La Bionda

LA BIONDA & ETIENNE performing at the Festival Show in 2013

La Bionda is an Italian musical duo formed by the brothers Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda. They are considered pioneers of the Italo disco music genre.[1]

Biography

Beginnings

Carmelo and Michelangelo La Bionda grew up in Milan. They debuted as songwriters with "Primo sole, primo fiore", a piece the pop band Ricchi & Poveri presented at the Song Festival in Venice in 1970. They also wrote "Neve bianca, Amica, Gentile se vuoi" for the Italian female singer Mia Martini, and "Piccolo uomo" for Bruno Lauzi. Michelangelo La Bionda also did some session work. In 1975 he played acoustic guitar on the album Volume VIII by Fabrizio De Andre.

Music career

Between 1973 and 1975 La bionda recorded two albums of acoustic ballads, Fratelli La Bionda srl (1973) and Tutto va bene (1975). "Tutto va bene" was recorded at the Apple Studios in London, and features Nicky Hopkins on piano.

La Bionda became popular when they turned to disco music. They moved to Munich, when they started recording under the pseudonym D. D. Sound (short for Disco Delivery Sound), a monicker that would accompanied them for their entire recording career. Their first two disco singles, "Disco Bass" and "Burning Love", became international hits. They were followed by "Cafè" (1977) and "1, 2, 3, 4... Gimme Some More".

In 1978, they released their first dance album, La Bionda. Slickly produced, it included ballads such as "Sandstorm" and "There for Me", as well as the worldwide hit "One For You, One For Me", who reached number 54 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1978. "There for Me" was subsequently covered by other artists, including Sarah Brightman & Josh Groban, Dalida, Patty Pravo, Paul Potts). Jonathan King's cover version of "One for You, One for Me" reached the 29 spot in the UK charts at the end of 1978.[2]

From 1978 to 1981, La Bionda continued to record more dance music, either under their name (as with the albums Bandido, High Energy and I Wanna Be Your Lover) or as D. D. Sound (as with the singles Cafe, The Hootchie Cootchie, Boxes and Wake Up in the Night). Following the decline in popularity of the disco genre at the beginning of the 1980s, La Bionda focused on writing, producing and publishing music.

Song writing and production

In the 1980s La Bionda scored the soundtracks for many films directed by Sergio and Bruno Corbucci, including Super Fuzz (1980), A Friend Is a Treasure (1981), My Darling, My Dearest (1981), Cat and Dog (1983), A tu per tu (1984), Miami Supercops (1985) and Roba da ricchi (1987), as well as Virtual Weapon (1997), directed by Antonio Margheriti. They also composed the theme from the television series Inspector Giusti with Enrico Montesano, and produced various commercial jingles, such as "Sorrisi is Magic for Smiles and Songs" (for the Italian magazine Sorrisi & Canzoni), "Heart of Cream" (for Walls' Cornetto), "I'm Coming Home" (for Bayer Aspirin) and Coca-Cola. In 2009, they re-recorded "1, 2, 3, 4 ... Gimme Some More" for a Vodafone commercial and "One For You, One For Me" for the digital television channel Mediaset Premium.

In parallel, in 1983 they began their collaboration with the dance duo Righeira, writing their early hits "Vamos a la playa" and "No Tengo Dinero". In 1984, Carmelo La Bionda recorded a single as solo artist, "I Love You"/"You're So Fine".

Logic Studios

In 1985 La Bionda founded and started operating Logic Studios, a recording studio in Milan. Musicians who have recorded at Logic Studios over the years include Ray Charles, Robert Palmer, Paul Young, Depeche Mode as well as Italian pop stars like Laura Pausini, Rihanna, Pooh, Nek and Alessandra Amoroso.

Discography

As D. D. Sound

References

  1. ↑ "La Bionda". Sonyatv.com. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 58. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  3. ↑ "La Bionda Discography at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
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