"Kalimba de Luna" is a 1982 single by Italian musician and drummer Tony Esposito. It was written by Esposito with his long-time collaborator Remo Licastro, pianist Giuseppe "Joe" Amoruso, keyboardist Mauro Malavasi and vocalist Gianluigi Di Franco. It was taken from Esposito's album Il grande esploratore (The great explorer). "Kalimba de Luna" was a European success and reached no. 12 in the Austrian chart, no. 6 in the Swiss charts and no. 14 in the Italian charts.

Charts

Boney M. version

"Kalimba de Luna" was instantly covered by German group Boney M. for the German market, giving the group their first Top 20 hit in three years, peaking at no. 16. It was added to their current album Ten Thousand Lightyears, seeing it rise to No. 23 in the German charts in October 1984. It was also included on the Fantastic Boney M. and Kalimba de Luna – 16 Happy Songs with Boney M. compilations. With lead vocals by new group member Reggie Tsiboe, the original idea was to release it as a solo single, and a video was shot with Reggie only before the plans were changed to release it as a Boney M. single, and a new video with the group was done. Neither Liz Mitchell nor Marcia Barrett sang on this recording — the backing vocals were done by producer Frank Farian and session singers Amy & Elaine Goff and La Mama.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Releases

7" Single 12" Single Note : This single is the first which does not have the name "Boney M." written with the logo created eight years before for the "Daddy cool" single (the only previous exception being the "Baby do you wanna bump" single, which went out before the group even existed)

Other cover versions

Sources