The most famous of the Maniac...

Michael Sembello is an American composer and musician who began his artistic career at the age of 17 as a guitarist alongside Stevie Wonder, a period of collaboration that would last from 1974 to 1979.

But he will also work for artists such as The Temptations, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Georges Benson, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer… among others.

He made his first solo title "Summer lovers" in 1982, a very modestly successful title. But all he had to do was wait for the following year and the release of his debut album "Bossa nova hotel" in 1983 for things to take a whole new turn.

An album which contains a title named "Maniac", which will be included in the soundtrack of the movie 'Flashdance'. The film, like the title, will be a global hit and make the glory and fortune of the artist. The track will undoubtedly stay as one of the biggest dance hits of all time.

Also in the same year, the album produced another major hit with the track "Automatic man", and the following year a minor hit with the track "Talk".

A dazzling and short-lived success because anything that the artist will produce thereafter will in no way meet the incredible success of the first album. This will not prevent him from signing several high-level film soundtracks such as Cocoon, Gremlins, The Monster Squad and other Indepedence Day ...

To discover or rediscover...

Discography (among others ...) :

80s Decade :

Summer lovers 1982
Maniac 1983
Automatic man 1983
Talk 1984
Gremlins…mega madness 1984
Gravity 1985
Tears down the walls 1986
Wonder where you are 1986

90s Decade :

Heavy weather 1992
Thing called love 1992
Movers & shakers 1992
Never go home 1997
Backwards in time 1997
The life of my broken heart 1997

2000s Decade :

Love doesn't live here anymore 2003
The winter of our love 2003
What you really want 2003
After the love is gone (The Bossa Nova Hotel) 2009
Tainted love (The Bossa Nova Hotel) 2009
Lovin' you (The Bossa Nova Hotel) 2009

2010s Decade :

Fragile (The Bossa Nova Hotel) 2016
The weight of the world 2017

Tracks :

1982 ... the talent is already there, as is the voice and the style. All that remains is to unroll. And to unroll, that will unroll !

1983 ... then comes THIS title. Composed at the base to be part of the soundtrack of a small film called Flashdance, the title, like the film, will become one of the biggest planetary phenomena of the decade. The singer quite simply signs the biggest hit of all his discography and especially one of the biggest dance hits of the end of the XXth century. MO-NU-MEN-TAL !

1983 ... a year 1983 which will remain as his best. This title will not be able to compete with the previous gem but offers the singer a new well-deserved global top hit...

1984 ... like any self-respecting Grand, he had to have his classy Ultimate Slow. It's done with this title ! MA-GIC !

1984 ... since a first soundtrack was particularly successful for him, he put the cover back on with this soundtrack of the film Gremlins. Unfortunately, the result in the Charts will not be the same at all ...

1985 ... this time, he works for the soundtrack of the movie Cocoon. He collaborated on 3 of the most emblematic films of the 1980s. Only one brought him luck, but what luck !

1986 ... yet what he offers is far from lacking in quality. But the mayonnaise no longer takes and he will forever remain the man of a title, namely 'Maniac' ...

1986 ... failing to set the Dancefloor on fire, he tries to find an honorable way out thanks to the Intimist register. And my gosh, it's pretty well tried. But when it doesn't want, it doesn't want...

1992 ... he will even try the adventure again during the following decade. But what did not work during the 1980s will not work any more during the next. Anyway, he can always boast of having left in the musical history of the twentieth century one of his main nuggets and just as such, respect !

1992...certainly the best years are now behind him but that does not mean the end of the story. He still has some suggestions at first glance...

1992...and quality stuff too ! We will therefore make the most of everything that it will be able to bring us in the years to come. If he comes back of course...

1997...and here he is again ! It would have been a shame not to highlight this new opus even if it will unfortunately go somewhat unnoticed...

1997 ... we are far, very far, from the frenzied rhythm of a 'Maniac', it is clear. But a career is also built with the Intimist, that's for sure...

2003...we find him at the beginning of the 2000s but no longer in a 'Best Of' version. It will therefore be difficult to pinpoint the exact release date of each title...

2003...we will suddenly find pieces that have gone somewhat unnoticed but of a not insignificant quality. It would have been a shame not to talk about them...

2003...in the end an artist who will not remain as the most prolific of his entire generation but who surely does not have to be ashamed of his entire discography. Quite the contrary !

2003... a little last for the road as they say. Good job once again and which reaffirms, if necessary, that this artist really had a significant talent...

2009...when we thought we wouldn't see him again, here he is back once again but in a musical mode which no longer has anything to do with what he did previously...

2009...after having visited a title from Earth Wind And Fire on the previous title, it is the turn of this one from Soft Cell to be favored...

2009...it is now Minnie Ripperton's turn to be brought back into the spotlight through this revisited version of her title dating from 1974. As with the two previous titles, revisited versions far, very far from the originals...