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Gino Soccio
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Gino Soccio
Gino Soccio (born September 9, 1955) is a Canadian disco music producer based in Montreal. His only US Billboard Hot 100 entry was the #48 hit single "Dancer" in 1979, but he did hit #1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart twice ("Dancer" / "Dance to Dance" in 1979, and "Try It Out" / "Hold Tight" in 1981, six weeks each). "Dancer" peaked at #46 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1979. Soccio's third biggest hit, "It's Alright" / "Look at Yourself", from his album, Face to Face, reached #2 for 5 weeks also on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. "Turn It Around" was released only as a single in 1984.
Soccio was born in Verdun, Quebec, of Italian descent. He told Wax Poetics in 2013 that he started playing piano at eight and was playing Bach sonatas by eleven. In the early 1970s, he was influenced by electronic musicians Kraftwerk, Stockhausen, and Wendy Carlos and started renting synths, becoming a sought-after Montreal keyboard specialist.
Soccio got his start in disco when Montreal producer Pat Deserio called him in 1975 and asked if he would play keyboards and help compose for the Kébekélektrik album. Prior to this, Soccio was working as a local session musician.
Deserio asked Soccio to make a disco version of Ravel's "Bolero," which he wanted to release with filler tracks under the fictitious act name Kébekélektrik, a Kraftwerk-influenced misspelling of "Quebec Electric." In reality, Soccio played every note. "It was very labor-intensive," Soccio later said, "but at the same time, I had free rein of the entire studio, which had never happened [before]. It was a really great learning experience. I had never done disco. As you're going along doing it, you fall right in love with it." The Kébekélektrik sessions produced his B-side composition "War Dance," described by Wax Poetics' Jered Stuffco as "an orgy of analog squirts and electronic flourishes that Soccio wrote and recorded on the spot, warts and all."
The four-song LP Kébekélektrik was remixed by Tom Moulton and released in the U.S. on Salsoul in 1978.
The Kébekélektrik album helped to launch Soccio's career. In Canada, the Kébekélektrik song "Magic Fly" reached number 69 on the pop charts, October 8, 1977. It reached #9 on the Billboard disco chart, released on the TK Disco label before the album. "War Dance" subsequently became a hit on U.S. dance floors, a song Soccio himself had deemed "filler". It also reached #9 on Billboard's disco chart.
In 1978, Soccio released a dance single, "The Visitors", which was later remixed by Ouimet. It later charted on Billboard's disco chart in 1980. He also played keyboards on the Bombers' 1978 album Bombers.
His debut solo album "Outline" was released in 1979 and contained the hit "Dancer"; the album received critical acclaim and brought him international recognition.
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Gino Soccio
Gino Soccio (born September 9, 1955) is a Canadian disco music producer based in Montreal. His only US Billboard Hot 100 entry was the #48 hit single "Dancer" in 1979, but he did hit #1 on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart twice ("Dancer" / "Dance to Dance" in 1979, and "Try It Out" / "Hold Tight" in 1981, six weeks each). "Dancer" peaked at #46 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1979. Soccio's third biggest hit, "It's Alright" / "Look at Yourself", from his album, Face to Face, reached #2 for 5 weeks also on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. "Turn It Around" was released only as a single in 1984.
Soccio was born in Verdun, Quebec, of Italian descent. He told Wax Poetics in 2013 that he started playing piano at eight and was playing Bach sonatas by eleven. In the early 1970s, he was influenced by electronic musicians Kraftwerk, Stockhausen, and Wendy Carlos and started renting synths, becoming a sought-after Montreal keyboard specialist.
Soccio got his start in disco when Montreal producer Pat Deserio called him in 1975 and asked if he would play keyboards and help compose for the Kébekélektrik album. Prior to this, Soccio was working as a local session musician.
Deserio asked Soccio to make a disco version of Ravel's "Bolero," which he wanted to release with filler tracks under the fictitious act name Kébekélektrik, a Kraftwerk-influenced misspelling of "Quebec Electric." In reality, Soccio played every note. "It was very labor-intensive," Soccio later said, "but at the same time, I had free rein of the entire studio, which had never happened [before]. It was a really great learning experience. I had never done disco. As you're going along doing it, you fall right in love with it." The Kébekélektrik sessions produced his B-side composition "War Dance," described by Wax Poetics' Jered Stuffco as "an orgy of analog squirts and electronic flourishes that Soccio wrote and recorded on the spot, warts and all."
The four-song LP Kébekélektrik was remixed by Tom Moulton and released in the U.S. on Salsoul in 1978.
The Kébekélektrik album helped to launch Soccio's career. In Canada, the Kébekélektrik song "Magic Fly" reached number 69 on the pop charts, October 8, 1977. It reached #9 on the Billboard disco chart, released on the TK Disco label before the album. "War Dance" subsequently became a hit on U.S. dance floors, a song Soccio himself had deemed "filler". It also reached #9 on Billboard's disco chart.
In 1978, Soccio released a dance single, "The Visitors", which was later remixed by Ouimet. It later charted on Billboard's disco chart in 1980. He also played keyboards on the Bombers' 1978 album Bombers.
His debut solo album "Outline" was released in 1979 and contained the hit "Dancer"; the album received critical acclaim and brought him international recognition.