In episode 52 of the Superhearts podcast, hosts Jamie and Slipp discuss Dino's 1990 single "Romeo." Dino, born Dean Esposito, was a white pop/R&B artist who scored several hits between 1987 and 1993, including "I Like It." The episode details his background, from working as a radio DJ and program manager at a Black music station to his solo career. "Romeo," featuring rapper Dr. Ice of UTFO, is analyzed as a high-energy pop/New Jack swing song with a memorable sound effect, though its lyrics are considered generic. The track peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1990 and was promoted with a lively live performance on *The Arsenio Hall Show*. Critical reception was mixed, with some reviewers viewing Dino as more of a behind-the-scenes talent. The hosts also compare its chart performance internationally and note its inclusion on various 1990s compilations.
I can assure you, mypalmegamix.com is very, very excited this week because he's talking about the Track of Romeo by Dino, and it's something else. Let's do it. Hello, Fly Girls. How you doing? It's your best pal, Jamie. See, akamegamix.com, and I'm here with my co-host, the Prime Minister of Cradle Rock Nation, known as Slipp with Five Eyes. What is up table football master? Scals, Cradle Rock Nation. The website. My first ever website on Geocities. Yes. Yeah, amazing stuff. Hi, everybody. It's Slipp with Five Eyes. Oh, yeah, that's right. You know, I introduced you. I'm just, I've already stumbling, you know, a few weeks ago, well, I was, yeah, like four weeks ago, I totally must the show with letters to Cleo's here now. I'm looking for a comeback here today. Well, I think you've got the right one to redeem yourself with, what have you got cooking for this week? So it's episode 52 of the Superhearts podcast. I have one question for you. Can you believe it? Yes. Amazing. 52 episodes is a year's worth of weekly casts. Yep. But of course, we've been putting in the work since late January. It's early September for God's sakes, and here we are. So this summer, we spent 10 weeks talking about a bunch of songs that either barely made the top 100 North America. If that on our last episode, you big man took us to ice houses electric blue, which was a top 10 hit the US and Canada. And it's generally a pretty well-known song. I mean, you know, it's a well-regarded song. People know it. So of course, in that classic mega-mix fashion, I'm going to take this episode to indulge myself. Uh-huh. And we're going to take a look at a track from the pop mannequin, Dino, not the Italian singer and actor whose name is Dino, not the children's performer, Dino O'Dell, not Kevin Dino Connor from the group H Town, and not Dino from K-pop group 17. We're talking about Dino, the fabulocan motherfucker who scored eight pot 100 singles between 1987 and 1993. And most people probably could barely remember him, but he had eight hit singles, or you know, moderate hit singles anyway. And we're not covering, I like it. That would be too easy. I'm going to walk you through his 1990 track Romeo, which was actually a slightly more successful in the US, but I don't think it really has that cultural cache that I like it might have. So before we jump in, uh, let me just say that what peaked my interest in this track, uh, first is the fact I remember this being on the, uh, big hits 90 compilation, which I'd borrowed from my cousin back in the day on cassette. You know, these days when I, when I, when I kind of stumbled across it, it was never in my library, I stumbled across it when I was compiling confolutions into playlists. Yeah. And I was like, oh, Dino Romeo. And, uh, I kind of stumbled across it and I kind of became totally intrigued and perplexed by this main sound effect. And do you know the one I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. Is it? Do you have it? Is it this one? I don't know. I feel like it's from a keyboard. My grandpa used to have this Yamaha that had a bunch of drops you could toggle on and off. And I swear something like this was on there. But of course, I haven't been able to verify this, but that's what kind of, you know, got the ball rolling like in the last few months and over the summer. So I had this earmarked as when we came back from the not so super hits summer slowdowns, spectacular series that we would do it. Um, also the music, uh, music video is a perfect addition to a 1990 time capsule. Uh-huh. And the song is a total mammoth jam. And we'll get to that later. So let's get right into it and talk about the song. Here we go. Wrong drop. Here it is. Amazing. Uh, Dino. Born Dean Esposito on July 20th, 1963 in Encino, California. He's kind of one