The Flirts

The Flirts were never really a band so much as a front: a New York project launched in 1980 by musician and songwriter Bobby "O" Orlando, who wanted faces to put on his records. Orlando wrote the songs and played on them, and the records went out on his own label, while a rotating cast of female session singers and models stood out front and sold it. Some of the women were strictly there for the photos; others, among them Andrea Del Conte, Rebecca Sullivan, Debra Gaynor, Tricia Wygal and Christina Criscione, really did sing on the tracks, and Linda Jo Rizzo passed through in 1983 and 1984.

The music was pure Hi-NRG: synth bass pumping at a jogger's pulse, machine beats that never break a sweat, and vocals that come across cool, coy and just a little bit dangerous. Orlando kept the hits coming under the name, "Passion", "Danger", "Helpless" and "Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)", each one a slick little thrill cut for the dance floor.

The name has outlasted the revolving door. These days the Flirts are a fairly settled trio, working the retro festival circuit mostly around the U.S., with the odd trip abroad.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.