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Gino Soccio

{{Short description|Canadian disco record producer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Gino Soccio

| image =

| caption =

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name =

| alias =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|9|9}}

| birth_place = Verdun, Quebec, Canada

| origin = Canada

| instrument = Keyboards

| genre = Disco, funk, post-disco

| years_active = 1977–present

| label = Celebration, Warner Bros. Records, RFC Records, Atlantic

| associated_acts = Kebekelektrik, Witch Queen

| website =

}}

Gino Soccio (born September 9, 1955){{cite news|author=Griffin, John|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19810815&id=r0IwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7aQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1274%2C1914403|title=Disco alive and well and living in Verdun|work=The Montreal Gazette|date=August 15, 1981}} is a Canadian disco record 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.{{cite book|first=David|last=Roberts|year=2006|title=British Hit Singles & Albums|edition=19th|publisher=Guinness World Records Limited|location=London|isbn=1-904994-10-5|page=513}} 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.

Early life

Soccio was born in Verdun, Quebec, of Italian descent. Soccio 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.{{Cite web |last=Stuffco |first=Jered |date=May 2013 |title=Invisible Man: The Gino Soccio Story |url=https://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/invisible-man |website=Wax Poetics |access-date=September 22, 2022 |archive-date=June 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630150339/http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/articles/invisible-man/ |url-status=dead }}

Career

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 Kebekelektrik album.{{cite web |title=The 30 Best Disco Songs That Every Millennial Should Know |url=https://www.spin.com/featured/best-disco-songs-of-all-time/ |website=Spin |access-date=25 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619131326/https://www.spin.com/featured/best-disco-songs-of-all-time/ |archive-date=19 June 2019}} 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 Kebekelektrik, 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 Kebekelektrik sessions produced B-side "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 Kebekelektrik was remixed by Tom Moulton and released in the U.S. on Salsoul in 1978.

The Kebekelektrik album helped to launch Soccio's career, as his composition "War Dance" became a hit on U.S. dance floors, a song Soccio himself had deemed "filler". In Canada, the Kebekelektrik song "Magic Fly" reached number 69 on the pop charts, October 8, 1977.{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/028020/f2/nlc008388.5417b.pdf|title=RPM Top 100 Singles - October 8, 1977}}

In 1978, Soccio released a dance single, "The Visitors", which was later remixed by Ouimet.{{cite magazine|url=https://djmag.com/features/greg-wilsons-discotheque-archives-24|title=GREG WILSON'S DISCOTHEQUE ARCHIVES #24|magazine=DJ Mag|date=May 23, 2018}} That year he also played keyboards on the Bombers 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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajMFBAAAQBAJ|title=Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey|last= Brewster|first=Bill|date=2014-01-14|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=9780802146106|language=en}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7595924/greatest-of-all-time-top-10-dance-club-songs-year-by-year|title=Greatest of All Time: Top 10 Dance Club Songs Year-by-Year, 1976-2015|magazine=Billboard|date=January 12, 2016}}

In 1979, Soccio also recorded a disco album with Guy Lafleur which cost CAD$100 000 to produce.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19790912&id=0Iw1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=aKQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1662%2C4485972&hl=en|title=Guy Lafleur Slips a Disc|last=Rodriguez|first=Juan|date=September 12, 1979|publisher=The Montreal Gazette|access-date=March 17, 2016}}

In the UK, he received airplay from Robbie Vincent on BBC Radio London, and Greg Edwards on Capital Radio on imported RFC Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

He also assembled and produced the disco studio group, Witch Queen, best known for their hit, "Bang a Gong" / "All Right Now" (1979). It peaked at number eight on the US Hot Dance/Disco chart.{{cite book|title= Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|author-link=Joel Whitburn|year=2004|publisher=Record Research|page=282}}

Discography

{{Infobox artist discography

| Artist = Gino Soccio

| Image =

| Caption =

| Alt =

| Studio = 4

| Compilation = 3

| Music videos =

| Singles = 17

| B-sides =

| Soundtrack =

}}

The discography of Gino Soccio consists of four studio albums, three compilations and seventeen singles.

