Taco

  • Taco - After Eight [RCA Records AFL1-4818] (1982)

Biography

Jason Ankeny [allmusic.com]

Taco scored his one and only pop hit in 1982 with a faithful rendition of the Irving Berlin chestnut ''Puttin' on the Ritz.'' Born Taco Ockerse in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 21, 1955, he recorded ''Ritz'' in Germany in 1981; a year later, the song (originally popularized by Fred Astaire) hit the upper reaches of the U.S. pop charts, accompanied by a video depicting the singer decked out in a bow-tie-and-tails ensemble emblematic of the Depression-era movie musicals his image strived to emulate. Taco's debut LP, After Eight, contained other recreations of 1930s hits, as well as original material in the same vein; however, the market for such stuff was clearly limited, and after a 1984 follow-up, Let's Face the Music, he disappeared from the charts for good.