Massimo Gabutti

Massimo Gabutti (born 2 August 1959) is an Italian record producer and managing director. He is known for being the producer of Eiffel 65, Dari, Gabry Ponte, and Da Blitz. He operates mainly in electronic and pop music, and also does work in music video production and promotion for Bliss and Fondazione Sonora.

Biography

Early musical career

In 1983, Gabutti wrote the dance song "Talk About", which was later performed by Phaeax. The song was funded by Luciano Zucchet, who later became Gabutti's financial partner at the Bliss Corporation and GZ2538. The song was distributed by CGD, JDC Records, ZYX Records, High Fashion Music, Hot Point, Dureco Benelux, High Fashion Music, Dee Jay's Gang, and 12 Inch Stars.^[1]

Gabutti moved to London in 1986, where he worked with several local producers. They sent or presented several demos to British label A&R divisions, but were turned down. Gabutti moved backed to Italy in 1988, where he produced an album for the early female rap group Lorimeri. They placed second in the 1990 Festivalbar competition. Their album Una Storia Fantastica (A Fantastic Story) and the three singles "Ragazze" (Girls), "Tell me Why", and "Una Storia Fantastica" were released by CGD.

Gabutti moved to Milan in 1990, where he was hired by producer Claudio Cecchetto and singer Jovanotti to work as a musician and writer on the production of Jovanotti's third album.^[2] From 1990 to 1992, he worked in the Milan-based production studio NTM, which was run by Roberto Turatti and Mario Natale. He produced works for artists such as Jo Squillo, Sabrina Salerno, and Stefano Secchi, while also working on production of music for the Channel 4 television show Sabato al Circo (Saturday to the Circus).

In the same year he worked for Stefano Secchi and Alex Peroni's Milan label, Propio Records, as a road manager for the group Co.Ro. as it toured Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Belgium. He was a musician and coauthor of the Stefano Secchi songs "We Are Easy To Love" and "A Brighter Day".

Bliss Corporation

In 1992, Gabutti returned to his hometown of Turin, Italy, and started the Bliss Corporation, with funding from his business partner Luciano Zucchet. The label specializes in dance music. The label's eurodance group Bliss Team's "People Have The Power" reached #7 on the 1993 Italian charts^[3]

In 1993, he created the group Da Blitz, whose songs include "Let Me Be" (peak #11),^[4] "Take My Way", "Stay With Me", and "Movin On"; the latter two songs reached #1^[4][5] The singles "Take Me Back" (peak #4)^[5] and "I Believe" (peak #8) also charted.^[6]

In the same years, Gabutti also produced "Anybody Anyway" (peak #7),^[5] "Don't Stop" by "DJ Prezioso", "In the Name Of Love" by Vandana, "This is the Time" by Blyzart, and "You Make Me Cry" (peak #13),^[5] "Hold On To Love" (peak #8),^[5] and "Love is Forever" by Bliss Team.

Eiffel 65

Gabutti was the producer for Eiffel 65, a group formed in 1998 by DJ Gabry Ponte, singer Gianfranco Randone, and musician Maurizio Lobina, with contributions from Bliss Corporation musician Domenico Capuano. Eiffel 65's 1999 album Europop reached #4 on the US charts, selling in excess of 3,800,000 copies. The album received positive reviews in the American music press.^[7][8][9]

Europop‍ '​s most famous single, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)", was coauthored by Gabutti. The single was certified Diamond in France, triple Platinum in Australia and Sweden, double Platinum in Germany and Switzerland, Platinum in the United Kingdom and Austria, and Gold in Canada and Holland, for a total of 2,440,000 singles certified in those countries. The song reached #1 in the SIAE (Italian Official Copyrights Agency) charts as the Most Played Italian Song in the World for the year 2000.^[10] In 2000, another single released from the album, "Move Your Body", was certified Platinum in Australia and France and Gold in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, for a certified sales total of 750,000. The third single, "Too Much of Heaven", reached #1 in the Italian charts.^[11]

In 1999, Gabutti organised an Eiffel 65 tour of Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Egypt, Denmark, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Canada, and the US.^[12]

The group's second album, Contact, was released in 2001 by Warner with "Lucky " and "80's Star" as the singles. Gabutti signed Eiffel 65 with Universal Italy and produced the third album, called Eiffel 65 (peak #18) in 2003.^[13]

Other productions

From 2003 to 2006, Gabutti produced two albums by Gabry Ponte (Eiffel 65 DJ and radio personality), Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. DJ and Gabry Ponte, both of them released by Universal Italy, getting in the national charts with the singles "Geordie" (reached #15)^[14] and "La Danza delle streghe" (reached #5).^[15] In 2004, he produced a remix version of "Dragostea din tei - Haiducii vs Gabry Ponte", which reached #1.^[16]

Gabutti also produced the single "Figli di Pitagora" (Sons of Pitagora), a collaboration between DJ Gabry Ponte and the sixties Italian icon Little Tony, that reached #21 and remained on the Italian charts for 15 weeks.^[17]

Gabutti and Gabry Ponte topped the German Charts again in 2006 with the singles "Just Be Good to Me" by Karmah that charted for 34 and 24 weeks in the German and Austrian charts, respectively (peak #5 in Germany and #2 in Austria).^[18]

References