Den Harrow
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Den Harrow | |
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.jpg) Stefano Zandri performing in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Genres | Italo disco[1][2] |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Labels | |
Den Harrow was an Italo disco artist from the mid 1980s, with Stefano Zandri (born 4 June 1962) as the face of the artist, and Tom Hooker as the voice. It was revealed in many years later that Zandri did not sing on any of their hits and that most of the songs were performed and co-written by Hooker. Den Harrow was conceived by producers Roberto Turatti and Miki Chieregato, who based it on the Italian word denaro (money).[3][4]
History
Den Harrow was formed in 1983 by Italian producers Roberto Turatti and Miki Chieregato with Stefano Zandri as the face of the project and Tom Hooker doing most the vocals, as well as songwriting on many of their tracks.[5][6]
The project became popular in the 80s at the height of the Italo disco genre. They scored several hits during that period, such as "Bad Boy, "Catch The Fox," "Charleston," "Future Brain" and "Don't Break My Heart."[5][6]
Revelation
After years of fame and popularity, it was revealed by frontman Stefano Zandri and his producers that Zandri did not actually sing any of the songs credited to Den Harrow (except one, "Ocean" from 1991); he was essentially a character who lip-synched to vocals recorded by a number of other singers. Furthermore, since they did not consider Zandri's name and origin to be "trendy" enough, producers Turatti and Chieregato concealed Zandri's Italian origin, marketing him as having been born Manuel Stefano Curry in Boston, Massachusetts. This was done so that Polydor Records could market him more easily in the English-speaking world, where Italian-produced music was, at the time, viewed with skepticism.[7]
American vocalist Tom Hooker, also known as Thomas Barbey, who was residing in Italy during the Italo disco era and sang most of the songs for the Den Harrow project,[3] including the 1985–1986 European 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 (1988), and 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 far more developed in humans than hearing. People tend to buy and listen to what they like to see."[8]
Also according to Tom Hooker, Chuck Rolando's voice was used in the early singles "To Meet Me" and "A Taste of Love". Later on, Silver Pozzoli was chosen to do the single "Mad Desire"; however, Hooker provided the vocals for the album releases of "Mad Desire". Although Hooker continued co-writing tracks for Den Harrow project, the producers wanted to use a higher-voiced vocalist for the 1988 album Lies. Hooker says that Zandri did sing on the 1991 Den Harrow single "Ocean".[8]
The 2018 documentary Dons of Disco addresses the controversy surrounding Den Harrow's identity and specifically Tom Hooker's involvement. Through archival footage and interviews with those involved in the "creation" of Den Harrow, both Zandri and Hooker's claims to Den Harrow's authorship are represented.[5][6]
Den Harrow in the 1990s and 2000s
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (November 2014) |
In 1997, Zandri moved to California to take part in the TV series Sunset Beach. In 2005, he hosted the Italian-language TV show Radio Harrow on the satellite TV channel Match Music. In 2006 and in 2012, he took part in a reality show, the Italian version of Celebrity Survivor which broadcast on Rai 2. In 2007, via his website, Zandri released a new song, "FEDEN - Lo so", written and sung by Zandri and his wife.
