Music Graffiti / Italian Beat - Covers (45rpm singles)

Italian Beat - 45 rpm Covers


During the sixties music became more important than ever before, and the music we listen to now, rock, pop, and other genres is, for the most part, a prosecution of styles invented or restarded during these years. In this section is proposed a selection of 45 rpm singles edited in Italy during the sixties. Many of these singles were edited by Italian groups ("complessi beat") sometimes famous at their time (Rokes, Camaleonti, Equipe 84, Dik Dik) sometimes not.

Also available: A list of "complessi beat"

Covers selection


	Anonima Sound Fuori piove Parla tu	Anonima Sound L'amore mio l'amore tuo I tetti

	Antoine Pietre La felicità	Le Bisce La danza della morte Una che dice sì

	Bisonti La tua ombra (mi segue) Lui non vuole	Bisonti Occhi di sole Crudele

	Califfi Fogli di quaderno La bellezza	Califfi Acqua e sapone Lei non mi tradirebbe

	Camaleonti Sha La La La La Tu credi in me	Camaleonti Punto bianco Non cade il mondo

	Camaleonti L'ora dell'amore Noi e gli altri	Camaleonti Non c'è niente di nuovo Vita facile (11)

	Brunetta Solo per poco tempo Dove vai?	Caterina Caselli Sono bugiarda Incubo n.4

	Caterina Caselli Nessuno mi può giudicare Se lo dici tu (8)	Caterina Caselli Il volto della vita Disperatamente io ti amo (9)

	Caterina Caselli Sole spento Il giorno	Caterina Caselli L'orologio (10) Bagnata come un pulcino

	Caterina Caselli Cento giorni Tutto nero (Paint It Black)	Catherine Spaak Prima di te ... dopo di te ... Noi due

	Catherine Spaak Quelli della mia età (Tous les garçons et les filles) Ho scherzato con il cuore (J'ai jeté mon coeur) (13)	Catherine Spaak L'esercito del surf Mi fai paura

	Casuals Massachussetts Jennifer Brown	Cavernicoli Non hai pietà Se vuoi restare sola

	Chetro & Co Danze della sera (2) Le pietre numerate	Chetro & Co Danze della sera Le pietre numerate

	Corvi Un ragazzo di strada Datemi una lacrima per piangere	Corvi Bang Bang Che notte ragazzi

	Corvi Quando quell'uomo ritornerà Si prega sempre quando è tardi	Corvi Bambolina Nemmeno una lacrima

	Delfini Tu te ne vai Domani penserai a me	Michel Delpech L'isola di Wight (5) Wight Is Wight

	Dik Dik Il vento (Mogol-Battisti) L’esquimese (Mighty Quinn – B. Dylan, Manfred Mann)	Dik Dik Se io fossi un falegname (Tim Hardin) Il Mondo è con noi (Mamas & Papas)

	Dik Dik L'isola di Wight (5) (Wight Is Wight) Innamorato	Dik Dik Zucchero Piccola arancia

	Evy L'abito non fa il beatnik Good Golly Miss Molly	Dino Te lo leggo negli occhi Cerca di capire

	Don Backy L'ombra nel sole Tu piangevi	Don Backy Ho rimasto Sono solo

	Equipe 84 Papà e Mammà Quel che ti ho dato	Equipe 84 Bang Bang (Cher) Auschwitz (Guccini)

	Equipe 84 Un giorno tu mi cercherai L'antisociale	Equipe 84 29 settembre È dall’amore che nasce l’uomo

	Generali La vita è una battaglia Pensaci un po'	Ricky Gianco La mia voce .. e quando Quanto tempo passerà (disco tris, Cantagiro 1965)

	Ghigo Agosti (Ghigo) Coccinella Stazione del Rock (12)	Ghigo Agosti (Mister Anima) Non voglio pietà Solitude Time

	Ghigo Agosti (Mister Anima) La mia passeggiata Attrazione	Ghigo Agosti (Probus Harlem) A Whiter Shade Of Pale Hold On I'm Coming

	Giganti Tema La bomba atomica	Giganti Una ragazza in due Lezione di ritmo

	Giganti Da bambino Tabù	Giganti Proposta La tomba dell'amore

	Gianni Morandi C’era un ragazzo … (4) Se perdo anche te	Giois Questo mio mondo ... e la vita ora continua

