| Connie Francis Sings Modern Italian Hits | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | January 1963 | |||
| Recorded | November 9, 1961 October 1, 1962 October 4–5, 1962 November 3, 1962 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | MGM | |||
| Producer | Danny Davis | |||
| Connie Francis chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Connie Francis Sings Modern Italian Hits | ||||
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Connie Francis Sings Modern Italian Hits is a studio album recorded by American entertainer Connie Francis.
The album featured cover versions of contemporary Italian hits previously recorded by other artists between 1958 and 1962, several of them being entries to the renowned Sanremo Festival. Winning songs of the festival were also Italy's contributions to the Eurovision Song Contest during the respective years.
Most of the album's featured songs were recorded by Francis bilingually in English/Italian. Only "Addio, addio", "Nun è peccato", "Tango italiano", and "Ventiquattromila baci" were recorded entirely in Italian.
The album's twelve tracks were chosen from a total of twenty-four finished recordings cut between November 9, 1961 and November 3, 1962. [1] Arrangements were provided by Cliff Parman, [2] Giulio Libano and LeRoy Holmes. [3]
All three versions of the opening track, "Al di là" (for further details see below), were released either as a single or Extended Play (EP). Although the bilingual Italian/English version only peaked at # 90 in the United States, "Al di là" became Francis's most successful Italian single recording internationally, peaking at No. 1 in several countries. [4]
| # | Title | Songwriter | Length | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Al di là" | Carlo Donida, Mogol | 3.17 | • Third version, recorded blingual Italian/English • Original recordings by Betty Curtis and Luciano Tajoli • Sanremo Festival 1961: # 1 • Eurovision Song Contest 1961: # 5 |
| 2. | "Il cielo in una stanza" | Gino Paoli, Mogol | 3.12 | • Original recording by Mina (1959) |
| 3. | "Quando, quando, quando" | Tony Renis, Alberto Testa, Pat Boone | 2.24 | • Original recordings by Tony Renis and Emilio Pericoli • Sanremo Festival 1962: # 4 |
| 4. | "Nessuno al mondo" | Art Crafer, Jimmy Nebb, Nino Rastrelli | 3.31 | • Second version, recorded bilingual Italian/English • Original recording by Peppino di Capri (1960) |
| 5. | "Arrivederci" | Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Calabrese | 3.05 | • Second Version with new narrative • Original recording by Franco Franchi (1959) |
| 6. | "Tango Italiano" | Bruno Pallesi, Walter Mangoli | 2.57 | • Original recordings by Milva and Sergio Bruni • Sanremo Festival 1962: # 2 |
| # | Title | Songwriter | Length | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come Sinfonia" | Pino Donaggio | 2.44 | • Second version with English narrative overdub • Original recording by Pino Donaggio (1961) |
| 2. | "Nun e peccato" | Ugo Calise, Carlo Alberto Rossi, Silvano Birga | 3.11 | • Original recording by Peppino di Capri (1960) |
| 3. | "Romantica" | Dino Verde, Renato Rascel | 3.09 | • Original recordings by Renato Rascel and Tony Dallara • Sanremo Festival 1960: # 1 • Eurovision Song Contest 1960: # 8 |
| 4. | "Ventiquattro mila baci (24,000 baci)" | Adriano Celentano | 1.58 | • Original recordings by Adriano Celentano and Little Tony • Sanremo Festival 1961: # 2 |
| 5. | "Come prima" | Mario Panzeri, Vincenzo di Paola, Sandro Taccani | 2.30 | • Original recording by Tony Dallara (1958) |
| 6. | "Addio, addio" | Domenico Modugno, Franco Migliacci | 3.47 | • Third version • Original recordings by Claudio Villa and Domenico Modugno • Sanremo Festival 1962: # 1 • Eurovision Song Contest 1962: # 15 |
| # | Title | Songwriter | Length | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Addio, addio" | Domenico Modugno, Franco Migliacci | unknown | • First version, unreleased to this day |
| 2. | "Addio, addio" | Domenico Modugno, Franco Migliacci | unknown | • Second version, unreleased to this day |
| 3. | "Al di là" | Carlo Donida, Mogol | 3.29 | • First version, recorded in pure Italian • Released in Mexico on MGM Records Extended Play EXPL 1034 |
| 4. | "Al di là" | Carlo Donida, Mogol | 3.46 | • Second version, recorded in pure Italian • Released in Spain on MGM Records Extended Play 63-025 |
| 5. | "Arrivederci" | Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Calabrese | unknown | • First version, unreleased to this day |
| 6. | "Come Sinfonia" | Pino Donaggio | 2.44 | • First version, Italian vocals only, unreleased to this day |
| 7. | "Luna Caprese" | Augusto Cesareo, Luigi Riccardi | 2.56 | • Released in Italy on MGM Records Single K 2040 |
| 8. | "Munasterio 'e Santa Chiara" | traditional | 3.45 | • Unreleased until 1978 on LP 'Connie, Italiano' (Laurie House LH8019) |
| 9. | "Nessuno al mondo" | Art Crafer, Jimmy Nebb, Nino Rastrelli | 3.33 | • First version, recorded in pure Italian, unreleased to this day |
| 10. | "Un bacio all'italiana" | Christian Bruhn, Georg Buschor, Luciano Beretta | 1.58 | • Released in Italy on MGM Records Single • Original German recording "Zwei kleine Italiener" and first Italian cover version by Conny Froboess (1962) • Eurovision Song Contest 1962: # 6 (German version) |
| 11. | "Un violino nel mio cuore" | Sacha Richepin, Giovanni Rastelli | 3.13 | • Released in Italy on MGM Records Single K 2056 • Original recording by Luis Mariano |
| 12. | "Violino tzigano" | Cesare Andrea Bixio, Bixio Cherubini | 2.37 | • Released in Germany on MGM Records Single 61 066 • Original recording by Joselito |
NOTE: During the 1960s, entries to the Sanremo Festival were usually presented by two different artists using individual orchestral arrangements to emphasize the status of the festival as a composers' and not a vocalists' competition. Therefore, the Sanremo entries in these listings name two Italian artists for the recording of the original version.
Connie Francis is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
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Maria Ilva Biolcati, OMRI, known as Milva, was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as La Rossa, due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro, which stemmed from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birthplaces. The colour also characterised her leftist political beliefs, claimed in numerous statements. Popular in Italy and abroad, she performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany and Japan, where she often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain, and South America.
"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" is a song written by Jack Keller and Howard Greenfield that was a No. 1 hit for Connie Francis in 1960. A polka-style version in German, "Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel", was the first German single recorded and released by Connie Francis, and it reached No. 1 on the single chart in 1960 in West Germany.
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"Il cielo in una stanza" is a song written by Gino Paoli and originally recorded by Italian singer Mina for the album of the same name. The song was released as a single in June 1960 by Italdisc. It became a commercial success in Italy, topping the charts for eleven consecutive weeks and later returning to number one for three additional weeks. It is also Mina's best-selling single in Italy, with estimated sales of 400.000 copies.
"Nessun grado di separazione" is a song recorded by Italian singer Francesca Michielin. Written by Michielin herself along with Cheope, Federica Abbate and Fabio Gargiulo; the song was produced by Michele Canova. Placed second in the Sanremo Music Festival 2016, the song released as a single from the reissued version of Michielin's second studio album, di20are. A bilingual English and Italian version of the song called "No Degree of Separation" represented Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 held in Stockholm, Sweden.