of those strange footnotes in pop history. He's kind of a one hit under even though we had multiple hits. He started out as a program director and DJ at the University of Nevada radio station, after completing a bachelor's degree in communications, slash broadcasting and music. Look at this. A communications degree. Nice. He became a top 40 DJ at Power 97. Now don't get excited big man. I was just going to say mandatory Metallica baby. We're not talking about what a big rock station. Uh, this was a station in Nevada. Later he joined at KCEP Las Vegas's largest black music station. Uh, he later became the station's program manager and also moonlighted as a local club DJ. Now looking at him, um, I mean, that is not shocking. Well, I'm kind of, I mean, let me just look at this picture again. So you're telling me that Dino was the manager, the boss at a black radio station? Yes. Well, that I was talking more about the local club DJ part. But that's right. He was the program manager at a, yes, he's not a black man. He's a very white man. Yeah, that's problematic. But anyway, it's okay. But he was then he moonlighted as a local club DJ, which was that I was picturing him as that's not shocking. No, not at all. You can imagine. Um, after a stint in a group called Esquire, Dino went solo and scored his first US top 100 hit with 1987's summer girls. Um, I found in April 1991 article written by Keith Tuber in the Orange Coast magazine. And here's a little bit from that. Um, the Esposito family moved to Las Vegas when Dino was 14 relocating to a drier climate because of his mother's health. In high school, Dino joined a vocal group called Esquire. Uh, uh, young Las Vegas sole quartet, not only was he the only white member of the group, he was the only white person at the venues, the band played. So it's of course such a tired trope, right? I mean, we've heard this all before. Like every white person occupying a space in the world of R&B or hip hop or soul always has to some kind of story to create this illusion of credibility. It's like, well, I was the only white guy out. You know, there's always this, but who knows? I mean, maybe he was this magical white fairy, one of her black audiences. I don't know. Can I, can I shout our call back to your comment about summer girls? Yes. The best part about releasing a track called summer girls is it's guaranteed to not be the worst dog shit single called summer girls ever. Yes. Yes. Because that title will always be held by LFO. Exactly. Well, that's perfect. You know what? That is what they pay us for to make those all that money we make. Yeah. Here's a bit more from the same article on his early years. Dino said, I was finding it hard to get my foot in the door. Dino admits I was in a lot of bands, a lot of singing groups. I would take my student loan money and do demos in college. I tried everything. I sent out demo demo tapes and got them returned. I did the showcases and hooked up with different people, but nothing ever materialized the way I wanted. So rather than totally give up, I tried to pursue any other ways and radio was the one way. So put it all together. Make your own judgment. The dude worked at a bunch of radio stations and just so happened to get his single notice to my record label. Oh, what a lucky guy. You know what? Hey, you know what? I'll respect the hustle. Hey, man, I love a true underdog story. Yes. You know, a white guy making it in a black world. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Eventually, Dino signed with Fourth and Broadway Records, which was a subsidiary of Island Records. They re-released his debut single in 1988. In 1989, he released his debut album, 24/7, which hit number 34 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and featured two fought top 40 hits Sunshine and the aforementioned I like it, which hit number seven on the hot 100, number three on the hot dance music slash club play chart. I like it also hit number 30 on the RPM top 100 singles chart in Canada and top the Canadian dance chart was certified gold. I like it was by the RIA on September 18, 1989. According to the WICI, during this initial upswing of his career, Dino performed at theme parks, sharing the bill with such artists as Sweet Sensation and Linear, Dino developed an even wider fan base when he became the opening act for New Kids on the Block in the summer of 1989. From the Orange Coast Magazine article, Dino said, "I am not, I'm not a teen artist." Dino explains while having dinner at a small Sherman Oaks Cafe, only a few miles miles from Houston, Seinoe, Birthplace. I'm not known like the New Kids on the Block or Tiffany or Debbie Gibson. My music does