A Pauper in Paradise

A Pauper in Paradise is the fifth studio album by Italian-Canadian singer Gino Vannelli, released in 1977. It was notable for including contributions by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the second side, including a fifteen-minute title track symphony that took Gino five months to write, and which led A&M to offer a warning to Gino to expand his appeal or face rapid declines in album sales that since Powerful People had been a steady 300,000 albums per release.

Track listing

Detailed personnel

• Art Direction – Fabio Nicoli, Roland Young (3)
• Backing Vocals – Jay Stone, Joanie Bartels
• Backing Vocals, Design, Artwork – Joanne Jayde
• Drums – Casey Scheuerell
• Engineer – John Kurlander (tracks: 7 to 10), Norm Kinney
• Engineer [Assistent] – Steve Prestage
• Engineer [Re-mix] – Jon Kelly
• Keyboards – Chris Rhyne
• Leader – Barry Griffiths (tracks: 7 to 10)
• Lyrics By, Music By – Gino Vannelli
• Mastered By – Bernie Grundman
• Orchestra – The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (tracks: 7 to 10)
• Orchestrated By, Conductor – Don Sebesky (tracks: 7 to 10)
• Percussion – Dido* (tracks: 6), John J. Mandel
• Photography By – Beth Kelly
• Producer, Arranged By, Keyboards – Joe Vannelli
• Saxophone – Dick Morrissey
• Synthesizer, Synthesizer [Bass], Piano, Backing Vocals – Bill Meyers
• Vocals [Choir] – The John McCarthy Choir (tracks: 7 to 10)
• Vocals, Producer, Arranged By – Gino Vannelli

Technical personnel

• Jon Kelly – Remixing
• Norm Kinney – Engineer
• John Kurlander – Engineer
• Steve Prestage – Assistant Engineer
• Fabio Nicoli – Art Direction
• Roland Young – Art Direction

Musicians

• Gino Vannelli – lead vocals
• Joe Vannelli – Fender Rhodes, piano, programming, synthesizer, synthesizer arrangements, synthesizer string arrangement, backing vocals
• Bill Meyers – piano, synthesizer, synthesizer bass, backing vocals
• Nyboma Mwan Dido – bongos, congas
• Jay Graydon – guitar
• Casey Scheuerell – drums
• John J. Mandel – percussion, timbales
• Chris Rhyne – keyboards, synthesizer bass
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – orchestra on "Black and Blue" and "A Pauper in Paradise"

Technical personnel

• Jon Kelly – Remixing
• Norm Kinney – Engineer
• John Kurlander – Engineer
• Steve Prestage – Assistant Engineer
• Fabio Nicoli – Art Direction
• Roland Young – Art Direction

Charts

Notes

References