The Twelve Inch 119 : Try It Out (Gino Soccio)
Unraveling the Mystery of Gino Soccio: What Happened to the Disco Maestro?
Disco is typically synonymous with singles rather than albums. However, a few artists, like Donna Summer, managed to build enduring careers in this vibrant genre. One name that should have been on that list, but wasn’t is Gino Soccio. He had a brilliant start and produced 4 albums in 4 years and then… he disappeared. What happened to Gino Soccio? Why did the disco pioneer who gifted us infectious dance tracks like “Dancer”, “Dance To Dance”, “It’s Allright” and "Try It Out" suddenly fade into anonymity? As we dive into the history of "Try It Out," we'll uncover the intriguing story of Gino Soccio, the enigmatic genius of the late 70s and early 80s dance music scene. Let's explore the rise and sudden retreat of Disco’s one of the most talented artists. His story is intertwined with another of the important movers & shakers of this era : Ray Caviano. Let’s start by introducing the main characters
Gino Who? Discovering a Disco Prodigy
Gino Soccio, born in 1955 in Verdun, Quebec, showcased prodigious talent early on, mastering Bach compositions by age 11. Despite his classical and jazz inclinations, Soccio’s fate changed when he collaborated with Pat Deserio on the disco project Kébekélektrik in 1977. Initially hesitant about disco, Soccio’s composition “War Dance” unexpectedly became a nightclub hit, steering him towards a disco-centric path.
Soccio used the money he’d earned to record a real “artist album,” something that would make up for the hastiness and mistakes of “War Dance.” The sessions were marked by heavy use of synths and tape editing. Typical of his approach was the main song “Dancer,” written and recorded as a four-minute song and later doubled in length through mix-downs, re-edits, and loops. The resulting demo did the rounds in Canada before hopping over to the US
Soccio’s music had come to New York via John “Disco” Driscoll, who was the man in Canada when it came to dance music. Driscoll was running Quality Records at the time and was looking to bust out of the tiny Canadian market. “I thought we had something there,” Driscoll says. “That’s why I jumped on a plane to New York.” Driscoll’s first appointment was with Prelude Records boss Marvin Schlachter, who liked Soccio’s music but reckoned it needed a remix. Driscoll took a pass and went to our second main character : Ray Caviano, where he scored a worldwide deal. The Canadian spent the rest of the day riding around New York in a limo 😃
Ray Who? The Maestro Behind the Scenes
Raymond Francis Caviano was a key figure on the disco scene. Born in New York, he became a staffer at Henry Stone’s TK label, he n°1 Miami disco label that brought us KC & Sunshine Band, T-Connection, Jimmy Bo’Horne, George McCrae & Foxy. Ray was TK’s promo manger in New York. “I was brought up in Manhattan, I loved music, I loved Motown. I’m a music man, and I’m a gay man, so I’m the ultimate disco consumer and promotion guy. I’m on the dance floor, I’m in the booth.” This made him one of the most effective promo managers around. “I used to bring (famous WBLS radio DJ) Frankie Crocker to the Garage. Larry would play a test pressing, and it was on the radio the following morning. That was a very powerful position to be in.”
RFC: Striking Gold with Warner Bros.
In december 78 he left TK for Warner Bros. Warner was the last of the majors to “go disco” and when they did, they went big. Ray Caviano was made president of the Warner disco department and he would be responsible for the promo of Warner’s main artists’ disco records. He, not only, got tracks like “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” (Rod Stewart) and “What A Fool Believes (Doobie Brothers) remixed by top dj’s, but also played in the clubs.
As part of the deal he was getting his own record label : RFC records. Naming the label after yourself is quite a bold statement. Mo Ostin, Warner’s chief, gave Ray 6 million dollar to splash on new signings. After a glamorous start early 79, with a party in studio 54, Ray and his team got to work.
Ray would evaluate demos and new talent using his promotional strategy: “DJs would come to my office: Larry, Danny Krivit, Roy Thode, Tim Burgess. I had a crew of people surrounding me when we listened to a new record. If we didn’t feel the energy of it, nine out of ten times, it wasn’t going to work in the clubs. People would come to my office, and we would play the records and we would say ‘naahhhh I don’t think so.”