appeal to adults. The new ballads are crossing over to the urban and adult contemporary charts. I don't mind being in a teen magazine or appealing to teens, they're record buying people too. I'm not a teen artist, but I don't mind being in their magazines. All right. Here's a shocking thing. Dino invested his money in real estate. As he's talking about being in this kind of occupying the space of black music, he's also buying real estate, like a typical light guy. In 1990, he formed a production company on a record label called Own Into Productions. Get it? O-N-I-D? Well, Dino backwards. She's terrible. It's like not when. Now, that's a deep reference. It's a might-a-hercules action. A quick look at The On-Aid Music, On-Aid Music on Discogs, reveals a bunch of Dino releases and a couple of CDs by a smooth jazz saxophonist named Paul Taylor. There's also a credit listed on the soundtrack for the 2001 film Legally Blonde. It looks like Dino wrote and produced the track Watch Me Shine for an artist named Joanna Pasiti. All right. Well, Dino's still working in music. That's good. Even dizzy. Back to 1990, Dino's second studio in Sweden was not as well received as his debut in the Orange Coast article that I've been reading from this whole time. I did my job as far as writing the music, producing and then coming up with the final product, he says, and then my job continues as far as aiding and promoting it, but after that, it's out of my hands. He then goes on to play in the record company for the poor sales. It's three standard sour grapes, but there is one great line buried in there. I'd like to read it, okay? He says, "I know that it's a business. It's always going to be that way. It's never going to change." With all the things that have been happening, the lip-syncing, it makes me think that this business is world champion wrestling. Yes, because it's fateful. He's talking lip-syncing, you know, Millie Van Elly, whatever, because it is well known. Dino, he's saying live. It's very clear. So he didn't lip-synke when he was live. At least on the TV shows, he's on him. We'll talk about that in a minute, but I would like to believe that the writer didn't quite get the reference, and that Dino actually said world championship wrestling. So which at the time would maybe make him a wrestling fan? Like, was he a smart mark? Might have been. That's what I'm thinking, because he's quoted this thing world champion wrestling, but I have this feeling. He named WCW. But anyway, so after all this, the table sort of set. Dino was a middling pop star. He had just come off a fairly successful debut. His second album kind of tanked, but I got to say, there was a gem of a pop song on there. So let's dig a little deeper. All right, before we do that, just one more comment. Yes. Yes. All right, here we go. Let's talk about the song. The swing in album was recorded at Ground Control Studios and J.H.L. Sound Studio in Santa Monica, California, along with Sun Song Studio in Las Vegas. Romeo was written and produced by Dino. And he also did the drum programming. On keyboards, we have J.H.L. Sound Studio owner Jeff Lorber. And I'm thinking, wait, you see the one that shows the little sound effect? I mean, sometimes it feels kind of like a barnyard baby toy. I don't know. Okay. It's I'm just I'm flummoxed by this. On guitar, we have Paul Pesco, who has a ton of credits, including working with people like Madonna, Shaka Khan, Ramaster Flash, African Babada, Steve Winwood, The Fat Boys, and C Music Factory, among many others. Of course, we do not want to forget our feature performer. We got Fred Reeves, aka Dr. Ice, from the legendary hip-hop group UTFO, who were best known for their 1984 single Roxanne, Roxanne. Dr. Ice provides the intro and the rap breakdown. The track is a manic blast to pop goodness with elements of New Jack swing. It has a sassy-ass guitar solo, and it has that bloody sound effect. It clocks in at a very nice four minutes and ten seconds. Zudy. The Wicked Eye says Romeo was released by Island Records on September 7th 1990. But I'm pretty sure it was released before that, based on its chart history. We'll get there. The CD Maxi single and the 12-inch single include a 12-inch remix of the song, The Red Zone Mix, The Instrumental, the radio edit, a dub version, and a loop appella version. Whatever the hell that is. The 7-inch contains a 7-inch edit of the track and the dub version. The cassette single has the same two songs on each side. The 7-inch edit and the dub version. The singles front cover photo is credited to Randy St. Nicholas, who has done photography for a ton of artists, including Prince. Oh, nice. Let's just want to