Tarzan Boy - How An Emergency Paramedic From Derry Conquered The Pop World - For Just One Beat

If you grew up in the '80s - or if you are a fan of One Hit Wonders/Italo Disco - you will remember the novelty song Tarzan Boy. 

Even if the title does not immediately ring a bell, the opening jungle call of “Wooah-oh-a-whooh-ah-oh-ah” will immediately bring you back to the Summer of '85.

It certainly brings back a lot of memories for me - it was my first summer as a real teenager - and I was seriously into The Smiths - so this song, which we heard everywhere - drove me into a kind of murderous rage. 

Tarzan boy went top five across Europe, reached number three in the UK, top five in Japan and reached No 13 in the US – staying on the billboard charts for six months.

It was a classic ‘80s one-hit wonder and briefly made Baltimora international popstars. But the frontman and singer wasn't a jungle boy and he certainly wasn't Italian – he was an Emergency Paramedic from Derry called Jimmy McShane. 

Jimmy probably wasn't even the singer – it's hardly a Derry accent singing those mostly nonsense, English-ish lyrics - he was the chosen as the face of Baltimora on his good looks, flamboyance and dancing skills.

And more often than not, Jimmy lip-synched to the vocals in the video and on stage. A one-man Milli-Vanilli with a soft Derry accent.

McShane was a gay guy from Northern Ireland in his early 20s, who had tried and failed to break into the West End musical theatre scene in London in the early '80s. 

He was back home and working with as an EMT with the Red Cross ambulance service in Derry at the height of the troubles when he got a dancing gig with an Italian pop singer.

It was a random gig got through an old friend, but it brought him to Italy, where he met Maurizio Bassi, a music producer and musician, who was looking for a new project.

McShane was recruited as the front man for Baltimora. And the single Tarzan Boy - with it's catchy jungle call and typically plinky-plonky, bass-line heavy '80s synths, became an international hit.

McShane was overwhelmed by the international success of Tarzan Boy. He briefly blazed a trail through nightclubs in the US & Europe as a bona-fide pop star. 

And the failure to come up with a follow-up single that could capitalise on the success of their big hit caused Bassi to pull the plug on Baltimora and cut the Derry man adrift.

Disillusioned, McShane left the music business, in 1994 he was diagnosed with AIDS. A few months later he returned to Northern Ireland where he decided to spend the last year of his life. He died in his native Derry on 29 March 1995 at the age of 37.

There is a plaque in Derry City Centre commemorating Jimmy McShane but his extraordinary story, going from Emergency Paramedic at the height of the Troubles to international pop star and then quickly back into obscurity is largely forgotten. 

There are a few clips on Youtube of Baltimora at their height, And one extraordinary clip of Jimmy on American Bandstand (The US answer to Top of The Pops) - being interviewed by Dick Clark. Clark opens with "How Does An Irishman End Up In Italy?" - breathless having just finished his performance, McShane talks about how he is over his "Novelty Trip" and working on more "serious material". 

Looking back now, it's a very poignant moment, Jimmy McShane at the very top, if only for a brief moment. 

·   **Here is the Song That Started it all - Tarzan Boy

 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il7xjbN0jtw
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