Composer revived popularity of the traditional Neapolitan song
Renato Carosone wrote such classic songs as Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano and Mambo Italiano |
His 1956 song Tu vuo’ fa’ l’Americano - 'You want to be American' - has been used in films and performed by many famous singers right up to the present day.
Torero, a song released by him in 1957, was translated into 12 languages and was at the top of the US pop charts for 14 weeks.
Carosone studied the piano at the Naples Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella and obtained his diploma in 1937, when he was just 17. He went to work as a pianist in Addis Ababa and then served in the army on the Italian Somali front. He did not return to Italy until 1946, after the end of the Second World War.
Back home, he had to start his career afresh and moved to Rome, where he played the piano for small bands.
Carosone's Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano featured in a 1958 movie starring Totò |
When Van Houten left to pursue a solo career, Di Giacomo remained with Carosone and they recruited more musicians to form a new band.
The band was popular both in Italy and abroad during the 1950s and the songs Carosone composed, many inspired by his native city, achieved high sales after being recorded.
In 1957, Carosone and his band started off a US tour with a concert in Cuba and finished off with a triumphant performance at Carnegie Hall in New York.
In 1960, Carosone made the shock announcement that he was retiring. He was at the height of his career and his decision caused uproar. It was even suggested that he had received criminal threats, but nothing was ever proved. Away from the music business, Carosone took up painting.
He made a comeback in 1975 in a televised concert. He then performed in live concerts and at the Sanremo Music Festival, continuing to make TV appearances until the late 1990s.
Carosone retired from the music scene in 1960 but made a comeback at the 1975 Sanremo Music Festival |
Carosone's original version of Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano was performed by him in the film Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche (directed by Mario Mattoli, 1958). The song was featured in the 1960 Melville Shavelson film It Started in Naples, in which it was sung by Sophia Loren. It was also performed by Rosario Fiorello in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley.
The melodies of Carosone, influenced by jazz and swing, helped revive the popularity of Neapolitan songs, which he presented in a modern manner.
Carosone died in 2001 in Rome at the age of 81 and was buried in the Flaminio Cemetery in the city.
Carosone's boyhood home in Naples was in a street close to the historic square, the vast Piazza Mercato |
Carosone lived as a child in Vico dei Tornieri, in the historic centre of Naples near Piazza Mercato, which is now a lively commercial area, but was once the setting for the city’s important executions. He studied the piano at the Naples Conservatory, which has been housed in a monastery next to the Church of San Pietro a Majella since 1826. The church and monastery are in Via San Pietro a Majella, which leads off the top of Via dei Tribunali.
The Cimitero Flaminio in Rome, where Carosone was buried, is the largest cemetery in the city |
Carosone was laid to rest in the Cimitero Flaminio in Via Flaminio in Rome, which is also known as Cimitero di Prima Porta, and is the largest cemetery in the city. Prima Porta is a suburb of Rome on the right bank of the Tiber. An important marble statue of Augustus Caesar was discovered in the area in 1863.
More reading:
The classic songs of Cesare Andrea Bixio
Giambattista De Curtis - the man behind Torna a Surriento
Why Totò is still regarded as Italy's finest funny man
Also on this day:
1698: The birth of poet and librettist Pietro Metastasio
1929: The birth of film director Sergio Leone
1952: The birth of politician Gianfranco Fini
Watch Renato Carosone and his musicians perform Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano
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