;Studio albums

class="wikitable" style=text-align:center;

!rowspan=2|Year

!rowspan=2|Title

!colspan=4|Chart positions

style="font-size:smaller;"

!width=30|CAN

!width=30|US
{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gino-soccio-mn0000552576/awards|title=Gino Soccio > Awards|publisher=Billboard|accessdate=2015-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150811113221/http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gino-soccio-mn0000552576/awards|archive-date=August 11, 2015}}

!width=30|US R&B

!width=30|AUS
{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=232}}

1979

|align=left|Outline

| 12

| 79

| 34

| 78

1980

|align=left|S-Beat

  • Labels: Celebration, RFC/Warner Bros.

| –

| –

| –

| –

1981

|align=left|Closer

| –

| 96

| 26

| –

1982

|align=left|Face to Face

  • Labels: Celebration, RFC/Atlantic

| –

| –

| 45

| –

colspan="7" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

;Compilation albums

  • Remember (1984, Celebration)
  • Greatest Hits (1989, Unidisc)
  • The Best of Gino Soccio (1994, Unidisc)

;Singles

class="wikitable" style=text-align:center;

!rowspan=2|Year

!rowspan=2|Title

!colspan=5|Chart positions

!rowspan=2|Album

style="font-size:smaller;"

!width=30|CAN

!width=30|US

!width=30|US Dance

!width=30|US R&B

!width=30|UK
{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/17619/gino-soccio/|title=The Official Charts Company - Gino Soccio|publisher=Official Charts Company|accessdate=2015-07-27}}

1977

|align=left|"Sauve Qui Peut"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left|

1978

|align=left|"The Visitors"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left rowspan=3|Outline

rowspan=2|1979

|align=left|"Dancer"{{cite book|author=Tim Lawrence|title=Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIdH2yR41bIC&pg=PA363|date=2 February 2004|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-8511-2|page=363}}

| 6

| 48

|rowspan=2| 1

| 60

| 46

align=left|"Dance to Dance"

| –

| –

| –

| –

rowspan=2|1980

|align=left|"S-Beat"

| –

| –

|rowspan=2| 4

| –

| –

|align=left rowspan=2|S-Beat

align=left|"Heartbreaker"

| –

| –

| –

| –

rowspan=2|1981

|align=left|"Try It Out"

| –

| –

|rowspan=2| 1

| 22

| –

|align=left rowspan=2|Closer

align=left|"What You Feel Is Real - Hold Tight"

| –

| –

| –

| –

rowspan=3|1982

|align=left|"It's Alright"{{cite book|author=Brian Chin|title=Billboard: Dance Trax|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT75|date=12 June 1982|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|page=75|issn=0006-2510}}

| –

| –

|rowspan=3| 2

| 60

| –

|align=left rowspan=3|Face to Face

align=left|"Remember"

| –

| –

| –

| –

align=left|"You Move Me"

| –

| –

| –

| –

1983

|align=left|"Get It Up"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left|

rowspan=2|1984

|align=left|"Turn It Around"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left rowspan=4|Remember

align=left|"Out of My Life"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

rowspan=2|1985

|align=left|"Human Nature"

| –

| –

| 50{{ref label|note_e1|A}}

| –

| –

align=left|"Temptation Eyes"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

1986

|align=left|"Magic"

| –

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left|

1988

|align=left|"Love the One You're With"

| 79

| –

| –

| –

| –

|align=left|

colspan="9" style="text-align:center; font-size:9pt;"| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

;Notes

{{refbegin}}

{{refend}}

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{Discogs artist|Gino Soccio}}
  • {{IMDb name|id=1672694}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soccio, Gino}}

Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian dance musicians

Category:Canadian disco musicians

Category:Canadian record producers

Category:Canadian keyboardists

Category:Canadian people of Italian descent

Category:Musicians from Montreal

Category:People from Verdun, Quebec

Category:Celebration (record label) artists

Category:Atlantic Records artists