Tarzan Boy by Baltimora

Uncanny. I was just singing this song to myself while on a break at work last night.

So basically the first Milli Vanilli? Very sad, the singer was a drag queen called Ruby and died of AIDS in Ireland after being cast off by his family. I wonder if he even made any real money of this.

I liked the remix.

I've always loved this song!!

One of my faves from the '80's for sure.

This was my favorite song in my high impact aerobics class!! I absolutely love it.

I'm a millennial and I hate this song because one of my older friends always fucking plays this. Omg.

Back in the '90's the song was featured in a series of Listerine commercials.

So catchy

I remember this song! I had forgotten how cute it was. It reminds me of all of the brat pack movies that were out back then.

Still a great song, I loved how the used it in the film, “Hot Summer Nights.”

If Ruby was still Alive he would’ve had a second and third career . 80s commenter, Lip-synching this in every 80s tribute concert, being on I love the 80s, probably redoing this song with the rapper. Another huge ass although not in the same category as the one hit wonders was Dan Hartman. I definitely think he still would be making music today and writing the top songs. I still love his songs today, both the ones he sang and the ones he wrote for other artists.

Huge ass-huge loss.

Love it, reminds me of freshman year. RIP Ruby.

Op thank you, your backstory explains a lot about why this song was so wack.

Ok you DLers. Growing up in Atlanta in the 80s, RuPual used to dance to this at a club called Weekends. Before true drag. Then he wore football shoulder pads, a Mohawk and a jockstrap. Side note: the dj was Larry Tee. And Lady Bunny showed up later.

^ oh dear. RuPaul. Sorry. R15

I sing it all the time. Love it!

Dick Clark interview

R10, did you like "Hot Summer Nights"?

He actually was pretty handsome in R18 - he probably knew he had AIDS at the time and was scared out of his mind. What a scary time that was.

Never seen it before. The singer looks like an 80s Napoleon Dynamite and the song is incredibly weak.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THAT SONG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

McShane died in his native Derry in 1995 at the age of 37. So many many many deaths.

I bet he never dreamed that people would be talking about this song 20 plus years after his death. What happened to the real people behind Baltimora, are they still writing for other people? Did people know that he wasn't really the singer? I guess bc they never won the Grammy people didn't care like the did for Milli Vanilli. On a side note a toddler could have done a better makeup job, looks like they ran a Snickers bar along his cheek.

There are probably so many groups that we don’t even know about that had the lead “singer” Mime the lyrics to whatever the session singers were doing. I wonder how many Baltimoras are out there today. Is that an Italian word because all I think about is a disgusting shitty city that I couldn’t wait to leave.

Frank Farian (Milli Vannilli's producer) was also the male vocalist for Boney M., a group he also produced. The guy in the group was just the pretty face and body.

Frank Farian wanted Donna Summer for Boney M, but Giorgio Moroder had gotten to her first. She was destined to be the Queen of Disco, with or without Giorgio. He would've had a harder time coming to prominence without her, than her without him.

Was Baltimora a sex pest?

i'm italian, and even then we pretty all knew that these italodisco foreigner "singers" were just a pretty face to sell the song, actually sung by some obscure italian vocalist too ugly/old/fat/shy to show his/her face.

It sounds like a cross between Baltimore and Glocca Morra, but it's probably just an Italianization of Baltimore, assimilating the name to feminine place name forms. But why?

Didn't you mean this ?

yes, Baltimora is the way italians call Baltimore.

There were scores of model- and dancer-fronted acts just like this over in Italy. It was all just considered fun, frothy club music, so nobody really cared about verisimilitude.

this was my fave from the era. "Dan Harrow" was an italian pretty boy who "sang" a lot of italodisco hits. The voice was not his, tho.

^the producers chose the stage name "Dan Harrow" because it sounds like "denaro", money in italian.

Franco Tortamossi was the king of this awful genre

Yes this song is “Very 80s” only surpassed on its 80s-nish by 99 Luftbalons.

Tarzan Boy always makes me think of Puttin on the Ritz by Taco. Both catchy, fruity one-hit novelty songs presented by fruity foreigners with weird names.

God I miss the 80s.

Was Baltimora a bottom?

Dear Helen Keller, welcome to Datalounge!

Now I want to see a photo of the actual Italian singer. This backstory is blowin' my mind.

He was still cute in the 1993 remix.

The opening of the video at r42 looks like the beginning of bad gay porn. I almost expected the guys to make out while taking off their costumes.

This song is sweetly evocative of its time, but as for 80s Tarzan boys I think I prefer Nick Heyward in "Love Plus One."

Is that the kid from Fright Night turned porn star?

R43 he does have an early 90s porn look, like a Zeff Ryan or BJ Slater.

Do they make breezy danceable pop like this? I feel like there aren’t really any feel good songs anymore like this that we are going to be listening to 20 years from now. The songs that come out today seem embarrassing five minutes later

OP, Thanks for relaying the backstory. Loved both the original & the remix. Fun song, woke you up in the am.