years are going to sound like this”. The first all-electronic disco #1.
May 1983, NAMM in Chicago: Yamaha unveils the DX7. In four years it sells 200,000 units - more than the Jupiter-8 and OB-Xa combined. Chowning's FM synthesis turned out near-impossible to programme; the E.PIANO 1 preset went onto half the decade's hits. A $1,995 box rewrote the sound of an era.
September 1981: Roland unveils the eight-voice Jupiter-8 at the LA NAMM show. In the three years before discontinuation, the instrument rewrites European pop's palette and becomes the spine of Milan Italo-disco studios. $5,295, 58 knobs, no MIDI - 8 voices, two oscillators each, five waveforms.
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