	Jonathan & Michelle Occhiali da sole Ai margini del mondo	Luigi Tenco Ciao amore ciao E se ci diranno

	Michel Polnareff Una bambolina che fa no, no, no... La lezione del capellone	(Vedi anche il frontespizio dello spartito di questo brano di Michel Polnareff)

	Patty Pravo (14) Ragazzo triste The Pied Piper	Patty Pravo Se perdo te Lettera a Gianni

	Patty Pravo La bambola Se c'è l'amore	Profeti Non si muore per amore Odissea d'amore

	Quelli Tornare bambino Questa città senza te	Riky Maiocchi Ma l'amore no Un'altra vita

	Ribelli Chi sarà la ragazza Quella donna	Ribelli Goodbye Josephine

	Ribelli Obladì Obladà Lei m'ama	Renegades Un giorno tu mi cercherai (1) Una rosa da Vienna


	Renegades John Fitzgerald Kennedy Il più grande amico	Renegades (6) Lettere d'amore Vino e campagna

	Roby Crispiano Quando ritorno al mio paese Il messaggio	Roby Crispiano Uomini Uomini Solo io e te

	Rokes Bisogna saper perdere Non far finta di no	Rokes Ascolta nel vento Il primo sintomo

	Rokes Che colpa abbiamo noi (3) Piangi con me	Rokes Io vivrò senza te Lascia l’ultimo ballo per me

	Rokes Che mondo strano (33 giri)	Rokes Ma che freddo fa Per te per me

	Rokes Cercate di abbracciare tutto il mondo come noi Regency Sue	Rokes Eccola di nuovo Mi ricordo quando ero bambino

	Rokketti (6) Black Time L'amaro in bocca	Ricky Shayne Stanotte Di me cosa ne sai? (Black is Black - Los Bravos)

	Satelliti Babababa-ba (With A Girl Like You) Quando sei con me	Ricky Shayne Uno dei Mods Cosa pensi di me

