This Is The Tarzan Boy Thread

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It's a song by Baltimora.

I have filed this thread under "Your Special Song".

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.gocontinental.com/photos2/baltimora2a.jpg

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I suspect this is another made up song, like Japanese Boy.

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

No, it exists and even soundtracks commercials of computer animated bottles of mouthwash swinging through jungles on vines.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:43 (twenty-one years ago)

oh eeee ooooooh ooooh

― Chris V (Chris V), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

One of the greatest songs for 80s parties. And weren't they the same producers that did all the Sabrina singles?

― Siegbran (eofor), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

That song is one of the reasons I never want to go back to my childhood. Foul, wretched thing, that I file right next to Alphaville's Forever Young (aka the never-ending song)

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't be the only one who used to really like this song.

This should have been on my Rough Guide to big 80's Hits that Don't Fit the Retro Straightjacket. Nobody plays it anymore -- I think I've heard this song maybe twice in the last ten years.

Perhaps that's for the best though, since that chorus IS kinda embarrassing. I can't picture drunk college students whooping along to it at retro night in the campus pub, but I wouldn't have imagined drunk college students singing along with Toni Basil's "Mickey" either, and yet they do.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

It's hard for me to believe this came out about 18 years ago.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

The UK cover had him swinging by a vine in a kilt if I recall.

I love the record, obviously.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Night Tonight....Gimme the other, Gimme the other...

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

it very much exists, though i only know it in the context of being used in one of the teenage mutant ninja turtles films. at least, i think that's the early 90's kids movie that used it. i'm usually good at remembering this.

― mason r. butler, Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I kind of picture him looking like Timmy Mallet. Did he? He certainly had silly glasses. Or am I thinking about someone else entirely.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I suspect this is another made up song, like Japanese Boy.

It exists, and so does "Japanese Boy" as well.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

No, it exists and even soundtracks commercials of computer animated bottles of mouthwash swinging through jungles on vines.

Oh. That song.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: "Like a Rock" vs. "I Haven't Got Time For the Pain"

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Baltimora's Tarzan Boy definately does exist- in fact I saw the video for it recently on VH1 Classics!!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 29 January 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I pretty much hate the song, but understand it's cultural relevance and placed it on my Italo-Disco Rough Guide in the Rough Guide thread. I chose it because it's the most popular song to come out of that world. Anyone who says they don't know the song, just play it for them. "Oh yeah! THAT song!" I have an "LP" which is like 3 versions of Tarzan Boy, and 2 or 3 versions each of 2 other songs. Baltimora's just posing there, no vine or anything, unfortunately. I guess calling it an LP is a stretch.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tarzan Boy" was still more of a novelty than a typical Italo Disco effort though. I would rather rate "Dolce Vita" by Ryan Paris as the most typical example of a huge Italo Disco hit, also because it happened two years before "Tarzan Boy".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tarzan Boy" is so classic it is beyond criticism. Don't Try It.

― El Diablo Marcellobotico (Nicole), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

It ain't bad. Certainly it's better than "Live is Life", another one-hit wonder from around the same time that I always associate with "Tarzan Boy" and have always loathed.

― Scott, Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

My cousin and I rediscovered this exact gem when taking a long lunch break in highschool last semester. We then decided it would fit perfect for our "El video de Physics". (imagine shots of '03 Gran Dam peeling out and slamming on the breaks, interspliced with 3 kids[classmates] doing the "running man" in a oily floored garage to "Tarzan Boy"... )

proudest moment

― Nate (Nate), Thursday, 29 January 2004 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Easily one of the greatest mainstream 80s pop singles.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 30 January 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

geir, my point being that Ryan Paris didn't infiltrate the subconcious of the world quite the way Tarzan Boy did.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

If Dave Stelfox is reading this - that TOK track is sublime!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

if i had compiled my own chart on a weekly basis in parallel with the top 40 at the time of this song's release, this would definitely have enjoyed at least a month at the top

okay i did actually do that

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

you might not have been the only one

― Li'l Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:14 (twenty-one years ago)

as long as you didn't continue this habit on and off well into your 20s - that would be wrong. yes.

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

having just consulted the Good Book i am amazed to discover that Baltimora was OIRISH and went by the name of Jimmy McShane. Thus the most successful Irish act of 1985, according to MY records...

