Den Harrow - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
Den Harrow was a musical project fronted by Milanese model Stefano Zandri. They enjoyed considerable popularity in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden during the Italo-disco golden years of the 1980s.
Den Harrow was primarily a vehicle for songwriter Miki Chieregato, although his PR partner, Roberto Turatti, was an integral aspect. The two recruited Stefano Zandri (born June 4, 1962) to be the pretty face of their act and invented a needlessly but humorously complicated back-story. According to their fictional history, Zandri’s name was Manuel Stefano Carry and he was born in Boston to an architect father. His family moved to Italy when Carry was a toddler and then, at just seven-years-old, Carry learned to play guitar and piano. His parents divorced and Manuel, his brother and sister stayed with their mother. They only spoke Italian in the home so, despite his birthplace, English presented him with some difficulty in school. Although he’d always dreamt of pursuing a career in show business, in high school, “Carry” additionally started practicing judo, bodybuilding and break dancing. Then he met Roberto Turrati who was DJ-ing at the club, American Disaster. Turatti and his friend, Miki Chieregato gave Manuel a new stage name, Den Harrow, meant to suggest denaro, the Italian word for money. Den Harrow then took extensive vocal lessons and recorded his first two songs, “To Meet Me” and “A Taste of Love.” In reality, Zandri was merely the lip-syncher at “live” shows and the star in their supremely corny videos. The voice behind the songs was originally provided by Chuck Rolando, a singer and songwriter at Durium. The singles were moderately successful in some European markets but due to Rolando’s contractual obligations, his partnership with the project ended, necessitating their recruiting a new voice.
For “Mad Desire,” Silvio “Silver” Pozzoli provided the vocals and the single was a massive success, selling over a million copies. Pozzoli’s voice was adequate but heavily-accented so the producers sought out Thomas Beecher Hooker (aka Thomas Barbey aka Lou Sern), an American expat and singer in his own right at Merak Music. With the money coming in from their recent success, the producers bought out Hooker’s contract and he became the voice behind their next single, “Future Brain,” in 1985. For consistency’s sake, Hooker re-recorded “Mad Desire” for Den Harrow’s debut album, Overpower (1985-Baby Records). It was a big hit in Switzerland and Sweden which produced two more hit singles, “Bad Boy” and “Charleston.” The album, single and Den Harrow won several awards, at Festivalbar, Vota La Cove and Bravo’s Silver Ottos.
Den Harrow’s next single, “Catch the Fox,” showed up on Den Harrow’s follow-up, Day by Day (1987-Baby Record). It was proved to be another solid collection of melodic synthpop. It produced another single, “Don’t Break My Heart,” which became their biggest success to date. The album too was an even bigger success than its predecessor, reaching number one in Germany and the Top Five in Italy, Spain, Greece and Benelux. It also went gold in France, platinum in Canada and earned a Golden Otto. Behind the scenes of the success there was some discord. Hooker had wanted to record the single under his own name but Freddy Naggiar, the head of Baby Records was reluctant to tamper with the Den Harrow cash cow. Although Hooker continued writing lyrics for Den Harrow, he stopped providing the vocals.
Harrow’s next single, “Born to Love” again won at Festivalbar in 1987 and appeared, in a dance version, on his album Lies (1988-Baby Records). For the vocals, Turatti and Chieregeto employed the services of an uncredited English singer with a much higher register. Zandri, although he never sang, wasn’t even particularly adept at lipsynching and with another undeniable vocal shift, the true nature of Zandri’s role became one of the worst kept secrets in music. The album and singles “My Time” and “You Have a Way” were less successful but nonetheless appeared in European commercials for Adidas and Coca-Cola.
After the release of “Holiday Night” and “Take Me Back” in 1989, Zandri decided to strike out on his own, ending his relationship with Turatti, Chieregato and Baby Records. It wasn’t until 1991 that he returned to music with “Ocean,” on Discomagic Records. For the first time, Zandri sang on record. While his voice was far from terrible, the music wasn’t and his sales plummeted. A year later Zandri signed a contract with Polydor label and released the Jennifer Rush and Natalie Cole-produced “All I want is You.” A deeply unpleasant piece of generic pop-dance, it not surprisingly reached number four in Germany. Natalie Cole also produced his next single, “Real Big Love.” In 1996, Zandri began working with producer Mauro Farina, who released the singles “Take Me,” “The Universe of Love,” and “I Feel You” as well as the inevitable updates and remixes of his earlier hits. I, Den (1996-One Way Records), despite being an improvement over his previous post-Baby singles, failed to sell in significant numbers and the following Zandri moved to California to take part in Aaron Spelling’s forgotten Baywatch-inspired soap opera, Sunset Beach.
After the failure of Sunset Beach, Zandri was absent from the entertainment industry until 2005, when began hosting the Radio HARROW on the satellite channel, Match Music. In 2006, Zandri appeared on Rai Due’s popular television show, Celebrity Survivor. Den Harrow’s music career was revived when Zandri released a new song written and sung by him and his wife, "Feden Lo So," through his website.
Though Zandri today lives in Brescia, Italy, he mostly performs in Eastern Europe, where he remains most popular. His tell-all autobiography, Segreti e bugie (secrets and lies) is available through his website.
