Carosone in 1995 | |
Background information | |
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Birth name | Renato Carusone |
Born | 3 January 1920 Naples, Kingdom of Italy |
Died | 20 May 2001 (aged 81) Rome, Italy |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | |
Instruments | |
Years active | 1935–2001 |
Labels |
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Renato Carosone ([reˈnaːto karoˈzoːne]; 3 January 1920 – 20 May 2001), born Renato Carusone, was an Italian musician. He was a prominent figure of the Italian music scene in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a modern performer of the so-called canzone napoletana, Naples' song tradition.
- 1Biography
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Biography[edit]
Beginnings[edit]
Carosone, first of three siblings, was born in Naples. He studied piano at the Naples Conservatory and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. Soon after he signed a contract as a band leader for a tour of Africa, which resulted in him working in Addis Ababa as a pianist. Here he would become a prominent figure of the music scene, performing with his band on several occasions. He returned to Italy only in 1946, after the end of World War II.
Despite his success abroad, Carosone was a stranger to Italian audiences. He had to start his career afresh, playing the piano for small dance-hall bands. These new performances were strongly influenced by the new rhythms and music styles he had encountered during his ten years' absence from the Italian music scene.
Success[edit]
In 1949 he was asked to put together a group for a club's opening night. After some auditions, he signed the Dutch guitaristPeter van Houten and the Neapolitan drummerGegè Di Giacomo: the Trio Carosone was born. The trio became a quartet with the addition of the Hungarian Gypsy musician Elek Bacsik on bass, guitar and violin.
Afterwards Van Houten and Bacsik left the group to pursue solo careers. Gegè Di Giacomo remained with Carosone, who contacted other musicians to finally form a real band.
During the 1950s Carosone became more and more popular, his orchestra was in great demand both in Italy and abroad, and records sales were soaring high.
His song 'Torero', was a bestseller in the United States in the summer of 1958. Torero was translated into 12 languages and no fewer than thirty cover versions were recorded in the United States alone. On 5 January 1957 Carosone and his band started off a successful American tour with a concert in Cuba. This tour concluded with a triumphant performance at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Retirement[edit]
At the height of his career, Carosone announced his retirement from music in 1960: I'd rather retire now on the crest of the wave, than being tormented later by the doubt that yè-yè fashion and new armies wearing blue-jeans may wipe away all that I have achieved in so many years of work and worries. His decision caused an uproar. Some even suspected obscure criminal threats. Away from the spotlight, Carosone turned to other interests, mainly painting.
Comeback[edit]
On 9 August 1975 Carosone made his comeback in a televised concert. He then resumed his musical debut with live concerts, performances at the Sanremo Music Festival and TV appearances until the late 1990s.
Repertoire[edit]
Several of his hits were the result of his long and fruitful collaboration with the lyricistNicola Salerno, who used the pseudonym Nisa. They could understand each other perfectly: just one hint by Carosone, and Nisa wrote a funny, witty little story about it. 'O suspiro', 'Torero', 'Tu vuò fà l'americano', 'Mambo Italiano', 'Caravan Petrol', 'Pigliate 'na pastiglia','O Sarracino' were among their greatest hits.
A few famous songs in Carosone's repertoire were not written by Nisa: '...E la barca tornò sola' (a lively parody of a song performed by Gino Latilla at Sanremo Music Festival in 1954), 'Tre numeri al lotto', 'Maruzzella' (dedicated to his wife), 'O russo e 'a rossa'
He made four albums with Capitol Records, Honeymoon in Rome T-10031, 'Renato Carosone!' T-10163, 'Carnevale Carosone' T-10204 and Blue Italian Skies T-10147.
Death[edit]
Carosone died on 20 May 2001 at the age of 81 in Rome, Italy.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Scuderi, Antonio. 'Okay Napulitan!: Social Change and Cultural Identity in the Songs of Renato Carosone.' Italica, Vol. 87. No. 4 (2010) : 619-36.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Renato_Carosone&oldid=924115549'
'Mambo Italiano' | |
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Single by Rosemary Clooney and the Mellomen | |
B-side | 'We'll Be Together Again' |
Released | October 11, 1954 |
Format | 7' |
Genre | Novelty song |
Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Merrill, Frankie Laine, William S. Fischer |
Producer(s) | Buddy Cole, Paul Weston |
'Mambo Italiano' is a popular song written by Bob Merrill in 1954 for the American singer Rosemary Clooney. The song became a hit for Clooney, reaching the Top Ten in record charts in the US and France and No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart early in 1955. The song has shown enduring popularity, with several cover versions and appearances in numerous films.
