Tony began writing songs at the age of 11. By 13 he was playing guitar with a popular local group called the Ravins. After the Ravins performance at the Civic Center’s Teen Fair Battle of the Bands in 1968 Tony was approached by Beatles U.S. manager Nat Weiss with an offer to record his music. Tony was too young to travel to New York, so he continued to play in local area bands and hone his songwriting skills. Locally bands he performed with over the years include the Ravins, Meat, Jake, Renaud & the Contraband, Tugboat, The Gigs, Sirprize, Bruce Westcott Band, the Pedestrians…
In 1975-76 Tony won various categories of the American Song Festival. As a songwriter in the ‘70s some of his compositions were recorded by local guitarist and emerging singing star Karen Goldberg. His 1976 composition “My Lisa,” co-written with Sam Egorin, was recorded by the Bay City Rollers and included on their triple platinum “Dedication” LP (Arista 4093). An Australian Columbia Records artist named Marc Hunter recorded the song “Island Nights” scoring a top 20 hit there.
Tony’s song “Captain Wonderful” was included on the 1978 “98 Rock Album. The band line-up consisted of Tony (guitar, piano, synthesizer, lead vocals), Michael Sciuto (bass, synthesizer), Paul Soroka (sax, synthesizer), Steve Warehime (drums, percussion), and Heime (steel guitar).
In 1980 Sciuto earned a record deal with Epic and released his first LP which featured the title cut “Island Nights.” Epic also released a couple of singles from the album including “Cafe L.A.” which reached the Top-10 locally on WCAO. Performing with him on the album were Ed Greene (drums), Bill Cuomo (keyboards), along with Toto members Mike Pocaro (bass) and Steve Lukather (guitar). Tony’s touring band included local musicians the Sciuto brothers, Soroka, Wareheim, with Mike Taylor (guitar), and Scott Johnson (keyboards). The “Island Nights” album scored big in Japan culminating in a tour of the country and a loyal following there.
Below: promotional insert from “IslandNights” LP:
Below: ads from 1980
Live recordings from the Japanese tour were released in as “Tony Sciuto – Live in Japan – At The 1981 American Music Festival” (Cool 117). All the album tracks were written by Sciuto and Egorin. The band consisted of Tony (vocals, guitar, keyboards), with Michael Sciuto (bass, vocals), Gary Griffin (piano, percussion, vocals), Mike Taylor (guitar, vocals), Paul Soroka (lyricon, synthesizer, vocals), and Larry Kegley (drums ex-Royal 5+1). Also in 2004 he released the album “Diamond in The Rough” (Cool 116) with Michael, Griffin, Soroka, Peter Beckett (keyboards, vocals), and John Capek (keyboards).
During the ’70s and ‘80s many of his songs were recorded by well-known artists including “Trapeze” (co-written with Sam Egorin) by Marcus Joseph, “Showdown” by Nigel Olsen, “Last Sound Love Makes” by Don Johnson, and “Stronger Than the Wind” by Tina Turner. Other artists recording Tony’s songs included B.J. Thomas (on Warner Brothers), FM-UK (on Columbia), Air Craft (on Curb), and Cold Sweat (on MCA). Along with Nick Kamen, he scored a top 5 U.K. hit with the song “Bring Me Your Love.” Tony also worked with artists such as Eric Carmen, and Rick Astley. The song “Out of The Darkness” written by Sciuto, Egorin, and Franke Previte was performed by Tony and included on the movie soundtrack “All-American Murder” (1992). Two other songs on the soundtrack were also credited to members of Tony’s band: Gary Griffin and Taso Kotsos wrote and performed “Clean Sweep.” Griffin wrote and performed “Hand of Stone.”
Tony made several television appearances as member of the fictitious band Jesse & the Rippers featuring actor John Stamos on the sit-com Full House. Michael, Tony’s brother also made appearances on the show.
In 1990 Tony became a full-time member of the Little River Band.
He co-wrote the title cut to their LP “Worldwide Love” and toured with them extensively. In-between tours in 1994 he reunited with his brother Michael (bass) along with Mitch Allan (lead guitar), and other studio musicians to form the band bONEhEAD. This band had a harder edge sound than Tony’s previous work. They released the LP titled “Genius” in 1995.
bONEhead became known as Banging Rush in 1997 with the above lineup plus Eric DiNenna (drums). They released their second album “Holiday in Eden” to a very positive response. Tony left the Little River Band in late ‘97 to concentrate on his solo career. Since then, he has worked with Peter Beckett (LRB), Burleigh Drummond (Ambrosia), Elliott Easton (Cars), and has toured extensively with Player.
A 1999 LP release “Be My Radio” on the Japanese “Cool Sound” label features songs from 1976-82. His “Island Nights” LP and other recordings have also been reissued on CD and are available exclusively via Tony’s website.
Tony Sciuto discography:
1980(LP) Epic 36152 Island Nights
1980 Epic 9-50843 Hold Back the Night / Butterfly
1980 Epic 9-50865 Cafe L.A. / Street Dancer
1995 High Heel 1007 bONEhEAD – gENIUS
1999 Cool Sound Be My Radio
2004 Cool 116 Diamond in The Rough
2004 Cool 117 Live in Japan – At The 1981 American Music Festival
Tony played in the local heavy metal cover band Never Never in the ‘90s. He continued to perform locally as a solo artist at various venues including Mimmie Jr’s, Martin’s West, Philip’s Harborplace, The Horse You Came in On… while also continuing to perform worldwide as a member of Player.