get that into. Interesting. Worked with Prince a lot in the 90s. Let's talk about some compilation appearances. As I mentioned off the top, it was on Polytale's Big Hit's 90. That comp was great. It had some highlights that I included were unskinny Bob, Colin James just came back, Rocksets listened to your heart, and we got Belbed divorce Poison and snaps the power. I mean, that's, it's a good compilation. Yeah, it's a solid comp. Absolutely. Romeo was also included in the quality records, 1991 comp, Monster Tracks with an X. We also have a 1991 comp called Polygram Power Party and a 2016 Warner compilation called 90s Girls Night Out. I noted that because it just included end vogue's My Loving, My Loving, which a track we cover way back on episode six of this podcast. As far as appearances go on TV, there is a tremendous video on YouTube from a 1990 episode of The Arsenio Hall Show, where Dino and his full band Play Romeo Live, my notes on this where Arsenio looks super bored introducing him. But the performance is really good. The band is tight. His backup dancers are awesome. Dino sings live while dancing, which is impressive, with a microphone in his hand. Dr. Ice shows up and does, he's like straight straight up threads the needle into the splits after his verse. It's amazing. So you had, I would definitely recommend go watch Dino on Arsenio Hall Show. It is great. Should we talk about the lyrics? Oh, let's do it. I mean, it's not a lyrically deep song. I'm not really a fan of the whole Romeo deal. I mean, it makes me think of, you know, who we went to school with. He's really into Romeo and Casanova and like Don Juan. It's like fake bullshit, right? Like without naming names, like the dude would have taken some of these lyrics, written them on a note and stuck it on a girl's locker. Yeah, someone that had probably no idea who he was. Yeah. It's this idealistic lever thing, right? I mean, I can't get into it. I mean, Romeo kills himself with me in like an idiot. I've never understood the whole Romeo thing. For me, Dr. Ice saves the whole thing. He's got a pretty slick verse. Even the websites can't follow when he goes all rapid fire. Seriously, they just put a question mark in place of words. Yes. Some sites don't even transcribe the rap. It's awesome. Because he goes too fast. You know, he's a seasoned pro, you know, so yeah, for me, the Dr. Ice part was great. And the rest of the lyrics, I could, I could, you know, I don't really care. What do you, any thoughts on the lyrics? It's generic pop crap. Like, it's not bad. It's just, the song isn't, the song isn't meant to be deep, everybody. No, it's not. No. So let's talk reception. All right. My little kitty is climbing all over me here. She's, she's wanting some paths. Romeo entered the billboard hot 100 on August 11, 1990 at number 69. Oh, what a great way to enter the charts. Absolutely. It's appeared in between as, and now I hope I don't butch of the names. Seaco and Donnie Walberg's, the right combination. And Jude Cole's time for letting go. I don't know what either of those are. I have no idea. All right. It would peak at number six on October 10, 1990. So quite a while after took a long climb. Would you like to know the top 10 at its peak? You know what? I think I would. Okay. October 10, 1990. The billboard hot 100 top 10. We've got it number one. James Ingram with I don't have the heart. At number two, Janet Jackson with a black cat. At number three, we've got George Michael with praying for time. At number four, future number one, vanilla ice with ice ice baby. We got Max. He priest at number five with close to you. By the way, vanilla ice. Another guy who overcame the odds. Oh, yes. Absolutely. We jump over Romeo to number seven. Pebbles giving you the benefit. At number eight, black box with everybody, everybody, number nine, after seven, cat stop at number 10. Nelson, open parenthesis, can't live without your close parenthesis, love and affection. I mean, it's fine. It's a fine, it's an okay top 10. It's not great. It's got like like three or four decent songs. Yeah. Like black, black cats, awesome, praying for time is good. Everybody, everybody's kind of cool. They're close to you. It's all right. The rest is kind of bad. But yeah, Romeo also hit number 35 on the US hot dance slash club play chart. And number 69 on the hot US hot R&B singles chart. Internationally, it reached 105 in Australia. And number 48 in New Zealand, it did not chart in the UK in Canada. Romeo peaked at number 32 on the RPM top 100 on October 27th 1990. Let's take a look at the top 10 in Canada. Oh, I'm very curious. On October 27th 1990, Romeo at number 32, keep in mind. Number