TACO

About

Taco turned a 1930s Irving Berlin tune into a global pop hit. His synth swing take on "Puttin' On the Ritz" reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, hit No. 1 on Cashbox, topped the charts in Sweden and New Zealand, and went Gold in the US. It stayed his only US Top 40 entry, but it made him a fixture on American TV, from The Merv Griffin Show to Good Morning America. The Indonesian born Dutch performer began in German theatre and then signed to Polydor. His album After Eight went out in over 40 countries, and he kept reworking the classics with Singin' in the Rain and a Glenn Miller tribute record. In 1989 he briefly tried high energy dance music in the Stock Aitken Waterman mould before settling into swing and soul. He also acted on German TV and stage, and his Ritz still gets pulled out for big TV moments, including a Moscow stadium show and a Russian New Year's Eve broadcast.