Pickled Egg Jukebox-Your Selections

[mickthemaverick]

We were talking about the voice being a musical instrument the other day and I have just come across this song from one of my true favourite singers which demonstrates that idea better than most. The range, the power, the actualisation of emotion and the absolute tunefulness are all there:

[mickthemaverick]

Here's another couple of voices that made an impression on me all those years ago:

[mickthemaverick]

Another accomplished voice with a surprise for Steve!!

[myglaren]

Not to my taste Mick, deplore musicals. Didn't spot the surprise either, unless the little girl is Laura Pausini?

[mickthemaverick]

No it was Luisa Di Meo. I thought you might enjoy her voice Steve!!

This anecdote explains it all:

Three days ago, I took a train to a little village close to Naples to interview Luisa Di Meo.
That is what she told me:
‘Contrary to what some people think, I did not meet Mario in Via Veneto. When Mario came to Rome, he stayed at the Bernini Hotel in Piazza Barberini. It was the first or the second day he was there. I was singing in the square while my brother was playing the accordion. Once I finished my song, we started walking away from the square. As we were walking, a man followed us and stopped us. He asked us ‘please, can you stop for a moment?’. My brother asked him ‘what is it?’. He replied ‘there is a man who wants to hear your sister singing one more time’. So I sung again, and I looked up, and saw Mario, Betty and their children looking at us from the fourth floor. The man who stopped me in the street was Mario’s private chauffeur and once I had finished singing, he came back to see me and handed to us a 10,000 Lire banknote! You know, the big banknote of those days! The man told my brother that that gift was Mario Lanza’s gift. He added that Mario had come to Rome to make a movie and had read in the script that they needed a little girl who could sing. This man then gave my brother the address of the Production Company, Titanus, and told us to go there for the casting. I was 12 years old, I remember well what happened.
When we went there, there were a lot little girls waiting in line. But Mario wanted me, he really wanted me because he had already heard me.
They gave me so much money. I remember when we did the recording, in Via Margutta. I remember all the details.
I know Mario like my singing. I used to sing in Neapolitan and Mario loved Neapolitan. He liked it because he WAS Caruso….
The Producers did not want to pay me much, because we were in 1957, in Italy there was no money. There was poverty. But they had money and my brother insisted in asking more of it, and used to argue with the two Directors, especially with Mario Russo, the Italian Director. In the end, also because Mario only wanted me, they gave me 500,000 Lire. On the day we recorded the song in Piazza Navona, I was sick. I had influenza. I just could not sing, and we spent almost the whole day there trying to shoot that scene. My mother, a few days before, had come from Naples to be with me. We were staying in a small hotel. Every day, the chauffeur would come to the hotel to bring me my meals. They were feeding me well because they wanted me to recover quickly.
I studied with Maestro Carlo Rustichelli.
The man who plays the accordion in the movie is not my brother, by the way. My brother was 19 years old at the time.
Before making the movie, I went to Mario’s house many times and used to play with his children. I always Mario in the huge living room on the ground-floor. He would be sitting there alone, drinking wine from the old fashioned flask of wine. As I would pass by him, he would stop me and say ‘You know you must come to America with me, right?’ and I would giggle.
After the movie with Mario, I was called by Pietro Germi, a famous Italian Director, to sing the soundtrack of one of his movies (‘Il Maledetto Imbroglio’), but my brother destroyed my chances by hitting him on the face.
Betty was very beautiful, always very elegant. She was always following Mario. She was so in love with him. Mario was more reserved, and not as ‘clingy’ as she was with him.
Marisa Allasio was so beautiful. She liked Mario a lot. She was in love with him and for this reason Mario slapped her once. He told her ‘how do you dare coming after me! I am married and have four children!’ I was not there when this happened, but everybody on the set knew this, and they were often talking about it. Betty had sensed there was something wrong. She was jealous. That is why she started going to the set every day. Mario was not that pleased about it, but he would not say anything.
For me this was strange because I was a little girl and for me he was like a father figure.
My brother brought to the set every day. He wanted me to get used to that kind of environment.Renato Rascel was very kind to me. He used to kiss me and tell me ‘Ah, you are the girl who stole all my songs!’.
After the movie, I went back home.
I got married two years later, when I was 14 years old.
Mario loved his children very much. He used to play with them all the time. That is why he liked me, because I was his children’s age. Betty was not so involved with the children. She was often in her bedroom, on her own. Villa Badoglio was so big.
Mario’s grandfather was very kind to me as well. I remember him crying at Mario's funeral.
Marc was very beautiful.
Ellisa has always been very thin and looks like her Mamma.
Mario was always very generous, and I can still feel his hand on my shoulder when he would stop me to tell I was going to America with him.
Towards the end of the movie, Mario changed. He started to eat too much and looked very unhappy. When I started going to Villa Badoglio he was always very cheerful, but then something changed. He was not himself anymore.
I think because they were trying to force him to do something he did not want to do. He was too honest. He could have had an affair with Marisa Allasio, but he was too honest.
I do not think he had other women. He came from such a beautiful, traditional family. He was very handsome. There were always women around him. But he was such a good, generous man. He truly wanted to help me. Just after we completed the movie, the Carabinieri (the military Police) went to my parents’ house to ask their official permission for me to go to America, because I was under age. But then Mario died. And I stopped singing.’

