In her early teens Dalbello was featured on a record by St. Margaret Mary Church Singers, where she performed two covers of songs: "
Blowin' in the Wind" and "
Amazing Grace". At the age of 14, Dalbello made her 1974 recording debut with a 4-song EP that was recorded for
CBC Radio, Canada's national broadcaster. The record was produced by Jack Budgell. The EP featured four songs written and composed by Dalbello: "Mourning In The Morning", "The Old Man", "Come Sun Days" and "Human". In 1975 Dalbello was featured on a Christmas compilation by CBC Radio, in which she performs the traditional
Christmas carols "Deck The Halls" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and a medley together with
Dianne Brooks and
Roy Kenner. These records were not commercially available, and airplay was legally restricted to the CBC only. Signing with MCA Records out of L.A. when she was 17, Dalbello's self-titled debut album in 1977 was produced by
David Foster and featured the then-unknown
Toto members
Mike Porcaro,
Jeff Porcaro,
Steve Lukather,
David Paich and
David Hungate. She also collaborated with
Jay Graydon, who is featured on guitar. The album won a
1978 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year. During these sessions Dal Bello recorded a song for Jay Graydon called "You're My Day". Written by Graydon and Harry Garfield, the song is not featured on the album. The song was later released on a 2006 compilation album by Graydon, titled "Past To Present - The 70s".
Mike Porcaro played bass on her next album
Pretty Girls released independently via Talisman Records. Pretty Girls received her second Juno nomination in 1979 in the category of
Female Vocalist of the Year. Later in 1979,
Melissa Manchester covered the song "Pretty Girls"; released as a single, the track hit the US top 40. This marked Dal Bello's first international success as a songwriter. Dalbello, signed to Capitol Records, released her third album
Drastic Measures in 1981. Dalbello collaborated with
Bryan Adams and
Tim Thorney on the album. After
Drastic Measures, she took a break from recording to re-evaluate her creative and personal priorities and to work on her poetry. Dalbello received a
Juno nomination in 1980 for Female Vocalist of The Year and in 1983 was again nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. She told
Billboard, "I felt there was no point in making records if I hadn't found a sense of how I fitted in musically, and how to express myself. I hadn't yet learned how to convey my musical ideas to the people I was working with." The transformation worked – the album was even more successful on the Canadian pop charts than her earlier albums had been. The album spawned the hit singles "
Gonna Get Close to You", later covered by
Queensrÿche, and "Animal", which was covered by
Heavens Gate.
whomanfoursays garnered four Juno nominations: two for Dalbello herself as
Producer of the Year and
Female Vocalist of the Year, one for Lenny De Rose for Recording Engineer of the Year and one for art director Heather Brown and photographer Deborah Samuels for Best Album Graphic. In 1985, Dalbello was nominated for a seventh Juno in the category of Female Vocalist of the Year. In 1986, Dalbello wrote and recorded the songs "
Black on Black" and "I Do What I Do" for the
9½ Weeks soundtrack. Although included in the film, Dalbello's recording of "I Do What I Do" was not on the soundtrack album, which instead featured a recording by
John Taylor of
Duran Duran; her recording of "Black on Black" did, however, appear in both the film and the soundtrack album. Dalbello also worked with other artists including
Duran Duran's
John Taylor,
Heart, the band
Nena,
Glass Tiger and their producer
Jim Vallance. Ronson and Dalbello planned to record a second album, however, Ronson was passed over by both her record label and her manager at that time,
Roger Davies, over Dalbello's strong objections. Dalbello then submitted four self-produced song demos to her U.S. label and manager, only to have them rejected because they wanted a real producer. However, regardless of the status of the Hine-produced album, partly out of frustration and partly as a practical joke, Dalbello re-submitted her self-produced song demos—crediting the producer as "Bill Da Salleo", which was nothing more than a simple
anagram of her name. which received favorable reviews from critics upon its release. After the album's release she returned to Europe to tour for the rest of that year. ==Recording guest appearances==