Dalbello

Dalbello
Birth name	Lisa Dal Bello
Born	22 May 1958 (1958-05-22) (age 53)[1]
Origin	Weston, Toronto, Canada
Genres	Rock hard rock alternative rock metal
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Guitar Piano Keyboards Drums Clavinet Bass Vocals
Years active	1977–present
Website	dalbello.synthasite.com [Fan-site]

Dalbello (born 1958 as Lisa Dal Bello in Weston, Toronto) is a Canadian recording artist, songwriter, and voice actress. She released three albums in the pop and pop/rock genre in her late teens, from 1977 through 1981 under her full name. In 1984 she re-emerged as Dalbello, with an edgier brand of alternative rock.

Recording career

Signing with Capitol Records out of L.A. when she was 17, her self-titled debut album in 1977, produced by David Foster, won her a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year. Strangely, she was nominated for the same award a second time, for her 1979 second album Pretty Girls, although she did not win.

After Dalbello's third album, Drastic Measures (in 1981), she took a break from recording to re-evaluate her creative and personal priorities and work on her poetry.^[2] However, David Bowie's former Ziggy Stardust guitarist Mick Ronson saw a CBC Television documentary on her while working at a recording studio in Toronto and convinced her to record another album.

That album, whomanfoursays (a homophone for "human forces"), was co-produced by Dalbello and Ronson. It was also her first album recorded as Dalbello, and marked her transformation into an edgy rock artist. The transformation worked – the album was even more successful on the Canadian pop charts than her earlier albums had been. The album spawned the hit singles "Gonna Get Close to You", later covered by Queensrÿche, and "Animal" that was covered by Heavens Gate.

Ronson and Dalbello planned to record a second album, however, Ronson was passed over by both her record label, and her manager at that time, Roger Davies, over Dalbello's strong objections. Disappointed, and in an attempt to ensure the creative integrity of the Ronson/Dalbello production follow up, Dalbello submitted four self-produced song demos to her U.S. label and manager, only to have them rejected because they wanted a "real" producer.

Partly out of frustration and partly as a practical joke, Dalbello re-submitted the song demos under a pseudonym, "Bill Da Salleo", which was nothing more than a simple anagram of her name. To her surprise, her label and manager excitedly called her up saying that they loved the "new" demos and believed "Bill" was the perfect producer for the project.

Dalbello continued to produce the album under the pseudonym, managing to keep both her label and manager from visiting the sessions by booking the studio time late at night, and only broke the "news" of "Bill's premature death" to her Canadian A&R person Deane Cameron, just prior to delivering the album to the label, and shortly after Cameron called her out of concern that the label had no signed production agreement between Bill Da Salleo and themselves. Cameron, a maverick in Canadian music circles who was the first record label A&R person to have signing autonomy from his U.S. label counterpart out of L.A., reportedly laughed out loud, proclaiming that Dalbello had truly kicked the L.A. A&R offices' asses.

EMI released the album she in 1987. That album's singles, "Tango" and "Black on Black", were Dalbello's biggest hits. "Black on Black" was also featured on the 9½ Weeks soundtrack. The success of she allowed her to tour extensively, particularly through Europe.

In 1991, not long after she moved from Toronto to L.A., Ronson and Dalbello discussed collaborating again. However, everything was put on hold because of a downturn in Ronson's health. Ronson died of liver failure in 1993.

Three years later, Dalbello released whore in 1996 for EMI in Europe where she returned to tour for the rest of that year.

Recording guest appearances

In addition to having appeared on Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson's solo album Victor, contributing the lead vocal to the song "Start Today", and having recorded duets with Duran Duran’s John Taylor and Boz Scaggs ("Miss Sun" from his 1980 album "Hits"), her vocals have appeared on records for Cher, Richard Marx, Heart, Alice Cooper, Patti LaBelle, Toto, Nena (for whom she wrote an entire translation album) and Canadian artists Rough Trade, Kim Mitchell and Glass Tiger.

