Monday, July 14, 2008

Golden oldies

image courtesy of fullundie




Most people know that Italy was the cradle of cinema in the 1960's, but few people know it was also the cradle of music... on an international level.
During the 60s, Italy was considered an interesting market for sales, in fact it was rather lucrative... and to top it all off, it was a beautiful place to visit and do sales promotion! Many American artists came to Italy to record their hits for the Italian market and actually sang in Italian!

Stevie Wonder himself spent some time in Rome (he was romantically involved with the legendary Roman singer, Gabriella Ferri) and he sang some tunes IN Italian!

Stevie doing his thing in Italian:



Stevie & Gabriella at San Remo music festival:


Not to mention my personal favorite, The Supremes singing an Italian version of "You Can't Hurry Love":


If you click on this link you'll see the number 1 hits from 1960-1969. The original title/version of the song is listed in parentheses, you can see how many of them were remakes in Italian and in English!

Needless to say I'm a HUGE fan of 60s music, so I was thrilled to discover this cross-continental collaboration with some of my favorite golden oldies.

Petula Clark sang her tune "Downtown" in Italian. There's a funny story about this song- those of you who watch LOST might recall that the original song "Downtown" was featured in a few scenes with Juliet. The Italian dubbed version of LOST used the Italian version of the song (called "Ciao Ciao") as opposed to the English version of it. I found it rather amusing:

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Thank you! This is favourite period of time for music and to have the Italian version of it is a real treat.

Romerican said...

Yay, glad you appreciate it! If only I could've lived in the 60s... ;)

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

These clips are amazing!!

I love how everyone is so dressed up in the first clip.

This music reminds of my parents.

Romerican said...

Same here, this music totally reminds me of my mom. She went to the US in the 60s and would watch American Bandstand trying to learn English, so her love for this music was passed on to me!
The 60s were so stylish- the music, the cinema, the design, the fashion, everything. Sigh....

Stephanie said...

I love Rome! I was there last summer. But I just love that city. Thank you for your comment on my post about my sister. It was a difficult time for me, and your words were comforting.

Romerican said...

Hey Fury,
You're very welcome. Actually, thank you because that post about your sister really moved me and also helped me understand what it's like for her being the one who stays behind... I tell you, I've been going back and forth US- Italy since '96 and it gets harder and harder each year to say goodbye. Thank goodness we live in an era of easy communication like ichat, skype, email etc. it makes it easier BUT it's still not the same as being physically near your sister.

Anonymous said...

awesome! thank you! LOVED this! ! !

Anonymous said...

I didn't know they made their own Italian version! It's really great to see/hear!

PS : I really like reading your blog! For someone still having to make the move to Italy, it's interesting to see all the different opinions/problems people (who've made the move) run into!

Miss Expatria said...

stevie wonder singing in italian. my life is now complete.

Romerican said...

*belgian- welcome! glad to hear you're enjoying my blog. yeah, i try to dispel all the myths people have about living in italy... it ain't pretty but someone's got to do it ;)

miss expatria- the first time i heard it i nearly collapsed in joy. ohhh stevie!