Italian music in Brazil 1963 to 1969: CHANTECLER-RICORDI singles

Chantecler started out as a Brazilian country music label in 1957. Then it branched out as a medium for boleros, guarânias, sambas and other popular rhythms. Three years later - 1961 - Chantecer had become a powerhouse, competing with multinationals the likes of RCA, Columbia, CBS and EMI.

Chantecler signed with Ricordi Records, the second biggest Italian label coming just after RCA Italiana - to press and distribute its products. So it was only natural Chantecler came a strong second place in the Italian music scene in Brazil.

I had always been a fan of RCA's acts - buying most of its compilation albums as soon as they were released. I had a neighbour called Laura who was 16 or 17. She was an orphan and lived with her mother and an older sister in a small house in the back of the place we lived at Vila Madalena. Laura bought Bobby Solo's 'Una lacrima sul viso' and one day she lent it to me. I thought the disc itself had a lower quality than those of RCA. On the other hand Chantecler always had better sleeves han RCA with a clear plastic to protect the picture-sleeve.

I hardly ever bought singles because I thought it wasn't economic. One would pay half the price of an album and got only 2 songs instead of the 12 tracks of a long play.

Partial list of Italian singles - compactos-simples - release by Chantecler 1963-1969

6008 - Quando, quando, quando / Vola colomba - Emilio Pericoli
6011 - Una lacrima sul viso / Non ne posso più - Bobby Solo 1964
6041 - Blue è blu / Marrone - Bobby Solo
6056 - Grazie tante (Glad all over) / C'è una cosa che non sai - Giorgio Gaber
6058 - L' esercito del surf / Mi fai paura - Catherine Spaak
6063 - Siamo pagliacci / Domani ti sposerai - Ornella Vanoni

6081 - Chiedo pietà / Quando saprò che tu mi ami - Sergio Ruffo
6082 - Tu si' na cosa grande / Ammore mio - Ornella Vanoni (Festival di Napoli '64)
6091 - Fais attention / Pinne, fucile ed occhiali - Pierre Wlady
6099 - Cristina / In vita mia - Bobby Solo

6100 - Mi sono innamorato di te / Una brava ragazza - Luigi Tenco
6101 - Se piangi, se ridi / Sarò un illuso - Bobby Solo 1965
6123 - Se mi vuoi, mi vuoi / La nostra primavera - Catherine Spaak

6134 - My girl / Shame and scandal in the family - Shawn Elliott (Roulette)
6135 - Artza alinu / Tzena, tzena, tzena, tzena / Papirossen - The Barry Sisters (Roulette)
6139 - Io ritorno a casa mia / Perchè sei legata a me? - Paolo Mosca (Cantagiro '65)

6140 - Abbi pietà / Sono qui e sono solo - Gianni di Cristina (Cantagiro '65)

6142 - Abbracciami forte / Non voglio più - Ornella Vanoni

6151 - Evviva la felicità / Un giorno o l'altro tu piangerai - Mary Di Pietro
6169 - Io ti darò di più / Splendore nell'erba - Ornella Vanoni 1966
6180 - Ringo, dove vai? (Ringo, come to fight) / La casa del Signore (Crying in the chapel) - Bobby Solo
6181 - Apro gli occhi per non vederti / Tu mi hai baciato l'altra sera - Ornella Vanoni

6192 - Questa volta / Un mattino senza sole - Bobby Solo
6197 - Io ho in mente te (You were on my mind) / Resta (Stay) - Equipe 84
6198 - Un giorno se ne va / Chi mi aiuterà? - I Ribelli

6204 - Senza fine / Non dirmi niente - Ornella Vanoni
6205 - Josephine please no lean on the bell / A walking miracle - Shawn Elliott (Roulette)
6206 - Hanky panky / Thunderbolt - Tommy James & the Shondells (Roulette) - 1966
6208 - Questo è il momento / Tutta la gente del mondo (Canfora-Wertmüller) - Ornella Vanoni

6213 - Pippo non lo sa / Uno, due, tre se marci insieme a me - Rita Pavone

6221 - Canzone / La luna (San Remo '68) - Milva
6230 - Gli occhi miei (San Remo '68) / La tua città - Wilma Goich
6235 - Siesta (Sesta) / A presto, ciao... ti amo - Bobby Solo
6250 - Bang bang / Auschwitz - Equipe 84
6268 - Il mondo nelle mani (Neon rainbow) / Il ballo dell' orso - Rita Pavone

6312 - È dall' amore che nasce il uomo / 29 Settembre - Equipe 84 - 1967
6331 - Dipingi un mondo per me (Colour my world) / Io non so cos'è - Milva
6332 - San Francisco / Peek a boo - Bobby Solo

