The group's name suggests that Matt Bianco is a person, often assumed to be an alias for the main member and front man Mark Reilly.

Matt Bianco was formed in 1983 by Mark Reilly (vocals), Danny White (keyboard), Kito Poncioni (bass) – all of whom had just left art pop group Blue Rondo à la Turk – and Polish vocalist Basia Trzetrzelewska.

[7] Basia had performed in a short-lived band called Bronze alongside Danny, having answered their ad placed in Melody Maker.

He dropped out of the group entirely before the recording of their first album Whose Side Are You On?, released through WEA in August 1984, although he received a co-writing credit on the track "Half a Minute".

The album spawned five UK and European hits, including "Get Out of Your Lazy Bed", "Half a Minute", "Sneaking Out the Back Door", "More Than I Can Bear" and the title track.

[7] Following Danny and Basia's departure, Jenni Evans joined the band as the new female singer, and Mark Fisher became songwriter, producer, and keyboard player.

[7] The use of synthesizers increased notably: Yamaha's DX-7 can be heard providing the slap bass in most songs, but the choice of noted studio musicians remained consistent, with Ronnie Ross being the most prominent example.

[7] However, "Wap Bam Boogie", an album track originally on the B-side of the first single (and which did not involve Estefan in any capacity), did well on the dance charts.

"Wap Bam Boogie" was then released as an A-side single to promote the compilation and achieved a minor chart success in the UK.

They scored contracts with ZYX Music and Intercord in Europe, and Victor Entertainment in Asia, but failed to sign on with another major label.

[10] In 1998, the band released A/Collection exclusively in Japan – a compilation featuring a number of remakes of their stand-out album tracks plus remixes of a few of their hits.