Toni Vescoli entered the world on July 18, 1942, in Zürich, Switzerland, and went on to shape Swiss rock as a trailblazing singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose lengthy career spanned English-language pop and rock as well as Dylanesque folk. In 1962 he assembled Les Sauterelles, a groundbreaking group often dubbed the “Swiss Beatles,” whose lineup featured Vescoli himself on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Rolf Antener on lead guitar and vocals, Heinz Ernst on bass guitar and vocals, and Düde Dürst on drums and vocals. The band cut sides for Columbia Records throughout the mid-sixties; its debut chart success arrived with Vescoli’s own composition “Hong Kong” in 1965, the same year the quartet appeared on the live compilation Swiss Beat Live! together with fellow Swiss acts the Counte and the Dynamite. Additional singles followed in the latter half of the decade, among them the chart-topping “Heavenly Club,” and the group issued a pair of full-length albums before Vescoli dissolved the lineup in 1970 to pursue solo work.
Commercial traction remained elusive until 1974, when he began recording in Swiss German dialect and scored a Top Ten single with “Es Pfäffli.” The accompanying dialect album Lueg für Dich also found a receptive audience. The following year brought another Top Ten hit, “Scho Root,” paired with the album Guete Morge. Further solo releases appeared at regular intervals: Läbig in 1978, Zäme in 1979, Ich Bin So Frei in 1983, and Klasse-Zämekunft in 1987. In 1989 Vescoli revisited his band roots by forming Vescoli & Co., which delivered three well-received albums—Nr. 1 in 1989, Nr. 2 in 1992, and Nr. 3 in 1994—reigniting public interest and prompting the retrospective collection 25 Jahre Toni Vescoli in 1990 as well as the dialect-adapted Bob Dylan Songs - Mundart in 1993. In later years he reassembled Les Sauterelles and issued the occasional solo album, including Tegsass in 1999 and 66 in 2008.