Chantecler introduced a new numbering system in 1968

012-106 - M'ama non m'ama / Quando una stella cade (Cuando sali de Cuba) - Milva
021-107 - Parlare con gli animali (Talk to the animals) / Niente di simile - Rita Pavone
021-105 - Nel ristorante di Alice / Un anno (No face, no name, no number) (Windwood-Capaldi) - Equipe 84

021-112 - Come sempre / Nel sole, nel vento, nel sorriso e nel pianto - I Ribelli
021-117 - Nella mia stanza / Il grammofono - Rita Pavone
021-119 - Un sorriso / Amore tenero - Milva
021-120 - Zucchero (San Remo '69) / Nostalgia - Rita Pavone 1969

021-126 - Perdona bambina/ Amo lei - Maurizio Vandelli
021-124 - Tutta mia città / Cominciava così - Equipe 84

Emilio Pericoli (6008) with 2 songs from a by-gone era. Maybe Chantecler released 'Vola colomba' due to Brazilian act Silvana having taken it to #1 in early 1964 as 'Pombinha branca'.

'Una lacrima sul viso' (6011) was a huge hit in Brazil too. It was barred from #1 only by Rita Pavone's 'Datemi un martello' onslaught.

'Blu è blu' (6041) a cover of Bobby Vinton's 'Blue on blue' was a poor follow-up to 'Una lacrima sul viso'; 'Marrone' (Brown) was Italians playing with colours...

'L'esercito del surf' (6058) with Belgian Catherine Spaak had some air-play. Wanderléa's cover 'Exército do surf' was included in her best selling album for CBS.

'Siamo pagliacci' (6063) was indeed a remarkable single. It could not be considered a rock song by any standards... it sounds more like an aria out of a classical piece. Nonetheless it was often played by DJs Debora Duarte & Atilio Riccò in their teen-age half-hour at Radio Tupi in São Paulo. 'Domani ti sposi' is such a great ballad too... and a strange one at that... it describes the last night of a couple before he goes up and marries another woman.

(6082) Ornella Vanoni's entry at Festival di Napoli 1964: 'Tu si 'na cosa grande' b/w 'Ammore mio'.

(6091) Pierre Wlady's 'Fais attention' didn't have any air-play. Chantecler's Giane's cover titled 'Preste atenção' went up the charts in 1965 and so did Copacabana's Wanderley Cardoso's version of the same song.

'Cristina' (6099) Bobby Solo's 3rd single played quite a bit on the radio.

Luigi Tenco's 'Mi sono innamorato di te' (6100) didn't have any air-play either.

'Se piangi, se ridi' (6101) was the winner at San Remo in 1965. It went straight to #1 in Brazil too.

Belgian actrees-singer Catherine Spaak (6123) sings in Italian again.

'Shame and scandal in the family' (6134) was banned in the USA but went to #1 in Brazil. Shawn Elliott visited S.Paulo & Rio in 1965.

(6135) The Barry Sisters a US duo sing in Yidish and Hebrew.

Paolo Mosca (6139) with 'Io ritorno a casa' from Cantagiro '65

Gianni di Cristina (6140) sings 'Abbi pietà' from Cantagiro 1965.

'Abbracciami forte' (6142) competed in San Remo '65. It had a little air-play until Copacabana's Wanderley Cardoso recorded as 'Abraça-me forte'. Then it became Wanderley's song.

Mary Di Pietro (6151) had been with RCA Italiana before moving over to Ricordi. Mary visited São Paulo and Buenos Aires in April 1965 with a troupe made up of Riccardo del Turco, Giancarlo Guardabassi and others. This was Mary's only release in Brazil. Mary Di Pietro died tragically in a car accident returning to Rome in 27 September 1967 after a tour. She had been engaged to virtuoso guitarrist Enrico Ciacci, rocker Little Tony's young brother.

'Io ti darò di più' (6169) had some air-play in 1966. Moacyr Franco's cover 'Eu te darei bem mais' played a lot more than Ornella's original.

'Ringo, dove vai?' (6180) introduced Bobby Solo as a spaghetti-western singer.

Ornella Vanoni (6181) was Chantecler-Ricordi's most prolific act. It seemed like the singles were released just for the sake of releasing them. I've never heard this song; Rio de Janeiro's daily 'Correio da Manhã' - 19 June 1966 - claims Ornella visited Rio but although she had a few invitations to sing she left without performing at any TV station of club. According to a Ricordi official Ms Vanoni would charge US$ 2.200 dollars for a 25-minute perfomance which was considered too expensive by the local managers.

'Questa volta' (6192) had a fairly amount of air-play in São Paulo radio stations.

Equipe 84 (6197) was Italian rock at its best... nevertheless they could not compete with the Anglo-american production. Only those who really loved Italian music, like myself, were conscious of such releases. They never reached the radio waves which incidentally were taken over by Brazilian indigenous rock aka Jovem Guarda which was at its peak in 1966.