Cover versions of her music

Melissa Manchester successfully took "Pretty Girls" into the US and Canadian Top 40 in 1979. Heart covered "Wait for an Answer" and did a version of "Black on Black" called "Black on Black II". Queensrÿche covered "Gonna Get Close to You". Hauteville covered "Immaculate Eyes". Julie Masse covered "Devious Nature". Heavens Gate covered "Animal". Her song "Dont Get Mad Get Even" was recorded in 1983 by both the Canadian Metal band Helix for their 3rd album No Rest for the Wicked, and by The Lydia Taylor Band for their EP "Bitch", released on A&M Records in Canada and Passport Records in the USA.

Songwriter and producer for other artists

She has not released another album since 1996 and has primarily focused on producing and writing for other artists such as Heart, Julian Lennon, Nena, and Patti LaBelle, whom she also produced. Some of the artists and writers she has co-written with are her friends Bryan Adams, Julian Lennon and Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, as well as David Foster, Carole Bayer-Sager, Holly Knight, Chaka Khan, Branford Marsalis, Damhnait Doyle and Dan Hill.

Television commercials and documentary voice work

From the age of 14 and throughout the span of her recording career, Dalbello has been an A-list session vocalist and voiceover artist on some of the most well known TV and radio commercials in North America, for which she now also writes and arranges music. Her voice work also expanded into areas of documentary work as well as character voices for the TV anime cartoon series Sailor Moon. She performed the song "Always" for the Cheer detergent commercial "Coming Home" that aired in 2003, which was so popular and garnered so many inquires, that Cheer commissioned her to do a full length version which they made available for download from their website. Her song Faith In You (With All Your Heart) was used to promote the launch of the Ford Focus automobile in North America; commercials featuring it played in movie theatres and on television.

From 2002 to 2008, she was the brand announcer voice for the Canadian cable news network, CBC Newsworld and additionally, her voice was heard introducing CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge on the network's flagship nightly news and current affairs program, The National.

She also was featured on Degrassi: The Next Generation Theme, the theme song for the first three seasons of the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Discography

Albums

• Lisa Dal Bello (1977)
• Pretty Girls (1979)
• Drastic Measures (1981)
• whomanfoursays (1984)
• she (1987)
• whore (1996)

Singles

• (Don't Want To) Stand In Your Way (1977)
• Pretty Girls/Dreams Are For Lovers (1978)
• Still In Love (1978)
• Never Get To Heaven/Dr. Noble (1981)
• She Wants To Know (1981)
• Gonna Get Close To You/Guilty By Association (1984)
• Animal (1984)
• Black On Black (1985)
• Tango (1987)
• Talk To Me (1987)
• eLeVeN (1995)
• Heavy Boots (1995)
• O Lil' Boy (1995)

Non-album tracks

These are tracks recorded with a lead vocal by Lisa Dalbello.

• "Always Thinking About You" - an original song written and performed for a Cheer laundry detergent TV ad in 2003.
• "With All Your Heart (Faith In You)" - an original song written and performed for a Ford Focus TV ad.
• "You're My Day" - recorded in 1977, it is available on Jay Graydon's compilation album "Past To Present: The 70's".
• "Start Today" from Alex Lifeson's 1996 solo album "Victor".
• "Something's Happening Here" is the theme song for "EXPO 86". It is available on YouTube.
• "March Of The Arches", "Eyes", "Wheels" (recorded in the early 1980s) are featured on David Suzuki's album "Space Child", an educational album for children. It is available in some regions on iTunes.
• "The Sins Of Dorian Gray" is the theme song of the 80s movie with the same title, sung by Lisa Dalbello.
• "Black On Black" in an earlier non-solo-LP version is available on the 9½ Weeks soundtrack.

References

1. ^ "Lisa Dalbello's personal facebook page". http://www.facebook.com/lisa.dalbello. 
2. ^ Bush, John. "Biography: Lisa Dal Bello". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p16812. Retrieved 23 May 2010. 

External links

• Official MySpace page of Dalbello
• Behind The Veil - a Dalbello fan site with latest news and comprehensive discography - dalbello.synthasite.com

Persondata
Name	Dalbello, Lisa
Alternative names	Dalbello
Short description	Singer
Date of birth	May 22, 1958
Place of birth	Weston, Toronto, Canada
Date of death
Place of death