Tony Campello* (born 24 February 1936) was one of the first Brazilian rock'n'rollers. He started singing and playing his guitar as soon as he listened to his first Elvis Presley record back in his hometown Taubaté, Sao Paulo. He formed his own band called Ritmos OK and started performing at dances and balls.
Tony whose real name was Sergio Benelli Campello had a younger sister called Célia who had a golden voice and ended up being more famous than him. She actually became Celly Campello, the Queen of Brazilian Rock selling heaps of records and being at #1 in the charts more than anyone else in Brazilian show business at the time. Celly though had other plans than being a recording artist. She got married in May 1962 and just like Greta Garbo did in 1942, went into retirement at the age of 22.
Even though Celly became bigger than himself and everyone else for that matter, Tony never had a chip on his shoulder. On the contrary, he enjoyed his sister's success and usually toured the country with her being part of the band that accompanied her. Tony recorded as much as his sister but never reached the top of the charts. 1961 was a pretty good year for Tony; he hit with 'Você me venceu', a cover of Sedaka's 'You're knocking me out', 'Querida Susie', a cover of Robin Luke's 'Susie darling' and 'Baby face' which had been covered recently by Brenda Lee.
In 1961 and 1962, he received the Chico Viola trophy, the second of which was together with his sister Celly. He traveled the next two years to Paraguay and Peru. It looks like Fate had something special in store for him for in 1963 - less than a year after his sister got married and left the rock scene - Tony Campello reached the top of the charts with 'Boogie do bebê', a cover of Buzz Clifford's 'Babysitting boogie'.
But by 1964 Tony tried to get into the Italian pop-music boom but with no great success; differently from a few years back, original recordings from Italy were more popular than the Brazilian covers. Times had changed swiftly and the record-buying public was interested in something else.
Tony's career became erratic after 1964. With the Italian music invasion Odeon thought Tony could capture some of that market but translations were not as successful as they had been up to 1963.
In 1974, he won the Rock 74 award, for the production of the album "Rock das Quebradas". He performed in 1975 at the Igrejinha Nightclub, in São Paulo, where the Cuba Libre shows in Hi-Fi were organized, promoting the return of successful singers from the late 1950s and early 1960s (Pré Jovem Guarda), such as: Celly Campello, Ronnie Cord, Carlos Gonzaga, George Freedman, Baby Santiago and Dan Rockabilly.
He also produced a series of compilation albums "Luar do Sertão", from the BMG Ariola label (formerly RCA Victor, from 1985). In the 90’s Campello produced several albums by the Jet Blacks. Tony still performs in the countryside of São Paulo.
(Edited
from Carlus Maximus @ Brazilian Rock blog, La Playa Music blog & apple
music) (* other sources spell surname as Campelo)