Part 1: The Men You Never Saw: Italo Disco's Phantom Male Voices

The Italo disco production trick worked both ways. Most of the genre's attention has gone to the women whose voices were hidden behind models and stage names, but the men of the scene ran the exact same playbook. A single studio voice could front five, six, sometimes a dozen different acts in a single year, each with its own name, its own sleeve, and no public link back to the man actually singing. This series sets aside Den Harrow and Tom Hooker, already covered in detail elsewhere on this blog, and goes looking for the other phantom voices of the genre. Part one starts with three men whose names rarely appeared on a label, even when their voice was the only thing holding the record together.

Marcello Catalano: One Voice, A Dozen Bands

Marcello Catalano may be one of the least recognized names in Italo disco despite having sung, written, or produced records under more aliases than almost anyone else in the genre. His best known credit came as Klapto, the project behind "Mister Game," a record still played at Italo revival nights decades later. But Klapto was only one name among many. Catalano also recorded as Thomas on "Another Game," as Daryl Scott on "I Need You Now," as Ken Scott on "The Voice I Feel Inside" and later "The Cat," and as Air Mail on "Flash in Your Mind," a track he also wrote the lyrics for.

The list goes further still. Bazooka and Travel Sex, the latter remembered for the single "Sexiness," both carried his voice as well, as did Marc Line on "Little Girl." Each project had its own sound, its own sleeve, and in most cases no public connection to the others. Catalano kept performing live decades after the genre's commercial peak, billed under his own name to crowds who had spent years dancing to records credited to people who did not exist.

The name Marcello Catalano may not ring a bell to everyone, but he wrote, produced and sang a lot of Italo disco tracks under various names. His most famous production from that era is probably Klapto's "Mister Game."

Antonello Gabelli: From Rock Guitarist to Memory Records' Hidden Voice

Antonello Gabelli came to Italo disco from a completely different world. Born in Parma, he started his career in 1969 as guitarist for I Corvi, an Italian rock band known for the hit "Sono un Ragazzo di Strada." By the early 1980s he had moved into the orbit of Memory Records, the label founded by Alessandro Zanni and Stefano Cundari, and reinvented himself entirely as a studio vocalist working under a string of different names.

As Duke Lake, Gabelli released "Do You" in 1983, recorded at Studio Master 33 in Cremona, followed by "Satisfaction, Love & Passion" and "Dance Tonight." The same year, under the name Mac Jr, he recorded "Elephant Song," and as Cheaps he sang "Moliendo Cafe." He also appeared as Chris Luis on "Heart of the City," and as J.D. Jaber on "Don't Stop Lovin'," one of the most fondly remembered records to come out of Memory Records that year. He had also worked under the pseudonym Goomy as an arranger on Faxe's "Time For Change." Three of those names, Duke Lake, Mac Jr and J.D. Jaber, all came out within the same twelve months, on the same label, sung by the same man.

Gabelli stayed connected to music for the rest of his life. He reunited with his old I Corvi bandmates for live shows in the late 1980s, and continued performing with them well into the 2010s. He died in October 2016, and the surviving members of I Corvi paid tribute to him the following year with a dedicated tour.

A very active singer in the early 80s, he wrote and sung many compositions for Memory Records and the Discomagic label. You can hear him under many different names.

Styloo: Two Voices Behind One Name

Styloo was founded by Rino "Ryan" Facchinetti together with Alberto Signorini and Tullio Colombo. Their 1983 single "Pretty Face," produced with Walter Bassani and Marcello Catalano at Discomagic, sold 400,000 copies across more than twenty countries. The group's name came from a joke aimed at producer Roberto Turatti: he already had Den Harrow, whose name sounded like the Italian word for money, and Joe Yellow, a name that sounded like jewel, so all he needed now was a stylus to sign their checks with.

What followed showed just how far one voice could stretch. Facchinetti began producing and singing under other names almost immediately: René on "Don't Hurt Me," Ryn'O on "Gigolo," Meet Point on "The Key of the Night," and eventually a solo career as Ian Lex. By 1993, the re-recorded "Pretty Face '93" credited to Styloo featuring Ian Lex used Facchinetti's voice exclusively, on both lead and backing vocals, finally folding his many aliases back into a single, public identity.

The planned Styloo follow-up to "Pretty Face" produced its own twist on the formula. "Good Times" was meant to be sung by Signorini, but he decided his own voice was not right for the song. A singer named Jimmy McFoy was brought in instead, and the single was first considered for release under McFoy's own name before the label settled on a new one entirely: Paul Paul. A song meant for one Styloo member ended up sung by an outside singer, released under a third name invented on the spot.

However, Signorini felt that his voice was not suitable for this song, and singer Jimmy McFoy was called in for the vocal part.

Three different careers, the same underlying mechanism: a producer or studio singer found a sound that worked, slapped a new name on it, and moved on to the next record before anyone outside the studio could connect the dots. Part two continues with three more men whose voices outlasted the names they recorded under, including one whose own face became, for once, the public identity of the record.

→ Continue to Part 2: The Men You Never Saw