- 2Chart history
- 3Cover versions
Writing and original Rosemary Clooney version[edit]
Merrill reportedly wrote it under a recording deadline, scribbling hastily on a paper napkin in an Italian restaurant in New York City, and then using the wall pay-phone to dictate the melody, rhythm and lyrics to the studio pianist, under the aegis of the conductor Mitch Miller, who produced the original record.[1] Alongside Merrill, 'Lidianni' and 'Gabba' are also listed as writers of the song,[2][3] corresponding to the pseudonyms of the Italian lyricists Gian Carlo Testoni and Gaspare Abbate, respectively.
Merrill's song provides an obvious parody of genuine mambo music, cashing in on the 1954 mambo craze in New York, while at the same time allowing Miller to set up a brilliant vehicle for Clooney's vocal talents.[4] It is also a late example of an American novelty song in a tradition started during World War II by the Italian-American jazz singer Louis Prima, in which nonsense lyrics with an Italian-American sound are used in such a way as to present a benignly stereotyped caricature of Italian-American people (who had been classed with 'enemy alien' status and discouraged from speaking Italian) as likable, slightly brash, pleasure-loving folk.[5] Although Clooney's own family background was Irish-American, she could perform such 'Italianized' material with an entirely convincing accent, which she had readily picked up from Italian-American musicians and their families.[5]
The nonsense lyrics[4][6] were originally couched in English, mixed together with a comic jumble of Italian, Spanish, Neapolitan dialect and gibberish (invented) words, including:
- Italian: italiano (Italian), Napoli (Naples), siciliano (Sicilian), calabrese (Calabrian), tarantella (tarantella), mozzarella (mozzarella), pizza, baccalà (salted codfish), bambino (child), vino (wine).
- Spanish: mambo, enchilada, rumba, (the Spanish words mambo and rumba are commonly used in Italian with the same meaning).
- Neapolitan: paisa' (in Italian paesano; in English villager or fellow countryman).
- A number of Italian words are deliberately misspelled ('Giovanno' instead of 'Giovanni', and 'hello, che se dice' which is Italian slang for 'hello, what's up?'. Other words are in Italo-English slang: (goombah, from cumpà, literally godson/godfather but more broadly fellow countryman, and 'jadrool' or 'cidrule', a stupid person, closely related to cetriolo, Italian for 'cucumber', but in Sicilian dialect meaning jackass. The word tiavanna is invented.
Chart history[edit]
Weekly charts[edit]
The song reached No. 8 on the U.S. Cash Box Top 50 Best Selling Records chart, in a tandem ranking of Don Cornell, Nick Noble, Kay Armen, and Roy Rogers & Dale Evans's versions, with Don Cornell and Nick Noble's versions marked as bestsellers.[7] The song also reached No. 7 on Billboard's Honor Roll of Hits, with Don Cornell and Nick Noble's versions listed as best sellers.[8]
In Australia, the song charted regionally. It entered the Brisbane charts in January 1956, and reached No. 3. In Sydney, it charted twice: in January, when it reached No. 10 (in a 10-song Hit Parade), and again in March 1956 when it went to No. 4.
Chart (1954-55) | Peak position |
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France (IFOP)[9] | 8 |
UK[10] | 1 |
US Billboard Best Sellers in Stores[11] | 10 |
US Billboard Most Played in Juke Boxes[11] | 9 |
US Billboard Most Played by Jockeys[11] | 13 |
US Cash Box[12] | 8 |
Cover versions[edit]
Dean Martin version[edit]
It was successfully covered by the popular Italian-American star Dean Martin.[13]
In 2006, the German Nu jazz and Lounge music act Club des Belugas (see German Wikipedia) officially released a remix of the Dean Martin version on their album Apricoo Soul, with official authorization on behalf of Capitol Records/EMI and Martin's estate.