one, praying for time by George Michael. Number two, Phil, something happened on the way to heaven. Yes. We've got, wow, this is great. Number number three, in excess with suicide blonde. Uh-huh. Number four, Taylor Dane, heart of stone, number five, alias, more than words words can say. Number six, we get Maxi priest again, close to you. At number seven, the righteous brothers with unchained melody on their re-release after appearing in the movie Ghost, which, you know, that movie has one of the all-time great titles. Just ghost, amazing. We have Breathe at number eight with, say, a prayer. Number nine, Wilson Phillips with Releasing Me. And at number 10, Paul Young with O girl. And like the American list, kind of the same. I think that the Canadian list is better. I think so too, but there's some, there's some, some stank on their team. Yeah. But you got some Phil, you got some in excess. You know, you got some Wilson Phillips. So I'm praying for times. Number one, that's a good track. Anyway, on the billboard into the year chart, Romeo ranked number 80 for 1990. I took a look over on Spotify. The radio editor of Romeo has 77,000 streams, which is well below. I like it, which had almost 670,000. I found very little in terms of reviews. The Chicago Tribune wrote about the album. In years to come, Dino may prove to be more durable as the behind the scenes force, but there are enough sizzling songs here to keep his name in the front of dance pop listeners for months. And you know what? That kind of hit the nail on the head. It did. It's also kind of like because it ended up being true. I guess it's good, but it's kind of like backhanded, like, oh, absolutely. You're going to be good for a few months, but you know, you're a background guy. Exactly. And he was. And they gave it two and a half stars out of four. And that's the album. The Rolling Stone album guy gives the album two stars out of five. There were a few comments on the song over on YouTube, so I thought I would bring those up. 17 absolute on YouTube wrote about the song. This is one of the greatest hits with a Z of all time. Love it to the death. Thanks for bringing up this so wonderful memory. So someone was very excited to watch the video of the single. A user called that DMV room wrote, this is my favorite comment. I think that we've had on this show. New Jack swing heavy on the mayonnaise. Yes. Oh my god. I found one Amazon review. I believe of the single. The title of the review, this is a on June 21, 2004, a man named Ian Terry had this to say, the title of the review is Dino is the vessel with which God speaks. I'm paraphrasing. So I've cut out a bunch of stuff that is just, you know, superfluous or, you know, like mildly problematic. This might be one of the most influential pieces of music ever recorded. The groundbreaking usage of a tricycle horn proves yet to be paralleled by any music to date. Dino, despite critical acclaim and tremendous sales of the single Romeo, has tragically not released any other records due to the high demand of autographs in the Czech Republic. I am exceedingly worried that future generations will never understand the genius of Dino. Dino's photo shoot for the cover of this single generated a craze only matched by Beatles meet the Beatles. So this was obviously tongue and cheek. I thought it was a nice little thing to write, especially considering he brought up that it was a tricycle horn. Here's a deep, deep reference. That commenter Ian Terry, is it the same guy who won Big Brother 14? Oh my God, nice reference. Yes. I mean, the comment itself is a pretty deep reference. We're all digging into like Amazon reviews from 2004. Well, sometimes I mean, that's what we're here for everybody. We dig deeps, you don't have to. The, the, the, Ian Terry also said that Dino's face was carved of stone by angels. Amazing. Let's move on to covers and samples. There are no samples or covers listed on who sampled. But I had to say, someone needs to sample that sound effect, right? Driving me nuts. Let's move on to the video. All right, folks. Now this is something else. Okay. So just let me ramble stream of consciousness, stream of consciousness style and see what happens. Feel free to dig man to jump in whenever. Okay. Let's start. So Dino first tips his shades in sync with that goddamn sound effect. Uh-huh. And I'm, I'm dying right off the back. It's ridiculous. We get some model type shots with ladies holding frames. Dr. Ice does his intro. He looks amazing in a gold ray on outfit. Uh-huh. He max on a woman in a white tank top and denim shorts. Then the camera smash cuts to a close up of their gyrating crutches. It's amazing. That might