Crafting a Hit: The Story Behind "Outline"
RFC would struck early gold with Soccio’s debut album “Outline”. The title track would hold the number 1 spot on Billboards dance charts for 6 consecutive weeks and Soccio would score his first (and only) hit in the pop charts. Gino created music that mixed the glamour of European disco with the gritty bottom-end of American R&B. One of the key tracks on the album is/was “Dance To Dance”
S-Beat: The Album That Could Have Been Daft Punk
After the success of “Outline”, Soccio released “S-Beat” in 1980. It would be his best album. You hear an artist, that not only grows in his music making, but is influenced by what was happening in the New York nightlife late seventies/early eighties. (much more on that in my newsletter 114 where I talk about that period in New York and how it influenced the creation of “Magnificent Seven” by The Clash) “S-Beat” is no longer disco but pure pop. It’s an album that Daft Punk would’ve made if they lived/released during that time. But “S-Beat” would not enjoy the same success as its predecessor.
Closer: Merging R&B Soul with Disco Beats
“Closer", would return to the pure dance formula of his debut. He hired Erma Shaw, a singer he’d met at Muscle Shoals studios when he produced another disco act (Witch Queen). She was a session vocalist at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studios in Memphis. For Soccio, she was the perfect voice to bring out his American influences: “I wanted to go ultra, ultra R&B, and she was Black as Black”. “Try It Out'“ would fit in perfectly with the danceable R&B/Funk records that were released at that moment (as you will notice in this week’s mix). It would be his second number 1 in the US dance charts (again 6 weeks) but no pop chart success. He did get to n°22 in the R&B charts though, one of the things Soccio considered as a crowning achievement. There are no mixes of the record. Which is not unusual because, apart from Visitors, his first single, none of his records were ever remixed. The twelve inch versions were, essentially, the versions you’ll find on his album(s)
The Disco Downfall: Industry Backlash and Soccio’s Struggles
Gino Soccio’s story is comparable with that of another major talent : Dan Hartman (see newsletter 113). Both were breaking acts when disco was at its zenith. Both were major record company signings (via sublabels). When the “disco sucks” movement started in June 1979 it made, especially, the major record companies rethink their presence in disco/dance. The result is that they did not get the necessary support to break through to the pop audience and build a lasting career. Gino Soccio was disappointed on disco sucks and the media frenzy : “The media is always hot to jump on a craze and just as hot to drop it”
In Gino’s case matters were not helped by the fate of Ray Caviano (and his label). Although they hit gold with a number of albums, they were not yet producing artist careers or album selling acts, the focus of the major record companies. Disco and everybody active in it were considered too gay for the brass at Warner’s. Most of the executives did not think the value they got from RFC justified the huge investment. So when Ray Caviano wanted to renegotiate his contract, Warner had enough and Caviano left. Ray took his label with him, and interestingly, after a few months of independent distribution through the Canadian label Quality Records, they eventually signed with Atlantic Records, which was part of the Warner label group.
Where Did He Go? The Mystery of Gino Soccio’s Disappearance
In January 1984, Gino Soccio was involved in a severe incident with the Montreal police, which had a significant impact on his career and personal life. According to reports, Soccio claimed that police officers dragged him from his car by his hair and beat him with a flashlight during an altercation. This incident led to an inquiry and garnered substantial media attention across Canada
The fallout from this incident was further aggravated by another controversy that arose shortly afterward. Gino Soccio planned to release a greatest hits LP, but the album cover, featuring a lingerie-clad woman bound with two-inch tape, sparked severe backlash from women's activists. The activists threatened a nationwide boycott in the U.S. Soccio, standing by his artistic vision, refused to alter the cover, leading to the album being shelved in the United States.
And he had his doubts on the way disco/dance music was evolving. On one of his trips to the Atlantic Records offices he was listening through a pile of new Atlantic 12-inches, he hated everything: “They were putting out the worst garbage, anything with a 4/4 bass drum on it, and I’m saying ‘Why? This is garbage!’ And then I understood, they wanted to flood the market. The end part of disco was really bad—it was bad music. But they would put out anything as if to gross you out. And it worked.” After the release of “Face To Face”, his fourth album, the RFC/Atlantic contract ended.
