Tarzan boy - Baltimora - 1985 - Synthpop Dance 80s

Baltimora

Tarzan boy

Baltimora

Source: Wikipedia

Baltimora was an Italian musical group active in the mid to late 1980s. Jimmy McShane, of Derry, Northern Ireland, was the frontman of Baltimora. Some sources state lead vocals were performed by Maurizio Bassi (with Jimmy actually providing the backing vocals), 

including lead vocals on their biggest hit "Tarzan Boy" despite the fact that McShane lip-synched while appearing in the "Tarzan Boy" music video and not Bassi, who was also 

Baltimora's keyboardist although this remains uncertain. Both the music and the lyrics of Baltimora were written mostly by Bassi and Naimy Hackett, though McShane wrote the lyrics to some of their songs, such as the single "Survivor in Love".

Baltimora is often considered a one-hit wonder in the United Kingdom and the United States due to the success they experienced with "Tarzan Boy" compared to their other singles. In other European countries such as Italy, the group had more success.

In early 1984, Maurizio Bassi, a music producer and musician from Italy, was looking for a new art project. He met Jimmy McShane, an emergency medical technician (EMT) who worked for the Red Cross in Ireland.

McShane proposed the project and recorded some voices in order to be the visual leader of the group, due to his emaciated appearance and his talent as a dancer. McShane was characterized by extravagant and loose clothing, and all the group members appeared on stage with various hairstyles and wearing large red-rimmed glasses.

Bassi also recruited other musicians to record songs that would eventually appear on both Baltimora albums: Living in the Background and Survivor in Love.

"Tarzan Boy", released in Europe in the summer of 1985, was a huge success, peaking at No. 6 on the Italian single chart as well as entering the top 5 in numerous European 

countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Norway. Soon afterwards, Baltimora found similar success in the United Kingdom with "Tarzan Boy", where it reached No.3 in August 1985.

The "Tarzan Boy" single 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). When it 

eventually did, it remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six months, ultimately peaking at No. 13 in the early spring of 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 Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

Baltimora's first album, Living in the Background, was released in Europe at the end of 1985, and was released in United States in 1986. Despite the enormous success that Baltimora achieved with the single "Tarzan Boy", Living in the Background only charted 

moderately (selling just over 2 million records worldwide), entering the top 20 album charts in only a few countries in Europe, including Sweden. The album managed to reach only position No. 49 in the US.

Baltimora attempted a comeback in 1987 with a second album, Survivor in Love, but the single "Key Key Karimba" was the only one that managed to enter the Top 100 charts anywhere, and charted in only a few countries.

After the release of Survivor in Love, with no label support of a follow up album and due to its poor success, Bassi decided it was time to move onto other projects and Baltimora disbanded.

The single "Tarzan Boy" bounced back into the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1993 as a remix, climbing to No.51, at the time of its appearance in a Listerine commercial. The song was also featured in the films Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), Beverly Hills Ninja (1997) and was then referenced in A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).