If You're One Of The 10 People Who Knows The Name Gino "I Just Wanna Stop!" Vannelli, You'll Enjoy This (But The Rest Of You Will Be Entertained)

To be filed under things that make you go huh, whenever The Boston Celtics are cruising their way to a home victory this season, the scoreboard flashes a clip of a 70s-era American Bandstand episode. It features a bevy of boogeying dancers, including an infamous bearded one wearing a t-shirt of the Montreal-born disco sensation with the name Gino prominently displayed on it. Further weirdness, in the clip, they're dancing to "You should be dancing", not Vannelli's song. But Gino Time, as it has come to be called, gets the crowd wild anyway. In the clip you can hear the crowd roaring "Gino!" whenever the dancer appears. The real Vannelli was the first white singer to appear on Soul Train, a moment I coincidentally just saw the other week on the repackaged Best of Soul Train. The singer was on the show during his Gist of the Gemini tour, resplendent in his white suit and long hair.

Today, Gino the original splits his time between Oregon and Holland. He's still performing, but the glorious crown has been shorn a bit. Stay tuned: perhaps he'll be showing up to sing his hit at the arena.

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20080118_155127_304 (clips from a Celtics game and one of Gino in his prime)

Here's a clip from the monochromatic video for "Living Inside Myself", another one of his 10 Top 10 hits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxwZN49fLs

And if your burning obsession still isn't satisfied, here's his website http://www.ginov.com/