Born in England but developing her career in the U.S., female rock singer LORI CHACKO made her first important recording as front-woman for the UK band Amazon, releasing a single in 1981. With her own band and established in New York, she rocked venues such as The Ritz, China Club, etc.
Joey Balin (producer of metal band Warlock) attended at one of these gigs and saw in Lori enormous potential, arranging a contact with Polygram Records. For CHACKO debut album, the company recruited a cast of talented session musicians including guitarist Jeff Golub (Joe Lynn Turner, John Waite), bass player Leigh Foxx (Frankie & The Knockouts, Benny Mardones), keyboardist Alan St. Jon (Billy Squier, Ted Nugent), drummer Thommy Price (Price/Sulton, Joan Jett, Scandal), among others, with Balin producing and performing guitar.
Released 1986, “Chacko” is plenty of catchy mid-Eighties melodic rockers, radio-friendly tunes, with AOR splashes. Production is glossy, polished, very, very ’80s. Single “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” got radio airplay both in American and Europe, also with a video on MTV rotation. Not surprisingly, many of the songs from this album were featured in movie soundtracks for films like Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), Monster High (1989), Dr. Caligari (1989) and more.
“Chacko” was never officially released / reissued on CD, except for an unofficial CDr ripped from vinyl LP made by bootleg label Time Warp Records in 2007.
But here’s the good news; Lori just reissued her own remastered version of “Chacko” this time under her own name LORI CHACKO, featured here in exclusive at . Still active and now residing in Australia, Lori has also released at the same time three new 2024 songs.
Alongside the anthemic “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” other notable songs include the super catchy “Pushing and Pulling” and keyboard wave stabbers ‘Exception’ and ‘Life On The Planet’. The two album ballads (‘Out Of Time’ and ‘At A Time Like This’) are no slouch either.
If you love that classic ’80s female melodic rock / AOR sound you can’t go wrong with “Chacko”!
01 – Once Bitten, Twice Shy
02 – Life on the Planet
03 – What’s New
04 – Out of Time
05 – I Know
06 – Viva La Difference
07 – Exception
08 – Somewhere In Between
09 – Pushing and Pulling
10 – At a Time Like This
BONUS:
11 – Peace Is the Word (2024 song)
12 – Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Halloween Mix) (2024 song)
13 – We All Need to Be Loved (2024 song)
Vocals – Lori Chacko
Guitar – Joey Balin
Keyboards – Alan St. Jon
Bass – Leigh Foxx
Drums – Thommy Price
Percussion – Sue Evans
Guitar solo on 1 – John McCurry
Guitar solo on 2 – G.E. Smith
Guitar solo on 7, 8 – Jeff Golub