'Senza fine' (6204) was first released in Italy in September 1961. Chantecler released it in Brazil 5 years later. 'Senza fine' had been re-issued in Italy due to its being sung by Connie Francis in the sound-track of Robert Aldrich's 'The flight of the Phoenix'. The Brazilian B-side contained Burt Bacharach's 'Don't make me over' ('Non dirmi niente') which was translated into Portuguese as 'Não diga nada' and was a hit by Chantecler's own Joelma.

this is the original 'Senza fine' 45 rpm released in Italy in September 1961.

(6205) Shawn Elliott kept on trying to repeat his 'Shame & scandal' with no avail.

Tommy James & the Shondells (6206) with 'Hanky panky'

'Tutta la gente del mondo' (6208) was Studio Uno 1966's overture. But to Brazilians who could not watch Italian TV shows it meant absolutely nothing.

Rita Pavone (6213) left RCA Italiana for Ricordi Records in 1967. It was big news in Italy but ot so much in Brazil because Rita had been absent from the charts since 1965, even if she had a another breath of life in 1967, due to the release of 'Rita o mosquito' (Rita la zanzara) a film that did well in the cinemas. Rita's first single for Chantecler was a re-rash of a 1940s hit... from Mussolini's time. It didn't bode well for her at all.

Milva's rendition of Don Backy's 'Canzone' (6221) was pretty good, but Brazilians were getting into the Anglo-american groove now...

Wilma Goich's San Remo entry 'Gli occhi mie' (6230) was also sung by RCA's Dino.

Bobby Solo's Italian cover of John Philips' 'San Francisco' (6332) was no match for Scott MacKenzie's perfect rendition.

'Siesta' (3235) was a minor hit by Bobby Solo in a time Italian music was getting less and less air-play.

(6268) Rita Pavone's 2nd offering at Chantecler was Box Tops' 'Neon rainbow'. Rita's rendition is okay but something original was expected from her... not a cover from a hit from a Memphis band.

Milva (6331) covers Petula Clark's 'Colour my world' (Dipingi un mondo per me).

Milva (21-106) sings 'M'ama non m'ama' in Neapolitan and does a cover of 'Cuando sali de Cuba'.

(21-107) Pavone's third offering at Ricordi was even more disappointing... a hit from 'Dr. Dolittle' a US children's movie. Rita Pavone was doing all the wrong things at the wrong times... She even became a blonde... and talked with animals.

(21-117) Rita Pavone's 4th single for Ricordi was okay, but no more than okay. At least she stopped being a peroxide blonde.

(21-119) Milva with 'Un sorriso' which she sang at San Remo '69 b/w 'Amore tenero'.

(21-120) Rita Pavone who had never bothered being at San Remo when she was at RCA Italiana, now had to beg everyone's attention at such a lacklustre competion. Especially since Luigi Tenco shot himself in the head in 1967 because his song 'Ciao amore ciao' had been overlooked by San Remo's jury the competition lost any semblance of seriousness. 'Zucchero' was not a bad song but not good enough for someone like Rita who had recorded such classics as 'Cuore', 'Fortissimo', you-name-it. Don McLean once called 3 February 1959, the day the music died. I would say 27 January 1967, the day Luigi Tenco shot himself in the head was the day Italian music died!

some Chantecler-Ricordi extended-plays C-33-000

585 - Novos sucessos de Emilio Pericoli
Take me back to Cairo (Tornerò to Cairo) / Mary Rose (Rambling Rose) / Mandulinata blu / Apriesso a nu suono

592 - Emilio Pericoli no Brasil (com Orquestra Chantecler, reg.: Francisco Moraes
Quando, quando, quando / Serenata da chuva (Gouveia-Amorim) / Vola colomba / Una notte così (Canfora-Verde) / Señora (Pallavicini-

626 - Hit Parade in Italy - Giorgio Gaber, Gino Paoli, Sergio Endrigo & Bobby Solo

Cosi felice (Giorgio Gaber) / Devi sapere (Paoli) / I tuoi vent'anni (Endrigo) / Una lacrima sul viso (B.Solo)

638 - Penso a te - Catherine Spaak - dalla colona-sonora di 'La calda vita'
Penso a te / Questi vent' anni miei / Non è niente / I giorni azzurri (L'ete deniere)

650 - World without love - The Jet Blacks
Money / World without love / Hippy hippy shake / Pretty girl everywhere

670 - The Jet Blacks no Festival de San Remo 65
Si vedrà / Amici miei / Se piangi, se ridi / Non a caso il destino ci ha fatto incontrare / Prima o poi

675 - Só sucessos - Bobby Solo
Una lacrima sul viso / Cristina / Blue è blue / Se piangi, se ridi

677 - La nostra vallata - Bobby Solo
Non chiedermi nulla / Non cercare scuse / La nostra vallata / Troverai