2. La Bionda: “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
Trust me when I say you need to watch this music video. This playful, deliriously catchy, proto-Daft Punk hit from 1980 is a quintessential specimen of the so-called subgenre of space disco and, in all likelihood, the greatest song ever made about being seduced by a slimy, faceless alien.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. D.D. Sound: “She’s Not a Disco Lady”
Before they became known by their own last name, the La Bionda brothers released groovy, upbeat electro-pop under the name D.D. Sound (the letters stood for “Disco Delivery”). The subject of this saucy dance-floor anthem has one major character flaw: She’s not a disco lady. But, as the brothers and a group of backing singers thankfully clarify, it’s all right. (All right!)
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. La Bionda: “High Energy”
The title track from La Bionda’s slick 1979 album combines topical references to the ongoing oil crisis — “Well you know how it feels when you wait at the gasoline station,” they sing, “and the radio brings a report on the state of the nation” — with kinetic, feel-good escapism. It also shares a name with a then-nascent subgenre of rock-oriented dance music that would come to be known as hi-NRG.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Righeira: “No Tengo Dinero”
Here’s another music video you’re definitely going to want to watch. In the early 1980s, La Bionda produced music for the Italo disco duo Righeira, who, somewhat confusingly, sang their two biggest hits in Spanish. As Michelangelo told Vulture, it was just good business sense. “We produced it in Spanish,” he said of another Righeira smash, “Vamos a la Playa,” “because the Spanish language is spoken all around the world. So we had a couple of Italian guys singing in Spanish and it was a huge hit single. We like to appeal to the world. With the cost of production, why not try to get the world, and not just Italy?”
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. La Bionda: “Bandido”
Speaking of Italians making overtly Spanish-language-themed music, enjoy this title track from another 1979 La Bionda album. “Bandido, he’s a man who moves with grace and bravado,” sings Carmelo La Bionda, on a track driven by a funky guitar riff and flashy synths. “They all know him from Peru to Tampico.”
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. La Bionda: “Will She or Won’t She”
Finally, here’s a deeper cut from “Bandido” that shows off a different side of La Bionda’s style. Briefly ditching their spacey, futuristic synths, “Will She or Won’t She” is a brassy, winking Tin Pan Alley throwback, anchored — like any La Bionda classic — by an infectious, expertly crafted melody.
