“Mambo Italiano” is a song written by Bob Merrill in 1954 for the American singer Rosemary Clooney. Merrill reportedly wrote it under a recording deadline, scribbling hastily on a paper napkin in an Italian restaurant in New York City, and then using the wall pay-phone to dictate the melody, rhythm and lyrics to the studio pianist, under the aegis of the conductor Mitch Miller, who produced the original record. Alongside Merrill, ‘Lidianni’ and ‘Gabba’ are also listed as writers of the song, corresponding to the pseudonyms of the Italian lyricists Gian Carlo Testoni and Gaspare Abbate, respectively. The song became a hit for Clooney, reaching the Top Ten in record charts in the US and France and No. 1 in the UK Singles chart early in 1955. The song has shown enduring popularity, with several cover versions and appearances in numerous films.
“Torero-Cha Cha Cha” is a song by Renato Carosone and his Sextet. Carosone was a prominent figure of the Italian music scene in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a modern performer of the so-called canzone napoletana, a traditional music genre from Naples. Carosone was one of the first post-war Italian artists who sold records and toured in the US without singing in English. His song “Torero”, entered the charts in the United States in the summer of 1958. “Torero” was translated into twelve languages and covered by almost thirty artists in the US alone. It also charted at No.25 in the UK.
“Nel blu, dipinto di blu” (‘In the blue-painted blue [sky]’), popularly known as “Volare” (‘To fly’), is a song originally recorded by Italian singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno. Written by Modugno and Franco Migliacci, it was released as a single in February 1958. The song spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard in August and September 1958, and subsequently became Billboard’s number-one single for the year. In 1959, at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards, Modugno’s recording became the first ever Grammy winner for both Record and Song of the Year. Winning the eighth Sanremo Music Festival, the song was chosen as the Italian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958, where it came in third place out of ten songs in total. The combined sales of all the versions of the song exceed 22 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular Eurovision songs of all time and one of the most successful Sanremo Music Festival songs ever. In the United Kingdom, the single debuted at number 15 in September 1958, and the following week it rose and peaked at number ten.
“La Bamba” is a Mexican folk song, originally from the state of Veracruz, also known as La Bomba. The oldest recorded version known is that of Alvaro Hernández Ortiz, who recorded the song with the name of “El Jarocho”. His recording was released on the Victor label in Mexico in 1938 or 1939, and was reissued on a 1997 compilation by Yazoo Records, The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 4. The song is best known from a 1958 adaptation by Ritchie Valens, a Top 40 hit in the U.S. charts. Valens’s version is ranked number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Valens version of the song did not chart in the UK until 1997 when co-incided with the release of a bio-pic of his life.
“Morgen” is a popular song (1959), originally performed in German by Croatian singer Ivo Robic and The Song-Masters, accompanied by Bert Kaempfert and his orchestra. “Morgen” was written by Peter Moesser, the song became a hit in West Germany, and later on the US charts in 1959 where it peaked at #13. It also spent 1 week in the UK charts at No. 25 in November of 1959. It was outsold by an English language version of the song, recorded by Dickie Valentine as ‘One More Morning’ which reached No. 14.
