Loverde
Frank Loverde
Loverde
Frank Loverde
Loverde
Frank Loverde
BORN: 11-30-1947
DIED: 12-20-1990
...from A.I.D.S.
    Once again I mourn the passing of a great talent and ask myself "Who was Frank Loverde?" And again I am confronted with nearly no information on someone that deserves recognition. I have found his death listed on "other" disco sites as 1987 or 1988 and his birth as 1954. Not trusting those other sites I searched for his Social Security records. The only Frank Loverde that I found was one born in 1947 and that had passed in 1990, so I'm gonna go with those dates, anyone with different proof please contact me.
     The Los Angeles born Loverde left California for New York sometime during the 1970's. The reasons are unknown but he was quoted as saying "Once I arrived in New York I quickly got a job as a D.J. at "Yellow Fingers" and became involved with celebrities and people in the music industry. I was there about four years during which I became more interested in music and took up guitar playing. I was singing most of my life so it was a natural progression."
     While spinning in the Big Apple he received an offer to spin at the opening for a new club in St. Louis , Missouri. It was their that he met Linda Imperial and the seeds of "Loverde" were formed. Linda married Frank's best friend and the two began singing whenever and wherever possible. Eventually Frank with choreographer and friend Dan Straehorn, and Linda with husband in tow all decide to move to San Francisco to pursue a serious recording career.
     The first lineup of Loverde featured Frank, Linda and Linda's sister. As the trio honed their sound and stylish look they became local celebritys appearing often at the City, the Elephant Walk and the I-Beam. Frank explains: "Around this time we got a deal with Prism Records to put out "Iko-Iko" (1980) which was a Patrick Cowley/Michael Finden re-arrangement and it did fairly well. I got together after that with Tip Wirrick and Don Miley to write some music and we came up with "I Got The Feeling." I had recorded it with Jeffrey Cohen as my executive producer and was planning heavily on it being Loverde's next single. Harvey Fuqua heard it and asked if he could use it for his up coming sessions with Sylvester's background singers, Two Tons O' Fun. I eventually gave in and the song went on to become a disco classic. It was a thrill to walk into Dreamland or the Trocadero and hear something I wrote being played. The excitement of the residual checks was nice too! It was the success of that song that gave me the motivation to continue writing."
     In the early 1980's the San Francisco music scene was a hotbed of talent, and in such a close knit community all the local singers and musicians were friends. Patrick Cowley's career was exploding at the same time that Frank was experiencing success as a writer. "Patrick used to come over to the house after his sessions in the studio with these instrumental demo tapes and ask me if I could do anything with them. I'd keep them a few days and write some lyrics or take them over to Don Miley's and we'd write something together. Anyway one of those turned out to be "Diehard Lover." (1982) I saw an ad for a car battery and liked the idea of never running out of fuel or energy or love. So with that idea in mind I went over to Don's and we wrote this for Linda Imperial" recalled Loverde.
      Don took the demo over to Moby Dick Records and they immediately wanted it, but it was decided that Frank should do the lead instead. It was agreed that Linda would sing the lead on "My World Is Empty (Without You)" the next track to be recorded. However Bill Motley once again changed his mind and pushed Frank to do it's lead as well. Linda was a real professional about this turn of events and remained with Frank as part of Loverde along with new recruit Peggy Gibbons. Patrick Cowley was losing his battle with A.I.D.S. and was only able to contribute arrangments and synthesizer work on the single while production credits went to Motley and Horus Jack Tolson. The single was an out and out smash. This lead to a series of televison appearances, club dates and some globe trotting world tours.
     "Moby Dick was very supportive at the time, but we were on our way to Paris to do a tour and they wanted something new before we left, so we rushed into the studio and threw "Backstreet Romance" (1983) together. As it turned out when we returned to the States we discovered that the record had bombed" stated Frank. The reason was probably that Moby Dick was in deep financial trouble and couldn't promote it properly. Moby Dick went under shortly thereafter owing Loverde (and all their other acts) back royalties. Frank adds "All our new material that we had recorded was locked in the vaults at the Automatt Studios where Moby Dick left it...we lost a fortune!"
     Without a label the group continued to perform for awhile longer before Linda and Peggy left to pursue solo careers. Linda would have justice, when in 1986 Megatone Records released "Diehard Lover" with her vocal track (billed as Linda Imperial and Patrick Cowley) and then in 1987 she would surface on Columbia Records with her own disco hit "Extra Credit." As for Frank he tried performing as a solo act but it wasn't the same without his girls. So he chose to delve into writing and producing for others.
     In 1987 David Diebold coaxed Frank back into the studio to cut "Love Take Me Higher" with Manifestation. The song quickly re-established Frank as a key player on the club scene. David and Leo Frappier also produced and recorded "Manifestation Of Love" as his follow up single, both for the Megatone label. Once again bad business derailed Frank's singing career when Megatone also went bankrupt.
     It's unclear what happened after this but we do know that Frank contracted the disease that nearly obliterated San Francisco's entire music community. As I have done tributes to many of them, I always run across a common theme...just how nice these people were. It always makes me sad that I never had a chance to meet or work with them. So instead I place my tributes here to honor them for their talents and to remind the world of what we have lost and how our lives have been enriched because of their music.
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