Some additional information


(1)	The Renegades where a British group that soon after their first success in UK (Cadillac) started to travel and work all around Europe, mainly in Italy and in Finland. In Italy they issued many discs singing in Italian, including also a participation at the Sanremo Festival, together with the most famous Italian group (Equipe 84). Their Italian production was more sentimental and traditional than "beat" and their success in the mediterranean country was weak, even if they were quite famous. (see their discography)
(2)	Chetro & Co was a minor group, but a remarkable one. Founded by Ettore De Carolis, after this experience he became an appreciated folk musicians with his group Il Nuovo Canzoniere del Lazio. The song on A side is indeed very close to beat genre, with some aperture to the new psychedelic mood, and it's based on a poetry work written by the famous Italian novelist, film director and poet Pierpaolo Pasolini; the B side was based on the tune Milestones of Miles Davis ("Le pietre numerate" is the translation of "milestones" in Italian). The single cover was folded on many parts and very complex, with a collage of many photos, sometimes ironic (“Il sistema compra Bob Dylan”, that is: "Bob Dylan sells itself to the system"). You can see all the photos here.
(3)	Italian cover, totally unrelated (lyrics by Mogol, the most famous Italian lyrics' author) of Bob Lind's tune Cheryl’s Going Home. It was the greater success in the whole Italian beat era. The Rokes, a British group, became after this hit the number 1 in Italy, together with the Italian group Equipe 84. (See the discography)
(4)	Gianni Morandi, the most successfull Italian singer during the sixties, proposing up to then only pop songs, tried to credit himself also as a Beat singer with this disc. He was actually very young and very sympathetic with the new ideas of the sixties and, with the help of Mauro Lusini, an author of folk and beat songs, (toghether with him on the cover, on the right) he issued this song ("There was a boy that as me loved the Beatles and the Rolling Stones") about Vietnam war. A not usual argument in Italy at that time, when the Italian television accurately avoided to speak explicitely of the war and of the difficulties that the US forces were facing (the Italian government was then a very loyal allied of the american one). The song was a success, entering in the Top-10, but not a huge one (Morandi was a n.1 guy). The song became anyway a "protest song" very well known in Italy, sung together during the seventies by the students. On the B-side, prudentially, the producers issued a more conventional cover from an american pop song (Solitary Man of Neil Diamond), in Italian "Se perdo anche te", that reached a more brilliant success.
(5)	The original song was the international success "Wight Is Wight" written by the French musician Michel Delpech, and inspired to the rock festival of 1968 in the South England island, with Hendrix, Doors, Who and even Miles Davis. A very slow and traditional song, anyway, totally unrelated with the event, as far as the cover showing the members of Dik Dik (one of the most famous groups in Italy) in the middle of a street.
(6)	Sometimes the covers of the Italian beat era were very scarse. This is an example. The Renegades are covering here two songs: the very well known "Love Letters" of Elvis Presley ("Lettere d'amore" in Italian) and The Camp of the danish group Sir Henry & His Butlers. This was originally an instrumental tune, but was added to it new lyrics inspired to the rural life ("wine and country") following an effimeral tendence of that period in Italian music ("Il ballo di Peppe" of the Cugini di campagna, Il Ballo di Simone of Giuliano e i notturni). Impossible to understand why the Renegades are wearing renaissance suits.
(7)	The group I Rokketti was quite appreciated in Italy during the sixties. This song is a strong R&B, an original, based on a difficult love between a black boy and a white girl.
(8)	Caterina Caselli, started her career as the bass player and singer in his group Gli Amici, and was also one of the first "queen" of the famous italian dance hall Piper Club of Rome (that started the activities on February, 1965). During the sixties she became one of the most popular female singer in Italy, together with Patty Pravo, starting with his international hit Nessuno mi può giudicare ("Nobody must judge me"), proposed at the Sanremo Festival in 1966 together with the american singer Gene Pitney. After this period and many other hits (Perdono, Cento giorni, Tutto nero, Io sono bugiarda, Il volto della vita) she started a different career, becoming the owner of one of the most important italian labels (Sugar) and the producer of Italian musicians famous in Italy and in the world, as Elisa and Andrea Bocelli.
(9)	Italian cover of the international hit Days of Pearly Spencer di David Mc William.
(10)	This song L'orologio wasn't a success. On the B-side an interesting experiment, the song Bagnata come un pulcino sung in the dialect of Modena, the town in Emilia region in which the singer was born. In Italy they are still present many dialects, related to the Italian language but sometimes, as in this case, very difficult to understand for an Italian coming from the South or the Central regions. An interesting cover inspired to the psychhedelic style.
(11)	Non c'è niente di nuovo ("Nothing new here") was the song proposed by the Camaleonti during the Cantagiro in 1967. The Cantagiro was a very popular event, inspired to the bike contests (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia) and travelling all around Italy during the summer. The Camaleonti group was another of the most popular in Italy at that time, their former singer Riky Maiocchi has left the year before for a solo career and Mario Lavezzi and Tonino Cripezzi were the new components of the band.
(12)	Ghigo Agosti started to sing professionaly during the fifties, and he was among the first in Italy to sing R&B and rock songs (Stazione del rock, Coccinella), together with other "rockers", all from Milan, very famous in the following years (Adriano Celentano, Giorgio Gaber, Enzo Jannacci, Guidone, Ricky Gianco, Clem Sacco). During the sixties he formed the group Ghigo & i Goghi, he proposed a cover of Shout! and then he assumed other identities, as Mr. Anima (Mr. Soul), than Probus Harlem and lastly the psychedelic Black Sunday Flower.
(13)	Catherine Spaak, daughter of the former belgian premier and living in Italy, was an young actress extremely popular in Italy during the sixties. She started also a career as a singer with the cover in Italian of the hit of Francoise Hardy "Tous les garcons et le filles" (in Italian "I ragazzi della mia età") and other songs, the most popular one being "L'esercito del surf" ("surf army")
(14)	Patty Pravo was the most popular Italian singer during the sixties, probably even more of Caterina Caselli and Mina. She started to be famous as "la ragazza del Piper" ("the Piper Club's girl") following the great success of this dance hall located in the center of Rome, and she had very soon the opportunity to issue several discs. In the beginning she followed the "beat" style, but her greater hits were more popular and traditional songs, as "La bambola" ("the doll"), over 9 million copies solds in Europe.

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