Who Are Those Singers & Musicians? ~ Oliver Onions

 

Oliver Onions is the alias that the DeAngelis brothers Guido and Maurizio use as a singing duo. They were variously known as G&M Orchestra, Barqueros, Charango, Kathy and Gulliver, Hombres del Mar and Dilly Dilly. However, the name they came to be mostly identified with, and most popular, was suggested by their frequent collaborator and lyricist Susan Duncan-Smith, a British-born journalist who worked in RCA's foreign relationships department. She advised them that, although they did not run any risks in signing their early Spaghetti Western film score work under their own names (following in the footsteps of the popularity gained by fellow Italian Ennio Morricone in the same genre), their international credibility as singers of theme songs in English would be undermined if they did not perform under an English-language name

The brothers followed Duncan-Smith's advice and named themselves Oliver Onions after the homonymous British writer; the name was chosen mostly because it was easy to remember for both people who speak English and people who do not, and because the two words are pronounced the same as they are written. In Italy, they became best known for writing and performing the theme song for Sergio Sollima's 1976 TV series ‘Sandokan’, based on novels by Emilio Salgari, which they also wrote the music score for; the song, heard under the opening credits, became a #1 hit in the Italian pop charts in the same year. Their soundtrack for the 1981 cartoon series ‘Viva i Re Magi’ (previously released in 1979, in Spanish language, in Mexico and Argentina as Vivan los Reyes Magos), for which they wrote the story and the screenplay as well as the full score and all the songs (which they sang themselves) was also a local hit.

The duo still composes, write songs and perform today.

OLIVER, ONIONS (De ANGELIS, Guido [12/22/1944, Rocca di Papa, Lazio, Italy -     ] – producer, writer, composer, conductor, songwriter, musician (guitar), singer, actor. De ANGELIS, Maurizio [2/22/1947, Rocca di Papa, Lazio, Italy -     ] – producer, composer, conductor, orchestrator, songwriter, musician (guitar), singer, actor.] - singing duo.

Zorro – 1975 [sing: “Zorro is Back”, “To You mi Chica”]

Doc West – 2008 [sing: “Doc West”]