What came first the chicken or the egg? The song or the boots? We may never know the answer to those questions but we do know that in 1977 O.R.S. had a massive club hit with a funky little number called "Moon Boots." A delicious tribute to those god-awful thick silver boots of the fashion challenged 1970's.
To be correct there is no Orlando Riva, only producer Anthony Monn. The song was the first release for Monn and was the first on mixer Tom Moulton's Tom "n" Jerry Records. Originally the "group" was listed as ORS perhaps it stood for ors like ifs ands or buts?
The following year Monn and his Munich cohorts released the 12" single "Body To Body Boogie." The song was a complete turnaround from "Boots" in the fact that it was a downtempo number. It soon became a latenight classic and spawned the release of the Salsoul album of the same name. The album contained three more disco tracks: "Disco Mussorgsky," "Sweet Release" and "Dream Machine" plus the 12" version of "Moon Boots."
1978 also saw Monn involved in writing and producing Judy Cheeks debut of "Mellow Lovin" and Amanda Lear's "Sweet Revenge" to critical acclaim. The following year he released the final 12" single under the banner of Orlando Riva Sound. A spirited remake of the Mark Lindsay hit "Indian Reservation."
After the collapse of the disco industry in 1980 Monn continued writing, producing and recording in Europe. He returned to the American club charts in the 1980's with a string of hits for avant garde performer Fancy including "Check It Out," "Slice Me Nice," "Get Lost Tonight" and "Come Inside." In the 1990's he had hits with Amanda Lear and LaToya Jackson. Our thanks to Anthony Monn and his German cohorts for giving us a few classic disco hits that remain as hot today as when they were released in the late 1970's. |
