Manfred Alois Segieth

Manfred Alois Segieth (or Manfred Aulhausen) was born on July 7, 1946 in München, Germany. The son of a practically-minded craftsmen, he was enrolled in a Capuchin school where he trained to become a monk. After hearing schlager star Ted Herold’s “Moonlight” as a twelve-year-old, he picked up the guitar and began playing. After high school he formed the Cliff Richard & the Shadows-influenced Mountain Shadows, performing covers of popular songs. At the same time, he shopped around his own schlager compositions which he occasionally recorded as Tess Teiges, beginning in 1971. 1983 is considered by many to be the peak of Italo-disco and Segieth adopted the suitably Italian alias, Manfred Perilano and the moniker, Fancy. After Segieth asked Todd Canedy to write a song for him, he recorded a demo of “Slice Me Nice” which he submitted to composer/producer Anthony Monn, who’d previously achieved world-wide successes with husky-voiced diva, Amanda Lear. Usually collaborating, Segieth and Monn embraced a brand of dance music which, thanks to its elevated sense of melody and songcraft, was as at home in and out of the dance clubs where it was most popular.