Human Nature: The Record That Ended Gino Soccio’s Career and Marked the End of an Era
Soccio issued the 12-inch “Human Nature” in 1985 on a new label (Celebration), but the reaction was not what he expected.“Human Nature’ really marked the end of my career, because I thought it was a great record, but nobody wanted to know from it. Nobody wanted to play it, nobody wanted to even put it in the store. It was the end of disco, and that’s when I got out.”
He had enough and stepped out of the limelight. “I saw some disco artists keep going after the disco era, and put out album after album that didn’t sell. I didn’t want to be one of those… I didn’t want to dilute my catalog, my repertoire, in that way.”
He would release one more single in 1988 but that was it. No more Gino Soccio. He disappeared completely. In 2014 he was honored at the 25th gala of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and he was interviewed by Wax Poetics. It took them, apparently, a very long time to track him down and he would only agree upon the explicit agreement of not saying anything on his current whereabouts or situation. He said : “I built a wall between me and the media. After twenty-five years, you run out of shit to say,
Ray Caviano also disappeared from the public eye. He had developed a serious drug addiction, reportedly costing him $500 a day, and spent some time in prison in 1986. After this period, he vanished, only to re-emerge later, clean and dedicating his efforts to helping others with their addictions.
Legacy of a Legend: Gino Soccio’s Lasting Influence
Though Soccio's time in the limelight was brief, his impact on the disco and dance music scenes was profound. And although you will not find artists that name him as an inspiration, his innovative production methods and the fact that he bridged the gap between “black” and “European” parts of disco effortlessly, makes him an important artist of the period. Like I said, when discussing his second album “S-Beat”, it could have been an album of Daft Punk, would they have released in that era.
Join the Beat: Be Part of The Twelve Inch Community
What are your memories of Gino Soccio and the disco era? Did you dance to "Try It Out" in your favorite club, or discover it years later as a hidden gem? Share your stories and join the conversation.
Further reading (or should I say watching)
There are a number of interesting video’s/links :
So You Wanna Hear More ?
I thought you would !
It’s fun to write about music but let’s be honest. Music is made to listen to.
Every week, together with this newsletter, I release a 1 hour beatmix on Mixcloud. I start with the discussed twelve inch and follow up with 10/15 songs from the same timeframe/genre. The ideal soundtrack for…. Well whatever you like to do when you listen to dance music.
Go To The Mixcloud Mix Of The Week
There is a Facebook & Instagram page. You can follow The Twelve Inch” to keep informed of what is happening with the blog, the mixes..etc..
So what’s in this week’s mix ?
“Try It Out” is pure R&B. Only logical that the rest of this week’s mixtape follow’s that lead. The second track “Spasticus Autistics” not only mixes well with “Try It Out'“ but it has a lot in common with Gino’s track. The Ian Dury track was co-written and produced by Chaz Jankel, another musician influenced by funk & R&B.
There is a big middle section with Larry Levan mixed/produced tracks with Logg and the NYC Peach Boys
Enjoy !
What I listened to this week :
SAM : The Sound Of New York City 1975-1983
There have been a number of compilations on the SAM dance label, lately but none more complete than this latest Edsel compilation.
The SAM label was one of the important NYC dance labels, distributed & funded by Columbia Records. I’m sure we’ll be meeting the label in one of the future stories. The label is best known for his top artist : Gary’s Gang, Mike & Brenda Sutton and John Davies & The Monster Orchestra. They were also the company that signed the 1981 Italo smash “Don’t Stop” by K.I.D. (also present on the compilation off course)
It’s a great compilation to hear how dance music changed on the NYC scene from the early disco of Doris Duke’s “Woman Of The Ghetto” to Vicky D’s “This Beat Is Mine”
Next week, we’ll meet disco’s most important producer. The man who was born in South Tirol but would move to Los Angeles and riding fast sports cars. We’ll tell some of the story of what happened inbetween.