Den Harrow

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Den Harrow
Stefano Zandri performing in 2006
Background information
Genres	Italo disco[1][2]
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Baby Polydor

Den Harrow was an Italo disco project from the mid 1980s, with Stefano Zandri (born 4 June 1962) as the face of the artist (lip syncing) , and Tom Hooker doing most of the vocals. It was revealed many years later that Zandri did not sing on any of their hits and that most of the songs were performed and co-written by Hooker. Den Harrow was conceived by producers Roberto Turatti and Miki Chieregato, who based it on the Italian word denaro (money).^[3][4]

Den Harrow was formed in 1983 by Italian producers Roberto Turatti and Miki Chieregato with Stefano Zandri as the face of the project and Tom Hooker doing most the vocals, as well as songwriting on many of their tracks.^[5][6]

The project became popular in the 80s at the height of the Italo disco genre. They scored several hits during that period, such as "Bad Boy, "Catch The Fox," "Charleston," "Future Brain" and "Don't Break My Heart."^[5][6]

After years of fame and popularity, it was revealed by frontman Stefano Zandri and his producers that Zandri did not actually sing any of the songs credited to Den Harrow (except one, "Ocean" from 1991); he was essentially a character who lip-synced to vocals recorded by a number of other singers. Furthermore, since they did not consider Zandri's name and origin to be "trendy" enough, producers Turatti and Chieregato concealed Zandri's Italian origin, marketing him as having been born Manuel Stefano Curry in Boston, Massachusetts. This was done so that Polydor Records could market him more easily in the English-speaking world, where Italian-produced music was, at the time, viewed with skepticism.^[7]

American vocalist Tom Hooker, also known as Thomas Barbey, who was residing in Italy during the Italo disco era and sang most of the songs for the Den Harrow project,^[3] including the 1985–1986 European hit singles "Don't Break My Heart", "Bad Boy", "Catch the Fox", and "Future Brain". Another vocalist, Anthony James from England, was contracted to sing the lead vocals on the Lies album (1988), and also provided the lead vocals on songs like "Holiday Night", "My Time", "You Have a Way". During an interview, Tom Hooker explains why it was decided to be done this way:

"There was a small problem, however. He couldn't sing. So the solution was to never let him sing, or to put his voice so low in the mix that it was non-existent. He started as an image. He would work on his costumes and clothes and someone else would sing on the records. The truth is, vision is far more developed in humans than hearing. People tend to buy and listen to what they like to see."^[8]

Also according to Tom Hooker, Chuck Rolando's voice was used in the early singles "To Meet Me" and "A Taste of Love". Later on, Silver Pozzoli was chosen to do the single "Mad Desire"; however, Hooker provided the vocals for the album releases of "Mad Desire". Although Hooker continued co-writing tracks for Den Harrow project, the producers wanted to use a higher-voiced vocalist for the 1988 album Lies. Hooker says that Zandri did sing on the 1991 Den Harrow single "Ocean".^[8]

The 2018 documentary Dons of Disco addresses the controversy surrounding Den Harrow's identity and specifically Tom Hooker's involvement. Through archival footage and interviews with those involved in the "creation" of Den Harrow, both Zandri and Hooker's claims to Den Harrow's authorship are represented.^[5][6]

This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. Find sources: "Den Harrow" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In 1997, Zandri moved to California to take part in the TV series Sunset Beach. In 2005, he hosted the Italian-language TV show Radio Harrow on the satellite TV channel Match Music. In 2006 and in 2012, he took part in a reality show, the Italian version of Celebrity Survivor which broadcast on Rai 2. In 2007, via his website, Zandri released a new song, "FEDEN - Lo so", written and sung by Zandri and his wife.

In 2010, Tom Hooker recorded and published on YouTube a press conference-style video in which Hooker, flanked by the co-producer/composer Miki Chieregato, states and demonstrates that he was the vocalist on most of the Den Harrow records, and in which he accuses Zandri of continuing to publicly lip sync to those recordings.^[9] He also states that Zandri made threats and insults against Hooker and his family on Facebook for exposing the vocal inauthenticity of the Den Harrow recordings. Hooker asserts that Zandri no longer has permission to publicly lip sync to Den Harrow recordings that use Hooker's voice.^[9]

In 2018, a documentary called Dons of Disco was released, documenting the history of Den Harrow and the dispute between Zandri and Hooker.^[5][6]

• Milli Vanilli, a German-based musical group who achieved fame before also revealing that the "lead singers" also lip-synced.

• Den Harrow at AllMusic
• Den Harrow discography at Discogs
• Den Harrow at IMDb