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

god I used to love this song! I probably still do!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 30 January 2004 01:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tarzan Boy" is an astonishing record. In fact, I went into the record store not two hours ago, before having seen this thread, specifically intending to buy a Baltimora LP, just for "Tarzan Boy"! But then I forgot, and bought some Was (Not Was) and a 5 LP Elvis box instead. Better go back, hadn't I.

― Otis D. Wheeler, Friday, 30 January 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

tarzan with a mullet. how eighties.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 30 January 2004 02:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Recently saw a great piece of old footage of God himself, Diego Armando Maradona, doing a warming up routine circa 1986, performing all kinds of impossible things with a ball, with shoelaces untied and in deep concentration, with "Life Is Live" in the background. Soundtrack of a generation...

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

...and Opus were only a one-hit wonder outside of German-speaking countries.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Is any of Opus' stuff available on CD?

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

There is a serious fite as to whether "Tarzan Boy" or "Let's Go All The Way" is the greatest one-hit-wonder song of 1985.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

As "Let's Go All The Way" was a hit in 1986, I think "Tarzan Boy" wings quite easily (although if "greatest" doesn't mean "best", then I'd say "Live Is Life" or "Woodpeckers From Space" would be the winner)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 30 January 2004 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

What was "Woodpeckers From Space"? We never got that over here.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

1985, 1986... Don't play your tricky semantic games with me!

― Do you see me sobbing softly in the corner? (Dan Perry), Friday, 30 January 2004 22:22 (twenty-one years ago)

when a friend of mine was going round telling people how he had got a job with a company called "Baltimore", he could not undertand why people kept saying "Wow-oh-oh-ah-oh-ah" at him.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 30 January 2004 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

I would very much like to hear "Tarzan Boy" remixed (or rerecorded, or covered) by Lindsey Buckingham circa Go Insane. That is all.

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 14 February 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

and how.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 February 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

http://kore.mitene.or.jp/~jamboree/baltimora.jpg

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 14 February 2004 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

OK now the revival is redeemed. We have that cover at the RADIo station and I was shocked nobody had posted it yet. Thank ya!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 February 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Note the dude's tools

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 February 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

from an informative interview with Maurizio Dami(Alexander Robotnick)

18) Finally, what are your 3 favourite Italo tracks ever?

If we are talking about 80s Italo Disco :
1) Survivor (Mike Francis)
2) Tarzan Boy (Baltimora)
3) No tengo Dinero (Righeira)

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 4 March 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Hah! "Vamos A La Playa" was easily the better Righeira song.

― Siegbran (eofor), Thursday, 4 March 2004 21:27 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys have forgotten the absolutely best Italo one hit wonder:

"Cha Cha Cha" by Finzi Kontini

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 5 March 2004 05:25 (twenty-one years ago)

All this, and NO MENTION OF MEXICAN SYNTH POP GROUP MAGAZINE 60?

"Don Quixote.. Sancho Panza!"

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 5 March 2004 05:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never heard it, and I'm Mexican. I must get it!

― daavid (daavid), Friday, 5 March 2004 05:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 23 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Although obviously not as great as "Rock Me Amadeus", it's still a ridiculously infectious slice of Euro-cheeze, and classic because of that.

Being a teenager at the time of both these releases, they were absolutely guaranteed to get the exchange students going at the school disco.

You haven't seen anything until you've seen twenty teenage Germans stomping around a dance floor to Falco......

― PhilK, Sunday, 2 September 2007 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

Finzi Kontini, my God, that one takes me back.

― blunt, Sunday, 2 September 2007 23:04 (eighteen years ago)

*Contini

― blunt, Sunday, 2 September 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

this song >>> Rock Me Amadeus

― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 2 September 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

Curtis OTM

― HI DERE, Sunday, 2 September 2007 23:47 (eighteen years ago)

I first heard this in a European disco in 1985 when I did a summer teen tour. Loved it. Recently found it for a giant New Wave comp I made for my wife. Still love it. And Falco and Rock Me Amadeus are on that comp, too.

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 3 September 2007 02:02 (eighteen years ago)

"Rock Me Amadeus" is great but "Tarzan Boy" is astonishing.

