Alec R. Costandinos | |
---|---|
Birth name | Alexandre Garbis Sarkis Kouyoumdjian |
Born | Cairo, Egypt | 20 March 1944
Origin | France |
Genres | Disco, Euro disco |
Instrument(s) | Keys, vocals |
Years active | 1976–present |
Labels | Casablanca Records |
Alec Rupen Costandinos, (born Alexandre Garbis Sarkis Kouyoumdjian on 20 March 1944 in Cairo, Egypt) is a French composer, music producer, songwriter and singer of the 1970s, known for his contributions to disco music. [1] His father was Armenian and his mother was Greek. Costandinos dominated the disco and Euro-disco genres in the late 1970s. He began his career as a publisher and producer for various artists, including French pop star Claude Francois and chanteuse Dalida. After writing Cerrone's "Love in C Minor" (1976), Costandinos was signed to Barclay Records. He released his first album, Love & Kisses in 1977, which featured the hit track "I Found Love (Now That I Found You)". Costandinos went on to release a number of wildly successful records under the prominent American disco label, Casablanca. His album, Romeo & Juliet has been credited for bringing the concept album to dance music. [2] He also wrote "Thank God It's Friday", the theme track to the disco film by the same name.
Costandinos was involved as a writer in the development of many productions of Demis Roussos. He also contributed to the debut album of Crystal Grass, which featured the club hit "Crystal World", released on the Philips label in France. He has also written under the pseudonym R. Rupen. He often worked with a collective of backing singers, the Birds of Paris, some of whom later became famous in their own right. According to what he declared in one of his rare interviews on 11 December 2011 at Open House Radio (Miami), his disco works were basically influenced by Philly sound, classical and melodic Italian music.
With Love & Kisses
With others
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had a significant influence on several music genres such as hi-NRG, Italo disco, synth-pop, new wave, house and techno music.
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label currently focuses on dance and electronic music under the direction of Brett Alperowitz.
Marc Cerrone is a French disco drummer, composer, record producer and creator of concerts. Cerrone is a producer of 1970s and 1980s disco songs. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, including over four million copies in France, and eight million copies of Supernature. The single "Love in C Minor" (1976) reached No. 3 and was in the charts for two months, selling three million copies. With "Supernature" (1977), Cerrone merged symphonic orchestration with synthesizers. At the 1978 Billboard Disco Forum, Cerrone received six awards including Disco Artist of the Year.
Love & Kisses is a 1970s disco group assembled by European producer Alec Costandinos, with a variety of male and female singers.
Thank God It's Friday is a 1978 American musical-comedy film directed by Robert Klane and produced by Motown Productions and Casablanca FilmWorks for Columbia Pictures. Produced at the height of the disco craze, the film features The Commodores performing "Too Hot ta Trot", and Donna Summer performing "Last Dance", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1978. The film features an early performance by Jeff Goldblum and the first major screen appearance by Debra Winger. The film also features Terri Nunn, who later achieved fame in the 1980s new wave group Berlin. This was one of several Columbia Pictures films in which the studio's "Torch Lady" came to life in the opening credits, showing off her moves for a few seconds before the start of the film.
Domenico Monardo, known as Meco, was an American record producer and musician, as well as the name of his band or production team. Meco is best known for his 1977 space disco version of the Star Wars theme from his album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk; both the single and album were certified platinum in the US.
Voyage was a French disco and pop group, consisting of André "Slim" Pezin (guitar/vocals), Marc Chantereau (keyboards/vocals), Pierre-Alain Dahan (drums/vocals) and Sauveur Mallia (bass), together with British lead vocalist Sylvia Mason-James, who sang on the group's first two albums, Voyage (1977) and Fly Away (1978).
D.C. LaRue is an American singer, songwriter and producer. His music was successful in clubs and on dance music charts worldwide during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Patrick Juvet was a Swiss model and singer-songwriter, who had a string of hit records in Europe. While his early career was focused on making pop records, he found international success as a disco music performer in the latter half of the 1970s. His biggest hit, "I Love America", made the top twenty in France, Sweden and the UK, and the top ten in the US disco chart.
Paul Frederick Jabara, was an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He was born to a Lebanese family in Brooklyn, New York. He wrote Donna Summer's Oscar-winning "Last Dance" from Thank God It's Friday (1978), as well as "No More Tears ", Summer's international hit duet with Barbra Streisand. He also co-wrote the Weather Girls' iconic hit "It's Raining Men" with Paul Shaffer.
Santa Esmeralda is a French-American disco group formed in the 1970s. The group had hits with its remakes of the 1960s hits "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "House of the Rising Sun". Santa Esmeralda featured original lead singer Leroy Gómez in 1977-1978 and singer Jimmy Goings from late 1978 until 1983. Gómez rejoined the group in the 1990s.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare.
Love Explosion is the fourth solo studio album by Tina Turner, released late 1979 on the EMI label in Europe, Ariola Records in West Germany and United Artists Records in the UK. Italy and South Africa followed in early 1980. The album was not released in the United States. It was her second solo album released after she left husband Ike Turner and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Love Explosion failed to chart, so Turner lost her recording contract. It would be her last album until the critically acclaimed Private Dancer in 1984.
"I Found Love (Now That I Found You)" is a song by Love & Kisses, a studio group formed by Cairo-born French musician Alec R. Costandinos. Along with the song "Accidental Lover", "I Found Love (Now That I Found You)", from the group's 1977 self-titled debut studio album, hit number one on the US Hot Disco Singles chart for three weeks in July 1977. The song, written and produced by Costandinos, can be found on the compilation CD Disco Nights Vol. 3: The Best of Euro Disco. A brief snippet of this song is used in "The Diva Megamix", which is on Pure Disco 2.
"Romeo and Juliet" is a 1978 disco single written and recorded by Cairo-born disco producer, Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra. The single was a retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and was taken from the album of the same name. The single spent one week at number one of the dance/disco chart in March 1978.
You Must Be Love is the third and last album by Euro disco group Love & Kisses, released on Casablanca Records in 1979. On this 1979 album, Alec R. Costandinos composed all the tracks, such as the title cut. Also, this album features Katie Kissoon, Costandinos himself, Vicki Brown, credited on the back cover of the album as "Vickie Brown", Stephanie de Sykes, Arthur Simms, André Ceccarelli, credited on the back cover of the album as "Dede Ceccarelli", Liza Strike and Helen Chappelle.
The Birds of Paris is a collective name for a group of (mostly) disco backing vocalists, who worked for the main part with Alec R. Costandinos and on some of his side projects like Sphinx and Sumeria. They also worked with Cerrone. A few of these singers later had successful careers of their own. The group included Joanne Stone, Kay Garner, Stephanie de Sykes, Steve Short, Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie, Vicki Brown and Madeline Bell.
Romeo & Juliet is the first studio album by the disco musician Alec R. Costandinos and the Syncophonic Orchestra released in 1978. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London, in September 1977 and released by Ibis in France and Casablanca Records in the US.
Jacques Robert Penel Skorsky, known as Nicolas Skorsky was a French composer, lyricist, and music producer.