Between “Disco Insects” and Aerobics,1980s Showgirl Heather Parisi Made Two Concept Albums.

How an American ballerina brought disco into the hearts of Italian adults and kids alike.

If the 1970s were the decade of Raffaella Carrà, who stood out among her peers for the way she could sing, dance, and host an entire tv show, by the time time the 1970s rolled into the 1980s, Italian tv was eager to replicate Carrà’s unique formula—even though Carrà would still hold her fort. One of the main contenders was the Los-Angeles-born Heather Parisi.

The American-born Heather Parisi ended up becoming one of the most prominent faces of Italy’s variety-show panorama, which meant that, of course, she also released a number of disco-infused albums. 

Her first is the 1979 single Disco Bambina an ode to discothèques as a place of unbridled self expression. The upbeat rhythm, coupled with Parisi’s high-pitched, crystalline voice perfectly showcased the way the more soul-inflected, 1970s disco music was giving way to the synth-heavy and futuristic 1980s disco music.

Interestingly, the one-legged unitard Parisi wore for her live performance of Disco Bambina on tv was actually cobbled together by the show’s costume department as they were on deadline. It went on to influence the entire live-performance costume-design history: Taylor Swift wore a similar getup during the Reputation section of her Eras tour, and Chloé Fineman did the same in the Disco-Bambino-inspired SNL sketch “Maison Bang.” 

Disco Bambina became certified gold: it sold more than one million copies and, on January 20, 1980, topped the Italian music charts. Despite its success in sales and radio/TV play of the lead track, its B-side Blackout has always remained in the shadows. The track, which Parisi performed very few times (perhaps once on Italian TV and once in Spain), tried to capitalize on the space disco trend, a genre that  was becoming very popular at the end of the 70s, with Parisi’s teenage-thin vocals flying over galloping synths and rhythms that remind of a slower version of Amii Stewart’s “Knock On Wood”. Both songs “Disco Bambina” and “Blackout” really shine in their  extended versions released on 12” maxi-single in Italy and South America; Parisi even attempted launching a Spanish version of “Disco Bambina” which unfortunately failed to soar like the original.

With all of the buzz generated by the fiery Parisi, then why not have her actually do a full-length album?

Her debut album, Cicale & Co, hinges on the lead single “Cicale” (Cicadas), whose entire premise is the pun between “cicale” and “ci cale” ([it] matters to us) and which became the theme song of variety show Fantastico 2, which she co-hosted. 

The label CGD decided to then weave an entire concept album around Cicale, whose most notable characteristic was that it was all about insects. Each track is, in fact, dedicated to a different species. 

“Millepiedi” (Centipede) is reminiscent of what, in video game music, is known as “athletic theme”: it’s dynamic and starry eyed. If you listen to “Coccinelle” (Ladybugs) and you were watching anime back in the 1980s, you might be reminded of Cristina d’Avena’s “E’quasi magia Johnny,” the Italian localization of Orange Road. “Cervo Volante” (Stag Beetle), “Maggiolino” (Beetle), and “Humanoid” have hints of rock music, whereas “Vanessa” is a disco-funk tune. “Lucciole” (Fireflies) is your standard mid-tempo 80s song, while “Grilli” (Crickets) and “Winter/Spring” are cosmic and atmospheric. If you are looking for a standard Italo disco track, you will find it in “Filo Di Ragno” (spider web), which has both keys and synths much like the biggest Italo productions of the era. A fun performance of this track at Fantastico 2 is available online, when at the end Heather really slaps her dancers to the beat of the snare. A great edit of this track by Italian producer and DJ Bottin, is available here.

“Mosquito” is an outlier for its Ska-adjacent sound.  While not always flawless in execution (Parisi remained, first and foremost, a dancer and an entertainer rather than a vocalist), one has to commend the ambition behind such a project, where different genres are woven together by 80s synths and…arthropods. 

It is interesting to see how an artist like Parisi, especially at the beginning of her career, catered to both an adult audience as well as kids. And disco music (together with Heather’s mastery in dancing) was the perfect tool to bridge the two generations both from an entertainment and commercial point of view. If an adult was not buying her record, then it would be their kid asking for it. Heather is one of the reasons why GenXers are so close to disco music; even though they were just kids in the late 70s, the disco sounds of her music and dance routines on TV got them all addicted like sugar. 

Her follow-up album, from 1983, is equally odd, at least for an Italian audience. It was the heyday of Jane Fonda’s workout tapes and, given Parisi’s background as a dancer, it was only natural of her to try to jump on that bandwagon. The result is an LP titled Ginnastica Fantastica but, rather than being a companion to a series of tapes, it just consists of 10 tracks and a book where Parisi poses in different aerobics routines. What is notable is that it entirely consists of tracks composed for this purpose, and not of re-hashed past hits.

Ginnastica Fantastica is more of a straight-up Italo Disco effort, but the tracks feel more like background music than full-fledged compositions. In fact, her heavily-accented fitness instructions are basically juxtaposed to anodyne synth and electronic bass lines. This is a missed opportunity, since from a melody and arrangement point of view, many of the tracks from the album are very strong. “Sorridi” is a banger that uses the latest (at the time) synths and Italo disco sounds, that many artists and producers from abroad were initiating; “Raghyayda” seams to be evocative of Eastern mood and melodies, still with a slow disco vibe, something that Madonna would adopt a full decade later. Eventually, she would actually host video demonstrations of the exercises in the fourth edition of Fantastico, where they would become full fledged choreographies, thus showcasing the record’s full potential as a work of visual culture.

The album came with a fully illustrated photo book with Heather showing the steps for each track, beautifully shot and laid out, which makes this record a really collectible item.

Overall, Parisi remains, to this day, best known for the theme songs of the variety shows she co-hosted. Other memorable tracks, other than “Disco Bambina” and “Cicale” include “Ceralacca,” “Ti Rockerò,” “Crilù” and “Radiostelle”: it’s easy to see why, as these theme song combine showmanship, dance (both of the Broadway and the Varieté kind) and, thanks to Parisi’s vocal performance, appeal to children and adults alike.

A special mention needs to be made for a mash-up that Parisi released in 1985 of her hit “Crilu” with “One Night In Bangkok” by Murray Head, renaming it “Crilu’ in Bangkok”. Nobody is really sure about the intention behind this release, which was commercialized under the artist name of H.P. When it comes to visual components, the main item is a beautiful black and white picture of Parisi’s back sitting on a chair. The real gem here was found on the B-side, an instrumental version of the track called “Morning in Tokyo” by Angel’s Program. The beautiful extended version of 12” is a sought after item by many collectors around the world.