In early 1984, Maurizio Bassi, a music producer and musician from Milan, met Jimmy McShane, a native of Derry, Northern Ireland.
They decided to form an act fronted by McShane, a trained singer, dancer and actor, who had previously tried to break into the West End theater scene and toured with Dee D.
[6] Bassi recruited prominent Italian sessionmen to record their first album, including Giorgio Cocilovo on guitar and Gabriele "Lele" Melotti on drums.
[7][8] The bulk of Baltimora's song writing fell on Bassi and American lyricist Naimy Hackett, though McShane wrote the lyrics to their track "Survivor in Love".
6 on the Italian single chart and entering the top 5 in numerous European countries, including West Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Norway.