I already knew about Mario slapping Marisa. In my collection I have an Italian magazine printed in 1957, at the time when the movie was being made, and it mentioned the anecdote. Now I know it was true!

[mickthemaverick]

How about a classic piece of guitar music without a guitar?

[myglaren]

No it was Luisa Di Meo. I thought you might enjoy her voice Steve!!

This anecdote explains it all:

Three days ago, I took a train to a little village close to Naples to interview Luisa Di Meo.
That is what she told me:
‘Contrary to what some people think, I did not meet Mario in Via Veneto. When Mario came to Rome, he stayed at the Bernini Hotel in Piazza Barberini. It was the first or the second day he was there. I was singing in the square while my brother was playing the accordion. Once I finished my song, we started walking away from the square. As we were walking, a man followed us and stopped us. He asked us ‘please, can you stop for a moment?’. My brother asked him ‘what is it?’. He replied ‘there is a man who wants to hear your sister singing one more time’. So I sung again, and I looked up, and saw Mario, Betty and their children looking at us from the fourth floor. ..

All new to me Mick, had never heard of her nor seen the musical.

[myglaren]

[NewcastleFalcon]

Easy one Who is this then?

Pretty famous, also plays the mandolin which is flavour of the Falcon month and strutting his stuff in the wilds of the Yorkshire Dales at Carperby Village Institute. If anyone is familiar with his work please do post something up, otherwise we will have to fall back on a Falcon selection.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well, can't say it's been easy to find something from the youtube offerings from Chris/Fairport Convention/St Agnes Fountain that I actually like.

This is a bit cringe-ey but not a bad little tongue-in-cheek ditty just as an example. I'm sure he has better stuff in his repertoire.



Regards Neil

[myglaren]

[NewcastleFalcon]

This popped up on Jo Whiley's theme the other night which was Owen Wilson Movies. This was part of the soundtrack of "The Royal Tenenbaums", one of a couple of Jackson Browne Songs sung by Nico used in the movie. She has a distinctive sound. The other song was "The fairest of the seasons"



Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Prompted by this morning's heardles

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wonder what the connection is here, from a film with an excellent soundtrack by Francis Lai, which incidentally also includes the "Panorama" theme, and a beautiful jazz version of "L'amour est bien plus fort que nous"...seek and find.



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Looks like a severe lack of curiosity on the FCF on Sunday 27th November 2022. Claudine Longet was married to Andy Williams from 1961-1975.

The panorama tune is part of this from the soundtrack of the film



and the Falcon's top track from the soundtrack



Regards Neil