How I Wrote... "Fantasy"

Aldo Nova reveals how some free studio time led to his breakthrough 1982 hit.

- JOE BOSSO

"I'M OKAY WITH it now, but for the longest time I tried to play it down," singer and guitarist Aldo Nova says about "Fantasy," his soaring 1982 signature song. "Some people have said it started the pop-metal genre, and I guess that's possible. Soon afterward, I saw a lot of bands come in with a similar sound, and that led to hair metal, which I didn't want to be associated with."

He laughs. "But after a while I came around," he says with a shrug. "It's a great song and a big hit. What's not to be proud of?"

LED ZEP MEETS CHRISTOPHER CROSS

In the early 1980s, Aldo Caporuscio was a budding young guitarist and performer in Montreal. By day he worked at a music store, and at night he played the city's downtown clubs. "I did all the Top 40 hits and a lot of new wave covers," Nova recalls. "More and more, though, people told me they wanted to hear rock, so that's what I started writing."

With Led Zeppelin as his North Star ("They had killer riffs, each one as good as a verse or chorus"), Nova came up with a turbocharged power-chord pattern that felt like a good opener. From there he started building a song in layers.