― HI DERE, Monday, 3 September 2007 02:13 (eighteen years ago)

The young Baltimora seems to be way ahead of the curve in some early 90's silky/shoulder paddery way with those duds he's sporting on TOTP. I mean I could definitely see a 1992 or 1993 David Silver in pretty much that same outfit.

― matt2, Monday, 3 September 2007 02:25 (eighteen years ago)

when i worked at a summer camp i used to make the kids in my group listen to this song; it hyped them up more than anything else

― max, Monday, 3 September 2007 02:27 (eighteen years ago)

The synths sound GRATE, especially in the last 10 seconds. This track seethes with an utterly daft, utterly wonderful sexuality that's all the more sexy for employing such astonishing lyrics. I mean, it's likea Kate Bush circa The Dreaming singing a Shannon track.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 3 September 2007 02:27 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r0n9Dv6XnY&mode=related&search=

Oh man, does he ever look like a cross between Vanilla Ice and Bowie in the "Blue Jean" video here, or what?

― JN$OT, Monday, 3 September 2007 08:44 (eighteen years ago)

TS this vs Ocean's 'Loverboy'

― blueski, Monday, 3 September 2007 09:41 (eighteen years ago)

AWESOME DUDES

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 8 September 2007 01:19 (eighteen years ago)

I just wanted to say that I am feeling this song, right now. dudes.

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 8 September 2007 01:22 (eighteen years ago)

i am never not feeling this song

― impudent harlot, Saturday, 8 September 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

I was going to say this again:

when a friend of mine was going round telling people how he had got a job with a company called "Baltimore", he could not undertand why people kept saying "Wow-oh-oh-ah-oh-ah" at him.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Saturday, 8 September 2007 12:02 (eighteen years ago)

I have been singing this all morning.

― Alba, Saturday, 8 September 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

One day a group of alienated youngsters will start singing this song (and you know which part) in a crowded theater, igniting panic amongst the bourgeoisie and bringing the revolution to the forefront. The original Dadaists will of course return from the heavens and chaos will reign for a millennium.

― Cunga, Monday, 10 September 2007 05:18 (eighteen years ago)

I also imagined this song playing instead of Journey during the series' finale "jukebox in the diner scene" when a friend of mine joked about the concept of a Gay Sopranos tv show.

― Cunga, Monday, 10 September 2007 05:40 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

Still relevant. Still great.

― Cunga, Monday, 19 April 2010 06:18 (fifteen years ago)

I suspect this is another made up song, like Japanese Boy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-16khInR_TA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgj0CI1GWuM

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Monday, 19 April 2010 09:34 (fifteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

All this, and NO MENTION OF MEXICAN SYNTH POP GROUP MAGAZINE 60?

"Don Quixote.. Sancho Panza!"

My god -- you're the only person I know who remembers this. Miami radio stations blasted this, "Tarzan Boy," and "Yo Little Brother" all through '85.

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 April 2011 02:49 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSGxoYsNMw&feature=related

― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 April 2011 02:55 (fourteen years ago)

four months pass...

this song rules, glad to see ILM on board

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh,...

― just sayin, Thursday, 8 September 2011 15:12 (fourteen years ago)

Misheard as:

kiwi melon kiwi melon dance tonight kiwi melon kiwi melon

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_7782N-vZ9LZk-dvqJ6q5mpNeAWVF5OmD1NOAeiondZR9yUH-http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQM7-IlCeFW7nKjtSfZtneSNW4l9ENYxfDP2CN3mAt9_MBkBX5dYg http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_7782N-vZ9LZk-dvqJ6q5mpNeAWVF5OmD1NOAeiondZR9yUH-http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQM7-IlCeFW7nKjtSfZtneSNW4l9ENYxfDP2CN3mAt9_MBkBX5dYg http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQD5A-COpRKqnZjdYmoZNWEYZnqgXZ4dG2Xbp682ZIPIdsouX1G
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_7782N-vZ9LZk-dvqJ6q5mpNeAWVF5OmD1NOAeiondZR9yUH-http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQM7-IlCeFW7nKjtSfZtneSNW4l9ENYxfDP2CN3mAt9_MBkBX5dYg http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_7782N-vZ9LZk-dvqJ6q5mpNeAWVF5OmD1NOAeiondZR9yUH-http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQM7-IlCeFW7nKjtSfZtneSNW4l9ENYxfDP2CN3mAt9_MBkBX5dYg

― ◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝◦ ⃝ (Moka), Thursday, 8 September 2011 18:13 (fourteen years ago)

I listen to this song more than I should.