be the shot. The best shot I've seen in a video that we've reviewed this, this whole time. I mean, other than what's his name with the ring on his pinky finger in November because that one is amazing too. The song kicks in proper. We get some serious rap dancing, right? Like the epitome of early 90s stumping. My god, scaling. I wrote, I wrote four comments on it. So there is one rap dancing. All right. Yes. I just keep going and I'll tell you what. Yeah. There are so many outfits and moves. I can't keep up. I've had to pause multiple times. Dino is dancing too. He's got a sweet mullet, but this mullet has braids on one side. Uh-huh. It's such a six style. His t-shirt reads my race is human. The urnets but also sickening. Yep. He also, of course, flashes a defiant peace sign. Yeah. By the way, but my race is human is the 1990 version of all lives matter. Yes. There you go. Well done. Yeah. That's what makes it sickening. Uh, first verse. Dino has a the hang and shit microphone. Ah, my second comment. Hang and shit. Yes. Uh, he's wearing an orange suit jacket with massive shoulders. By the way, for context, everybody, the hang and shit, we we call it that because in boxing and pro wrestling back in the day, the microphone that the announcer reviews was actually hanging from the rafters. Yes. And it was a microphone just like the one Dino has in this video. So it comes down on its cable and then the announcer makes their announcements and then they roll it back up. We called that the hang and shit. So hanging. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, he's got massive shoulder pads. The dude was like 27 years old here, but he looks at least 40, right? Like, like, like, he does look younger than you. I like it video. Oh my God. I mean, that can be a whole other podcast. Jesus. We get our first shot of sexy lingerie lady sitting next to an old time e-photograph in front of a 50s era refrigerator, I guess. I don't know. Now, just to make sure I've got this right. Yeah. Is this lingerie lady wearing a cape? I don't know because I wrote. I like to match that it is. I wrote woman with a cape. So yeah, I think she was wearing a cape too. I think I think so. Sexy lingerie cape lady. There is a lot of dancing going on. There are tons of tremendous 1990 fashions. There's my last one. Lots of early 90s clothes. Oh, we get Dino gyrating furiously. Yep. And his own ray on shirt underneath that orange jacket. There is so much ray on in this video. It's amazing. There are a lot of gratuitous shots of lingerie lady. She's now painting her nails. And I got to say, Dino is in command of that microphone. Tots in it from hand to hand, like a master. Then he flicks it aside. All sassy. Right into Dr. Rice's hand in the next shot. So we can start his rap. That was the best part. You know, he'll just flicks it aside. All s like just like and then it goes into the next shot with Dr. Rice. Dino, Dr. Rice starts rapping. Dino is stunting, looking like a huge dork. And I love it. He's got that we get the classic folded arms back to back pose. As Dino nods along with Dr. Rice, he's all like, yep. I just noticed at this point that Dino has some ridiculous parachute pants on. I wrote nice, lots more dancing, more Dino, more lingerie lady. Now we get the end. R-O-M-E-O flashes on the screen. Dino hooks the mic at the camera and we end on a slow motion shot of him lowering the shade some earlier with this massive shaded in grin on his face. What a ride. Do you want to rate it? Just go to the ratings. What did you think of the video, my man? So there's a lot of amazing stuff in this video. I think I'm going to give it a six. All right. I think I wanted to go lower at first, but like it's on the surface, it's your run of the mill early 90s music video. Lots of cut shots, everybody's looking fly, lots of dancing, that kind of stuff. But I feel like it brought so much joy in watching it that it's worth a couple of extra points. And I mean the hang in mic. I can't. I was overjoyed to see the hang in mic. So yeah, I'm going to give it a six. Right on. I'm giving this a 10 out of 10. I'm giving this a 10 out of 10 through 2022 lens. This is everything that I could ask for from a 90s music video. It's the complete package. I mean the only thing really missing is some kind of gimmicky storyline, but I'm going to give it a pass because it's got a little bit of that artsy kind of stuff going on. I think the dancing is rad. I think Dino is, you know, despite everything that we've kind of talked about, Dino, I think in the video, he's a totally likable nerd, but he's got classic moves. Dr. Ice is smooth. We get the crotch shots. There's awesome fashion, mic