Funiculì, Funiculà is a Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza to lyrics by Peppino Turco. It was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius. It was presented by Turco and Denza at the Piedigrotta festival the same year. The sheet music was published by Rocordi and sold over a million copies within a year. Since its publication, it has been widely adapted and recorded. In Turco’s original lyrics, a young man compares his sweetheart to a volcano, and invites her to join him in a romantic trip to the summit. Edward Oxenford, a lyricist and translator of librettos, wrote lyrics, with scant relationship to those of the original version, that became traditional in English-speaking countries. His version of the song often appears with the title “A Merry Life”.
Denza composed the song in his hometown of Castellammare di Stabia with lyrics contributed by journalist Peppino Turco. It was Turco who prompted Denza to compose it, perhaps as a joke, to commemorate the opening of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius in that year. The song was sung for the first time in the Quisisana Hotel in Castellammare di Stabia and became immensely popular in Italy and abroad. Published by Casa Ricordi, the sheet music sold over a million copies in a year.
Over the years the song has been performed by many artists including Joseph Schmidt, Mario Lanza, The Mills Brothers and Connie Francis. In 1960, Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman wrote a new set of English lyrics to the melody of “Funiculì, Funiculà” with the title “Dream Boy”. Annette Funicello included the song on her album of Italian songs titled Italiannette and also released it as a single that became a minor hit.
Music publishers Spear & Dehnhoff of New York City published sheet music for a song titled “Tra-la-la-lee” in 1884, subtitled “A popular dancing song, adapted and arranged by W. T. Harris.” It contains English lyrics set to Denza’s “Funiculì, Funiculà” melody, and contains no attribution to Denza. German composer Richard Strauss heard the song while on a tour of Italy six years after it was written. He thought that it was a traditional Neapolitan folk song and incorporated it into his Aus Italien tone poem. Denza filed a lawsuit against him and won, and Strauss was forced to pay him a royalty fee. Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also mistook “Funiculì, Funiculà” for a traditional folk song and used it in his 1907 “Neapolitanskaya pesenka” (Neapolitan Song).
The song is used in the 2004 video game Spider-Man 2, a tie-in to Sam Raimi’s film of the same name. In the movie and in the game, Spider-Man’s alter ego Peter Parker has a job delivering pizzas. In the game, the player must deliver pizzas to various places throughout New York City before a shortened accordion and flute version of “Funiculì, Funiculà” finishes playing. As the game version of the song progresses, the tempo increases and the key shifts progressively higher, indicating that the song is nearing its end. This caused the song to be highly associated with pizza. Today, it is now known as an internet meme. The song is used again in Insomniac Games’ 2023 game, Spider-Man 2. It plays outside a pizzeria in Queens, likely referencing its prior usage in the 2004 game.
