Baltimora

Baltimora emerged from Milan, Italy as a new wave dance outfit that scored its breakthrough with the 1985 single “Tarzan Boy.” Italian musician and producer Maurizio Bassi assembled the project the previous year, enlisting Northern Ireland-born singer and dancer Jimmy McShane, who had only recently settled in Italy. McShane, already a recognizable presence in Milan’s underground dance circuit, brought flamboyant energy to the group and served as its primary frontman and visual centerpiece, while Bassi along with several other Italian players handled the bulk of the songwriting and instrumental work.

The track’s bright synth-pop lines and instantly recognizable Tarzan-call hook propelled “Tarzan Boy” to widespread radio play across Europe in the summer of 1985 and soon afterward throughout North America. By the close of that year the band’s debut album, Living in the Background, reached European stores; despite the single’s strong showing, the LP itself moved only modest numbers. A follow-up, Survivor in Love, appeared in 1987 yet failed to generate comparable interest, and Baltimora dissolved shortly thereafter. Bassi subsequently pursued assorted other ventures, while McShane, after receiving an AIDS diagnosis in 1994, died the next year.

In the decades since the group’s breakup, certain accounts have maintained that Bassi supplied the actual lead vocals on “Tarzan Boy” and most other Baltimora recordings, with McShane miming the performances in videos and onstage. Regardless of those assertions, the song has retained lasting recognition as one of the era’s more memorable dance-pop singles.