Baltimora

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Baltimora, aka Jimmy McShane (May 23, 1957 - March 29, 1995) was a Northern Irish singer and dancer, known for his 1985 hit "Tarzan Boy". Despite being the focus of the band, his songs were written by Maurizio Bassi and Naimy Hackett.



Baltimora first appeared during the summer of 1985 sweeping over Europe, before finding release stateside via EMI. The time it took for EMI to finally break "Tarzan Boy" in America resulted in the song earning a six month stay on the Hot 100, ultimately peaking at 13 in the early spring of 1986. His first album, Living In The Background arrived some time later.



While "Tarzan Boy" might be an unapologetically vapid pop confection, it pales in silliness and sheer goofiness next to the similarly-styled (not to mention equally suggestive) "Woody Boogie," which was chosen as the follow-up single in Europe. While "Woody Boogie" managed to make some waves overseas, the American market was instead provided with Living In The Backgrounds rather unmemorable title cut instead, which only managed a weak 4 weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at 87 in April of 1986. A follow-up album, Key Key Karimba, was released a year later and managed to sell pretty well in Italy and nowhere else. That proved to be the end of Baltimora, and Bassi went on to work with the likes of megastar Eros Ramazzotti and the Italian disco groups Silver Pozzoli and Passengers, while McShane died in 1995 at 37 from AIDS related complications.



"Tarzan Boy" incredibly made a second run up the Hot 100 in the spring of 1993, climbing to 51 thanks to its appearance in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. No such resurgence occurred when the song appeared again in a movie a few years later: this time in the 1997 Chris Farley comedy, Beverly Hills Ninja.



Having successfully conquered Hollywood, Baltimora next turned to Madison Avenue as "Tarzan Boy" caught the attention of millions in a Listerine commercial, which featured the song playing (minus the lead vocals) while a computer-animated bottle of green minty mouthwash swung around on vines in a colorful digital jungle.



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