Italian pop between the late 1950s and much of the '60s was unbeatable. Aimed at romantic adults, many of the new love songs were composed with passion, sung with vulnerability and backed by large orchestration. One can only assume that Chet Baker's voice played a role in inspiring the wave of pale, aching voices and lyrical music. [Photo above of Ornella Vanoni and Gino Paoli in 1961, courtesy of eBay]
With the rise of this movement, there were numerous Italian singers who did well on the Italian charts and became superstars on Italian TV variety shows. The list includes Mina, Jimmy Fontana, Fabrizio Fabretti, Ornella Vanoni, Gino Paoli, Gianni Morandi, Jenny Luna and so many others. Their voices were pure and they were deeply into what they were singing.
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One of the finest pop songs of this movement was Gino Paoli's Senza Fine, which loosely translated means Eternal or Forever. It was a round, meaning the song, like Row, Row, Row Your Boat, could go on forever since the end reconnects with the beginning. Senza Fine was so beautiful that more than 40 recordings of the song were recorded by jazz artists, including Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass, and singers Georgia Mancio and Monica Mancini.
Today, 10 video clips of the song from the early 1960s:
Here's Gino Paoli singing his song on an Italian variety show. If you don't want to listen to the Italian small talk, move the space bar to 2:40, where Paoli begins a medley of his hits. The second one is Senza Fine, which meets with strong audience applause...
Here's Paoli singing his hit on another show...
The first Italian singer to record Paoli's song was Ornella Vanoni. It was a massive hit. Here are three TV appearances by Vanoni:
Here's one in 1961 just after she had success in Italy with the song...
Here she is in 1968...
And here she is in 1973...
Here's Jula De Palma in 1961...
If you want to hear what surely must have been one of the inspirations for We Are the World, here are a group of Italy's top pop singers of the day singing the song. A shame the entire clip isn't here (be sure to immediately unclick the muted volume button; each singer is identified)...
And finally, here's one of the best American pop versions, by Dean Martin...
More? The song was used as the love theme in the 1965 film The Flight of the Phoenix. Here's the vocal by Connie Francis, arranged by Frank de Vol...
And here's Wes Montgomery swinging it, as only he could. The arranger was Johnny Pate...
Bonus: Here's Joe Pass...
