Dear Friends,
I just landed a new job at a very nice Italian restaurant. I'm to play there every Thursday evening from 6 to 10 pm. There is no dance floor so this is dinner music (vocal & instrumental). The management wants about 1/3 Italian oriented music (including American hits by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra). I’ve got the other 2/3s covered but I need help finding Italian songs. I have and already play the typical Tarantellas, Bouna Sera, That’s Amore, Volare, O Sole Mio, Santa Lucia, Ciribiribin, Eh Cumpari, Finiculi Funicula, Anema E. Core, Come Back To Sorrento and so fourth (I do not use midi files).
While all these are good and useful, they will not come close to filling my needs 4 hours a gig week after week at the same place. I don’t have time to transcribe songs from recordings so I guess I’m needing the songs to be in printed notation form. For my purposes “fake book” (lead sheet) format would be ideal. Do any of you know where I might obtain such a collection(s) of Italian songs?
Thanks,
Deaton

Deaton,

If you can perform Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett songs, just a fraction of those, you could spend all night playing just those three and never take a break.

Good Luck,

Gary

Gary,
That is very true. But I need some authentic Italian songs to go with the more "Americanized" songs.
Thanks,
DVJ

Donny,
Thanks for all those midi files. Most of them make for some very enjoyable listening. I put a couple of them through PowerTracks Pro V.8 and generated very usable lead sheets. PTP has a nice feature that generates chord symbols from midi files.
Best Regards,
Deaton

your very welcome .....Enjoy them....


Ciao

You could probably find a song book of Italian songs as recorded by Jerry Vale also, i.e. Non Dimenticar, Innamorata, Ti Voglio Bene, etc. .... I was working an Italian restaurant in RI a few years ago, and as I walked in one Saturday night, I see Jerry Vale and his family having dinner... Later he brought his small grandson up to listen ... I was definitely nervous, but he was a real nice guy...
t.

The problem is that the most popular music and artists in Italy today are largely unknown in the states. If you wanted some real popular Italian music to play then you should be seeking out some collections by Lucio Dalla, Claudio Baglione, Gino Paoli, Pino Daniele and others. However, unless your clientele has spent time in Italy recently or keeps tabs on the current music scene back home, they are unlikely to recognize most of these songs.

Sticking with the more "americanized" stuff, there's a new CD out called (unfortunately) "Mob Hits". This is full of songs which might be appropriate for this gig. Just my 2c

Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris A (edited 08-31-2003).]

Deaton,
the songs you named are all very aged. So, without following Chris idea, you should search for "middle-age" italian artists, from 1965 to 1990.

I surely forget someone, but you can search for names like:

(males) Claudio Villa, Massimo Ranieri, Gianni Morandi, Tony Renis, Little Tony, Bobby Solo, Adriano Celentano, Pino Donaggio, Sergio Endrigo, Teddy Reno, Nicola di Bari, Fred Bongusto, Bruno Lauzi

(females) Nilla Pizzi, Iva Zanicchi, Anna Identici, Rita Pavone, Gigliola Cinquetti, Mina, Marisa Sannia, Ornella Vanoni, Wilma Goich, Milva, Betty Curtis

Another clue: in Italy we have a big yearly songs festival called SanRemo. In this page:
http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/sanremo/

you will find the list of each song of any year, along with the singer. Note that, around 1965, they presented the songs in both italian and international version, so you will have the same song singed by an italian singers (with italian words) and by an international singer (almost all from USA, England or France) with translated (and adapted) lirycs.

Good luck!

If you wanna hear some fantastic Italian Songs performed by a friend of mine who grew up with Andrea Bocelli in Pisa Italy, whom I have also played shows with here in the USA, take a listen to Moreno Fruzzetti CD's....
http://www.morenofruzzetti.com/

I thought I'd better jump in while this topic is on the board, but does anyone have the lyrics to a 1975 Italian hit titled 'Due', by an artist named Drupi?

I was on holiday in Liguria that year and the song seemed to be everywhere, and the melody has always been in the back of my head. Is there a good site anywhere for Italian lyrics that might just have this song in its listings?

Thanks.