Charlie Dominici

Charlie Dominici (pron. Do-min-iss-ee) is an American singer. He is perhaps best known as the original vocalist for the progressive metal band Dream Theater.

His singing style is quite similar to that of Rush's Geddy Lee. It is high, warm and nasal.

Charlie originally came into prominence as a member of Franke and the Knockouts, in which he played guitar and sang backing vocals. He auditioned for Dream Theater in 1987 and was hired for the job in November of that year.

Charlie performed on the band's debut album, 1989's When Dream and Day Unite, but was fired shortly after. Dominici was far older than the rest of the band and there were personal and creative differences at work. It was felt that his vocal style and general attitude to music did not fit in with the heavy metal portion of their compositions.

He was replaced by James LaBrie.

Today, Charlie works as a producer and is working on a solo album slated for release in mid-2005.

As a teenager, Charlie recorded his first album with a major label as one half of the semi-acoustic duo "Billy and Charles" on Faithful Virtue records.It would not be until the early 1980's ,however, that he would actually see some of his work reach top 10 status with the release of the debut album from "Franke and the Knockouts". The band enjoyed some top 10 hits and very successful touring. Charlie sang and played 2nd guitar with the band that featured the front man, Franke Previte. Franke would later co-write the hit songs "Time of my Life" and "Hungry Eyes" from the movie "Dirty Dancing". Tico Torres from the band "Bon Jovi" was the drummer and John "Skinny" Regan from Peter Frampton and Ace Frehley was the bass player. Many musical projects would follow but it would not be until the fall of 1987 when Charlie met up with the soon to be renamed band "Majesty". That alliance led to the release of the acclaimed debut album "When Dream and Day Unite", featuring Charlie on lead vocals and the band was renamed "Dream Theater". Charlie was among the bands numerous subsequent lineup changes. He spent the next 10 years in a self imposed semi-retirement from the music scene until he was asked to perform with Dream Theater again at the 15th anniversary show celebrating 15 years since the debut album was released. He accepted the invitation to sing with them once again and the show was documented on DVD, which was released this spring to a fanfare of praise from the music world. The DVD is called "When Dream and Day Re-Unite" and can be found on the Dream Theater website. Charlie has now released the first installment of his very ambitious solo project, "O3 A Trilogy." It is an acoustic solo project that shows his lyric and songwriting ability in its purest form. A "concept" work with no overdubs and completely recorded in single "live" takes, this trilogy of albums will prove to be the definitive statement from this long absent and frequently under rated artist. The rest, as they say, will be history.