Carla Boni version[edit]
Mambo Italiano became popular in Italy when Carla Boni scored a major hit with her version of 1956.[13][14] Also in 1956,[15]Renato Carosone, a singer and band leader from Naples, recorded a successful version that weaves in several fragments of Neapolitan song, of which he was a leading exponent.[2]
Other cover versions[edit]
Cover versions of the song made in other languages include a French translation made by the Turkish polyglot singer Darío Moreno.[13] Other covers in various genres from around the world include a salsa setting by the Italian musician Massimo Scalici; a V-pop version by the Vietnamese group Hồ Quang Hiếu; an instrumental by the Swedish electric guitarist Mattias Eklundh; a Latin ska number by Federico Fosati and Dinamo from Mallorca; and a version by the British electronica duo Shaft.[16]Bette Midler remade 'Mambo Italiano' for her 2002 album Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook. Dean Martin's daughter, Deana Martin released a cover on her 2006 album Memories Are Made of This. The 'Mambo Italiano' tune features at the start of Lady Gaga's 2011 song 'Americano'.[16]Iggy Azalea samples the song on her 2019 single 'Lola'.
Use in films[edit]
In the 1955 Italian comedy film Scandal in Sorrento (Pane, amore e...), Sophia Loren dances to an instrumental arrangement of the tune, opposite Vittorio de Sica in a simplified imitation of mambo dancing;[17] she also dances to the song in the 1960 Hollywood comedy It Started in Naples.[13] The original Rosemary Clooney recording has become a prominent soundtrack item, serving as the opening theme for the 1988 film Married to the Mob and also being heard in the films Mermaids (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Big Night (1996), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), and School for Seduction (2004).
References[edit]
- ^Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 17. ISBN978-0-85112-250-2.
- ^ abScuderi, Antonio (2010). 'Okay Napulitan!: Social Change and Cultural Identity in the Songs of Renato Carosone'. Italica. 87 (4): 619–636. JSTOR23070816.
...in the American song, 'Mambo Italiano,' [Carosone] inserts fragments of various Neapolitan standards, including 'Simmo a Napoli paisà' (Siamo a Napoli paesano), 'Dicitencello vuje' (Diteglielo voi), 'Marechiaro,' and 'O sole mio.'
- ^'Search results for: 'mambo italiano merrill lidianna gabba''. www.canzoneitaliana.it. Portale della canzone italiana. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
- ^ abCrossland, Ken; Macfarlane, Malcolm (2013). Late Life Jazz: The Life and Career of Rosemary Clooney. Oxford University Press USA. pp. 28, 62–63. ISBN978-0-19-979857-5.
- ^ abCarnevale, Nancy C. (2003). ''No Italian Spoken for the Duration of the War': Language, Italian-American Identity, and Cultural Pluralism in the World War II Years'. Journal of American Ethnic History. 22 (3): 3–33. JSTOR27501314.
- ^'Rosemary Clooney - Mambo Italiano lyrics'. lyricstranslate.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
- ^'Cash Box Top 50 Best Selling Records', Cash Box, October 1, 1955. p. 28. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
- ^'Honor Roll of Hits', Billboard, September 17, 1955. p. 36. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
- ^'Toutes les Chansons N° 1 des Années 70' (in French). InfoDisc. 1954-10-12. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
- ^Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 39–40. ISBN978-1-904994-10-7.
- ^ abcWhitburn, Joel (2000) The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, Billboard Publications, Inc. p. 137.
- ^'Cash Box Top 50 Best Selling Records', Cash Box, October 1, 1955. p. 28. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
- ^ abcdGuaitamacchi, Ezio (2011). 'Rosemary Clooney – Mambo italiano'. 1000 canzoni che ci hanno cambiato la vita (in Italian). Rizzoli. p. 31. ISBN978-88-586-1742-7.
- ^'Addio Carla Boni, regina del Mambo italiano (obituary)'. Corriere della Sera (in Italian). 17 October 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
- ^Deregibus, Enrico (2010). 'Renato Carosone'. Dizionario completo della Canzone Italiana (in Italian). Giunti Editore. p. 97. ISBN978-88-09-75625-0. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
- ^ abWright, Joseph (15 July 2015). 'Five Good Covers: Mambo Italiano (Rosemary Clooney)'. Cover Me.
- ^Uffreduzzi, Elisa (2017). 'Mambo and Maggiorate: Italian Female Stardom in the 1950s'. In Virginia Picchietti, Laura A. Salsini (ed.). Writing and Performing Female Identity in Italian Culture. Springer. p. 71. ISBN978-3-319-40835-4.
External links[edit]
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
- Audio at Internet Archive
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mambo_Italiano_(song)&oldid=932599296'