Word: songful
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...tune. Wherever they went in Italy this summer, tourists were attacked by the lilting, insidious and all-but-meaningless lyrics of Nel Blu, Dipinto di Bin (In the Blue, Painted Blue). From nightclub star to curbside troubadour, everyone was belting out the refrain of Italy's most popular song. And the tourists were humming it before they went home...
Last week they were still humming, but the far-off foreign drone had risen to a resounding chorus. By the polls, Nel Blu is the hottest song property on the pop music circuit anywhere...
Decca Records, which bought the U.S. rights to the song, is shipping out some 60,000 platters a day (v. 30,000 per day for a run-of-the-scale bestseller). Already, at least 14 American artists have recorded an Americanized version of the song with a new title, Volare (To Fly), and new lyrics that bear as little resemblance to the original as they do to poetry. Sample: "Just like birds of a feather, a rainbow together we'll find." When they call their favorite disk jockey, U.S. fans hardly know what to ask for. But whether...
Gypsy Rhythm. The bestselling version of the song (Decca's) was recorded by Composer Domenico Modugno himself. Last week, as if to make the success official, the swarthy, mop-headed Sicilian followed his voice to the U.S. And as soon as he alighted at New York's Idlewild Airport, exuberantly sliding down the banister of the landing steps, Domenico treated his welcoming committee to a rendering...
Swinging easily from suave, Como-style sophistication to the animal beat of rock 'n' roll, Domenico still managed to save some memory of the guitars and ritual-dance rhythms of his gypsy ancestors. The freshness of his singing, the unlettered freedom of his song itself are probably due in part to the fact that he has yet to find time to learn to read or write music. His father taught him simple tunes when he was still a barefoot boy barely as big as his guitar. He composed his first song at 14, has been playing ever since...