TONI BASIL (US)

Born 22 September 1943
Real name: Antonia Christina Basilotta

Basil was born in Philadelphia. Her father was an orchestra leader while her mother was a vaudeville acrobatic comedienne. While at school she was a cheerleader and this led to her becoming a choreographer. She would work on the choreography and appear as a dancer in a number of films and stage shows. These included the TV variety show ‘Shindig’ and the film ‘Head’ which starred The Monkees. She would also work on the dancing for some music videos and live shows for Talking Heads and David Bowie. Her first recording as a singer was in 1966 with a song called ‘Breakaway’ which was the theme for a film of the same title and she wouldn’t do much more on the recording front until the 1980’s. Apart from her global smash hit, ‘Mickey’, which topped the charts in the US and got to 2 in the UK, she would manage 2 other minor US hits with ‘Shoppin’ From A To Z’ (#77) and ‘Over My Head’ (#81). In the UK she would have just 1 other hit in the form of ‘Nobody’ (#52).

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
21-May-1982	Mickey	3	16
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	16

Biggest climber awards	0
Star rater climbs	2
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	1
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	16
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	0
Top 30 points ranking	=512
Top 20 points ranking	=477
Top 30 points	342
Top 20 points	182

‘Mickey’ was a cover of a 1979 song recorded by UK band Racey and which went under the title ‘Kitty’.