Gino Vannelli

At 71 years old, Gino Vannelli has this physical status:

Gino Vannelli (born June 16, 1952) is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter who had several hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s.

His best-known singles included "I Just Wanna Stop" (1978) and "Living Inside Myself" (1981).

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Career

In Montreal, Quebec, Vannelli was born to an Italian family. His father, (Joseph) Russ Vannelli, performed with trumpeter Bix Belair and Maynard Ferguson's Montreal dance bands. He aspired to be a drummer as a youth. When he was in high school, he admired Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, and he played drums in a pop band. He signed RCA Records in 1969, under the name Vann Elli. At McGill University in Montreal, he studied music theory.

In 1972, Vannelli and his brother, Joe, moved to Los Angeles. They waited for hours outside A&M Studios, hoping to land a record deal. When Herb Alpert, the co-owner of A&M Records, finally arrived, Vannelli ran toward him and gave him a demo tape as security guards pursued him. In the summer of 1973, Alpert signed Vannelli and released Crazy Life, his first album.

Vannelli was one of the first Caucasians to attend Soul Train, a television dance competition. He was invited by Stevie Wonder in 1974 to tour the world.

In 1976, Vannelli's Gist of the Gemini was released on A&M Records as a member of the Gemini. Brother to Brother, a brother of A&M, released the single "I Just Want to Stop," which reached No. 1 on the charts in 1978. No. 4 on the Billboard magazine chart, No. 4. He was No. 1 in Canada and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Nightwalker's next album, "Life Inside Myself," was also a top ten hit.

In 1975, he was named in the Juno Awards for the most promising male vocalist of the year. He was named in 1976 and 1979 in the best male vocalist category. In 1979, he and his brother Joe, his musical partner through those years, received the Juno for Best Production for Brother to Brother.

Despite the popularity of singles "Black Cars" and "Hurts to Be Love" (1985), as well as "Wild Horses" (1987), Vannelli appeared only occasionally throughout the 1980s, as well as "Wild Horses" (1989).

Vannelli, a jazz-pop musician, released two largely acoustic jazz CDs, Yonder Tree (1995) and Slow Love (1997), departing from the jazz-pop style. Vannelli, the Danish jazz pianist Niels Lan Doky's, revived his interest in western classical music with the album "Parole Perpetre" (Words For My Father), dedicated to his late father and composed in the style and tradition of Schubert. The recording caught Pope John Paul II, who had requested a performance of the song at the Vatican, alerting him of the recording. The event, which was broadcast in Europe, attracted the attention of BMG Records' CEO, who later asked Vannelli to record a modern classical disc in the style of "Parole per Mio Padre." Canto, a British singer, released in English, Italian, Spanish, and French (Tracklist: Canto, Parole Perpetu, The Last Dance, Dea Speranza, Una Sola Voce, Wayward Lover, Mala Luna, Una Rosa Dicembre, The Last Days Of Summer) is one of his finest musical performances, according to fans and Vannelli himself. Vannelli made a name for himself in 2008, when the Boston Celtics took over the National Basketball Association championship. The video crew at the TD Banknorth Garden performed a clip from Dick Clark's American Bandstand that featured a bearded disco dancer dressed in a tight Gino Vannelli T-shirt as the final blowout home victory of the 2008 season. "Gino Time" and Gino T-shirts became fashionable at Celtics games in Boston, and Gino T-shirts became popular at Celtics games. The dancer in the Gino shirt was a young man named Joseph R. Massoni, according to the Wall Street Journal in 2008, who died of pneumonia in 1990. He was 34 years old at the time.

Since this song was used in a commercial on TV and radio of the ANWB, "People Gotta Move" became a small success in the Netherlands in 2008.

The Sono Recording Group published Vannelli's Live in Los Angeles, a CD/DVD collection on May 13, 2014. On November 8, 2013, Vannelli's first appearance in Los Angeles in more than 15 years, was filmed live onstage at the historic Saban Theater in Los Angeles. The recording also marks the first on-stage collaboration between the three Vannelli brothers in many years (including Ross Vannelli as producer, editor, and mixer).

Vannelli lives in Troutdale, Oregon, where he works as a music instructor. He continues to tour around North America.

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Awards and honors

• Grammy Award nomination, "I Just Wanna Stop", 1978
• Juno Award, Best Male Artist, 1976, 1979
• Juno Award, Recording Engineer of the Year, with Joe Vannelli, 1986, 1987, 1991