Renée (right) & Renato (left)
Renée and Renato was a female/male vocal duo, who had a UK Number one hit in December 1982 with the Italian serenade-style ballad Save Your Love. Born in Italy, Renato Pagliari had moved to the West Midlands, UK and appeared as a tenor singer on the talent show New Faces in 1975. "Renée" was the British born Hilary Lester (of which very little else is known) and the two were teamed up for Save Your Love, followed by two further non-hits.
Pagliari continued as a singer and entertainer, and, as an Aston Villa fan, was once asked by manager Ron Atkinson to sing "Nessun dorma" during half-time. He died in 2009, aged 69.
Links to Peel[]
Peel was presenter of Top of the Pops in November 1982 when Renée and Renato's single had begun climbing the Top 40, and the promo video was shown for the first time. He remarked, "What an achingly lovely melody! Renee and Renato... I think I’m going to have to have a word with them after the programme." During his first show of 1983, co-presented with David Jensen, he said, "Well as you can imagine viewers, Kid and myself are a bit disappointed that Renee and Renato are no longer at No.1…". The single had been knocked off the top spot by Phil Collins' You Can't Hurry Love.
On 25 May 1983 Mark Ellen, while standing in for Peel, played a short clip of a recording he had found in the studio, marked 'Renato singing'. It featured a 22 second clip of what sounded very much like the tenor singing a cappella a spoof of 'Save Your Love', beginning with the words "Save your spam, my darling, save your spam...", "An exclusive one for the John Peel session", remarked Ellen.
Save Your Love also featured on TV Hell: Rock Bottom in 1992.
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