Artist:Aldo Nova
Song:Fantasy
Album:The Best of Aldo Nova
Canadian rocker Aldo Nova had success with his 1982 debut album Aldo Nova and the top 30 single Fantasy. He is considered to be influential on the hard rock of the 80s. Then he went on to a very successful songwriting and production career. He was born Aldo Caporuscio Nov. 13, 1956 in Montreal. His parents were Italian immigrants. He was inspired by Jimi Hendrix to learn to play guitar at age 15. While playing local clubs, Aldo played George Harrison in a production of the musical Beatlemania and he worked as a recording engineer. He got a publishing deal and that led to a record deal with Columbia's Portrait label. At the time, Portrait was having success with Cyndi Lauper. Nova's debut album Aldo Nova was released in 1982. The single Fantasy reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was certified 2XPlatinum. Learning the inner workings of the recording studio certainly paid off because Nova wrote and produced the album and played all the instruments. He hired musicians for touring. Fantasy is thought of as a one hit wonder but a couple of his other songs charted so technically it is not a one hit wonder. Nova released three albums for Portrait. But he clashed with them over commercial expectations so he stopped recording for them. This budget comp covers the Portrait years. After Aldo wrote the guitar riff for the 1991 Jon Bon Jovi single Blaze of Glory, Bon Jovi agreed to release Nova's album Blood on the Bricks on his Jambco label with Mercury distribution. This is when Nova got into producing. He has been especially successful with Celine Dion. Nova won a Grammy for producing her 1996 album Falling into You. He has produced others but he has had his greatest success with Celine. Aldo still releases music on his own label, most recently in 2022. But I think most folks have only heard Fantasy. Here's the video for Fantasy by Aldo Nova.
I liked that song from the 80's. I did see the video on MTV and VH-1 a couple of times. I had forgotten about the song. Thank-you so much Frank for the information. I had no idea it was just one man who did the first song all by himself. I always thought it was another Rock group from Canada. I am glad he found success. Good for him. David.
ReplyDelete