― Pohnny Jolo (buckatee91), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:53 (fourteen years ago)

NIGHT TO NIGHT

― Battlestar Gracián (crüt), Friday, 9 September 2011 23:55 (fourteen years ago)

BALTIMORA

― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Saturday, 10 September 2011 00:07 (fourteen years ago)

This was the first thing played on the brand new turntable my boyfriend got me for my birthday. This record is the most prized gem I have in my collection and I play it more than anything else for the sheer joy that it ignites in me. Daily "Tarzan Boy" dance parties are the secret to a happy life.

― JFlip, Thursday, 15 September 2011 16:39 (fourteen years ago)

Daily "Tarzan Boy" dance parties are the secret to a happy life.

Works best when interpolated with Passengers' "Speedy Like Gonzales" (1979 apparently so not 80s but who cares):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p2PYGV_0xY

― psychedelicatessen (seandalai), Thursday, 15 September 2011 16:55 (fourteen years ago)

one month passes...

GIMME THE ORDER
GIMME THE ORDER

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 30 October 2011 22:13 (fourteen years ago)

KIWI MELON KIWI MELON

― Moka, Sunday, 30 October 2011 22:54 (fourteen years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocMnHYcuhFc

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 August 2016 19:54 (nine years ago)

Funny I was just thinking about it, because of this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rZsTN_yi-rw

― piscesx, Monday, 29 August 2016 01:24 (nine years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-L3GpZqY_Y

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 December 2019 03:01 (six years ago)

Adorable

― El Tomboto, Sunday, 22 December 2019 03:15 (six years ago)

i remember this song being the soundtrack to a meme on ytmnd back in those days ("gay fuel") and becoming a bit of a meme itself in that corner of the internet

― dyl, Sunday, 22 December 2019 16:31 (six years ago)

geir, my point being that Ryan Paris didn't infiltrate the subconcious of the world quite the way Tarzan Boy did.

They were both huge hits across Europe in their respective summers. Equally, though, I doubt you'd find too many people under 35 who are familiar with either song.

There's a small plaque somewhere in Derry city centre paying tribute to Jimmy McShane.

― does it look like i'm here (jon123), Sunday, 22 December 2019 16:42 (six years ago)

Was just thinking how it's been way too long since I heard this at the bar. I'll make sure to play it on the jukebox next time.

― geoffreyess, Sunday, 22 December 2019 23:51 (six years ago)

five months pass...

Greatest song in history imo

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 June 2020 23:43 (five years ago)

I recall this being all over MTV in 1985, loved it.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 12 June 2020 03:51 (five years ago)

one year passes...

The Philadelphia Flyers are auditioning new goal songs during the NHL preseason. Tarzan Boy is one of the candidates (was played after the first goal yesterday), and I am all for it.

― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 23:47 (four years ago)

hell yeah

― aegis philbin (crüt), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 23:57 (four years ago)

oh damn, forgot this on my 80s top ten :(

― the adventures of pavlo and schrödis (geoffreyess), Thursday, 30 September 2021 01:41 (four years ago)

was this one the first big "whoa" songs? songs where you just sing whoa oh oh

― typo hell #6: i really don't much at all (Karl Malone), Thursday, 30 September 2021 01:42 (four years ago)

greatest wrestling theme of all time

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 September 2021 01:53 (four years ago)

patient zero of the millennial whoop

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, 30 September 2021 01:53 (four years ago)

I have a tough time separating Tarzan Boy from the Laura Branigan song that sounds like it, but I am glad that both exist, thxbye

― Extinct Namibian shrub genus: Var. (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 30 September 2021 02:05 (four years ago)

monkey business on a sunny afternoon 😎

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 30 September 2021 05:41 (four years ago)

whoa-whoa-whoas are an essential component of Italo-disco.

PSB did it rather well too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzuDIGWxyL0

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:16 (four years ago)

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