Dispute with Tom Hooker
In 2010, Tom Hooker recorded and published on YouTube a press conference-style video in which Hooker, flanked by the co-producer/composer Miki Chieregato, states and demonstrates that he was the vocalist on most of the Den Harrow records, and in which he accuses Zandri of continuing to publicly lip synch to those recordings.[9] He also states that Zandri made threats and insults against Hooker and his family on Facebook for exposing the vocal inauthenticity of the Den Harrow recordings. Hooker asserts that Zandri no longer has permission to publicly lip sync to Den Harrow recordings that use Hooker's voice.[9]
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER [10] |
SWE [11] |
SWI [12] | |||||||
| Overpower |
|
— | 29 | 20 | |||||
| Day by Day |
|
13 | 25 | 4 | |||||
| Lies |
|
63 | — | — | |||||
| "—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||||
Compilation albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER [10] | |||||||||
| The Best Of |
|
18 | |||||||
| I Successi |
|
— | |||||||
| "—" denotes items that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||||
Re-worked compilation albums with new songs
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| I, Den |
|
| Back from the Future |
|
Singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITA [13] |
FRA [14] |
GER [10] |
SPA [15] |
SWE [11] |
SWI [12] | ||||||||||||
| "To Meet Me" | 1983 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | |||||||||
| "A Taste of Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Mad Desire" | 1984 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | Overpower | |||||||||
| "Bad Boy" | 1985 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 10 | — | 11 | ||||||||||
| "Future Brain" | 9 | 17 | — | 6 | — | 6 | |||||||||||
| "Overpower" / "Broken Radio" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Charleston" | 1986 | 8 | 27 | 18 | — | — | 17 | ||||||||||
| "Catch the Fox (Caccia Alla Volpe)" | 7 | — | 27 | 12 | 16 | 8 | Day by Day | ||||||||||
| "Day by Day Remix" | 1987 | 29 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Don't Break My Heart" | 8 | — | 4 | — | — | 6 | |||||||||||
| "Tell Me Why" | 15 | — | 22 | — | — | 12 | |||||||||||
| "Energy Rain" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||
| "You Have a Way" | 1988 | 10 | — | 56 | — | — | — | Lies | |||||||||
| "Born to Love" | 13 | — | 45 | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Lies" / "I Wanna Go" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "My Time" / "You Have a Way" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Holiday Night" | 1989 | — | — | 38 | — | — | — | The Best Of | |||||||||
| "Take Me Back" | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | ||||||||||
| "Ocean" | 1991 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "All I Want Is You" | 1992 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Real Big Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "You and the Sunshine" | 1993 | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Take Me" | — | — | — | — | — | — | I, Den | ||||||||||
| "The Universe of Love" | 1994 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "I Need a Lover" | 1995 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||||||||
| "Tomorrow Is Another Day" | — | — | — | — | — | — | I, Den | ||||||||||
| "I Feel You" | 1996 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Future Brain '98" | 1998 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Back from the Future | |||||||||
| "Go Away" | 1999 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Don't Break My Heart (2001 Remixes)" | 2001 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Push Push" | 2006 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||||||||
| "Always" | 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||||||||
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart, or was not released in that territory, or chart-peaks are not available. | |||||||||||||||||
See also
- Milli Vanilli, a German-based musical group who achieved fame before also revealing that the "lead singers" also lip-synced.
References
- ^ Fabbri, Franco; Plastino, Goffredo (2013). "Italo Disco". Made in Italy: Studies in Popular Music. Routledge. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-415-89976-5.
- ^ Jones, Alan; Kantonen, Jussi (2000). Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco. A Cappella Books. p. 229. ISBN 1-55652-411-0.
- ^ a b "Harrow: "E' vero negli anni 80 non cantavo io"" [It's true that I wasn't singing in the 80s]. Mediaset. 15 May 2012. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
- ^ "Den Harrow: "Non ero io a cantare le mie canzoni"" [Den Harrow: «It wasn't me singing my songs»]. Vanity Fair. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ^ a b c Dons of Disco, 2018 Documentary
- ^ a b c Brody, Richard (26 February 2021). ""Dons of Disco," Reviewed: A Stranger-Than-Fiction Battle in the World of Italian Pop". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
- ^ "Revealing the truth". Striscialanotizia.mediaset.it. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
- ^ a b "Tom Hooker". Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2014.. Euro-Flash.net. 2004.
- ^ a b "Tom Hooker responds to Den Harrow's threats". YouTube. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
- ^ a b c "Discographie von Den Harrow". Offiziellecharts.de. GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
- ^ a b "Discography Den Harrow". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
- ^ a b "Discography Den Harrow". Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
- ^ For Italian peaks:
- For all except those indicated below: Salvatori, Dario (1989). Storia dell'Hit Parade. Gramese. ISBN 8876054391.
- For "Bad Boy": "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 98, no. 8. 22 February 1986. p. 65. ISSN 0006-2510.
- For "Charleston": "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 98, no. 20. 17 May 1986. p. 70. ISSN 0006-2510.
- ^ "Den Harrow (Singles)" (in French). Lescharts.com. Hung Medien. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
- ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
External links
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
- Den Harrow at AllMusic
- Den Harrow discography at Discogs
- Den Harrow at IMDb
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