tosses, lingerie, twice lowered shades. Honestly, this video is a straight up banger. I'm giving it a perfect score. Love it. All right. What do you think of the song? Let me think for a second. I think I would give it the rating of yes. I'm going to give it a three. The song doesn't do anything for me, despite the Dr. Ice wrapping. I just think it's, I think it's very generic, early 90s music. And I just, I don't think there's anything special about it. It wouldn't stand out to me if it was playing in a string of songs. Just wouldn't do much for me. So yeah, I'm giving it a three. I'm giving it an eight. To me, it's got it all. I've been getting new Jack swing beat, the cheese deluxe guitar solo. It's got funky keys. Great vocal performance. Dr. Ice is awesome. The sound effects just doesn't stop honking. It keeps feeding my brain and confounding it. Well, at the same time, tantalizing it. I adore this song. That said, at the same time, I could see how you or anybody else would dislike it. It is paint by the numbers, early 90s crap, but it's my early 90s crap. And I love it. Eight out of ten. All right. So Dino, your favorite artist of all time, just running. No, no, no, no. Dino Romeo, one of my favorite songs of 1990. All right. Beauty. No, this is a, I didn't think you would be able to unpack a lot from this. So I'm impressed. You know, I was a little worried, but it really came together. I felt this was, I was, I felt we were on today. All right. So next week, we're going to be motoring. We're talking about some sister Christian by night ranger. So that's what we got in store for you in the meantime. Ah, let me try that again. In the meantime, we're going to be coming at you for a little while, a little while. Anyways, at two episodes a week, we're going to try our best to keep up that schedule. And you can reach us at super hits cast on Twitter at super hits podcast on Instagram, super hits podcast at gmail.com. We are back to talking about super hits song. So if you have anything you want us to cover, let us know and we'll do our best. And I am Alan on all those social media as you can find me slipped with five eyes. Jamie C. A. K. Megan mix.com. Thanks for listening friends.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
The hosts of the Superhearts podcast (Jamie and Slipp) introduce episode 52, focusing on Dino's 1990 song "Romeo."
Dino (Dean Esposito) was a white pop/R&B artist with several moderate hits in the late 80s/early 90s, known for tracks like "I Like It."
The discussion covers Dino's background in radio, his career trajectory, the production of "Romeo," and its featuring of rapper Dr. Ice from UTFO.
"Romeo" peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990, with mixed critical reception and a notable live performance on *The Arsenio Hall Show*.
The song is described as a manic pop/New Jack swing track, noted for a distinctive sound effect and generic romantic lyrics saved by Dr. Ice's rap.
Summary:
" The episode details his background, from working as a radio DJ and program manager at a Black music station to his solo career. "Romeo," featuring rapper Dr. Ice of UTFO, is analyzed as a high-energy pop/New Jack swing song with a memorable sound effect, though its lyrics are considered generic.
The track peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1990 and was promoted with a lively live performance on *The Arsenio Hall Show*. Critical reception was mixed, with some reviewers viewing Dino as more of a behind-the-scenes talent. The hosts also compare its chart performance internationally and note its inclusion on various 1990s compilations.
FAQs
Dino, born Dean Esposito, is a pop singer who had several hits in the late 80s and early 90s. He started as a radio DJ and program manager in Nevada before pursuing a music career.
'Romeo' is a pop song with New Jack Swing elements, featuring lyrics about romantic idealism. It includes a rap verse by Dr. Ice from UTFO and is known for a distinctive sound effect.
In the US, 'Romeo' peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1990. It also charted on dance and R&B charts, and reached number 32 in Canada.
The song appeared on compilations like 'Big Hits 90' and was performed live on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1990, where Dino sang and danced with a full band.
Dino wrote and produced 'Romeo', with drum programming by himself. It features keyboards by Jeff Lorber and guitar by Paul Pesco, along with a rap by Dr. Ice.
Dino's biggest hit was 'I Like It', which reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 and was certified gold in the US.
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