Friday 16 September 2011

DEN HARROW "Best Of (Greatest Hits)" CD 1990 Italo Disco Eurobeat 80's

Italo Disco Eurobeat 80's
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Den Harrow is an Italian new wave project which was especially popular in the '80s. Stefano Zandri (born on June 4, 1962 in Nova Milanese, Italy) a fashion model from Milan, Italy was chosen to be the frontman of Den Harrow.

After years of fame and popularity, it was revealed both by the frontman of Den Harrow Stefano Zandri and the producers that Stefano Zandri did not actually sing his own songs; he was essentially a character who lip-synched to vocals produced by a number of other Italo singers. And since they did not consider Zandri's name and origin to be trendy enough, the producers R. Turatti and M. Chieregato concealed Zandri's true Italian origins by inventing a fictitious English based last name Manuel Stefano Carry as well as U.S. based birth place Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. to be able for Polydor Records to market him more easily in English speaking world where Italian produced music was, at the time, viewed with skepticism.[1]
Most of the songs for Den Harrow project were sung by an American vocalist Tom Hooker (aka Thomas Barbey, who was residing in Italy during the Italo-Disco era), including Europe-wide hit singles "Don't Break My Heart", "Bad Boy", "Catch the Fox", and "Future Brain". Another vocalist, Anthony James from England, was contracted to sing the lead vocals on the Lies album released in 1988, who also provided the lead vocals on songs like "Holiday Night", "My Time", "You have a way". During an interview, Tom Hooker explains why it was decided to be done this way:
There was a small problem, however. He couldn't sing. So the solution was to never let him sing, or to put his voice so low in the mix that it was non existent. He started as an image. He would work on his costumes and clothes and someone else would sing on the records. The truth is, vision is a more developed sense in humans than hearing. People tend to buy and listen what they like to see.
Also according to Tom Hooker, in the very beginning Chuck Rolando's voice was used in the singles "To Meet Me" and "A Taste of Love". Later on, Silver Pozzoli was chosen to do the single "Mad Desire"; however, Hooker also provided the vocals for the album releases of "Mad Desire". Even though, Tom Hooker continued co-writing tracks for Den Harrow project, producers felt to bring in another vocalist into the studio with a much higher voice than that of Hooker's for the 1988 album called Lies. According to Tom Hooker; however, Stefano Zandri has sung on his 1991 single Ocean.

1 comment:

  1. Have this, but glad you enumerated (?) about Tom Hooker's involvement. Tom now lives in Las Vegas, by the way.

    ReplyDelete

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