Showing posts with label Ennio Morricone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ennio Morricone. Show all posts

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

More More Morricone

Yesterday I posted a couple of my favourite Ennio Morricone pop songs and today I'm going to post them again! Only this time, Questi Vent'Anni Miei has been rewritten as Funny World, interpreted by Ken Colman, and Se Telefonando has been transformed into Françoise Hardy's French hit Je Changerais d'Avis.

Ken Colman - Funny World mp3 (available for 7 days)

Ken Colman & Frank SinatraKen Colman...who he? Well, he's a jazz singer from Vancouver more commonly known as Kenny Colman. He hasn't had a huge amount of commercial success (although he did do the rounds of the American talk shows in the 60s) but he's an acclaimed vocalist on the international club circuit. He came to the attention of Frank Sinatra, who became a friend and mentor to not-so-young-by-that-time Kenny.
Funny World was included on Morricone's soundtrack of 1964 shockumentary I Malamondo - along with Catherine Spaak's Questi Vent'anni Miei - and involves some decidedly Sinatra-esque crooning.

Françoise HardyFrançoise Hardy - now there's a woman who just gets better with age. By 1966 she'd already released four full length albums and La maison ou j'ai grandi, released that year, was her fifth. Track 2 was Je changerais d'avis (which was recorded and released as Se Telefonando by Mina also in 1966), a building-to-a-crescendo promise to change every aspect of her life in slavish devotion to some chap or other. While I can't really agree with the sentiment, it's a beautifully enduring performance!

Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais d'Avis (Se Telefonando) mp3 (available for 7 days)

Here's Françoise performing the song in a shiny mini-mac whilst appearing to be lost in a tv studio. Don't you just hate it when that happens?



If you enjoyed these songs, they can be found on Canto Moricone Vol. 1. And you can visit the websites of two fine singers:
Kenny Colman website
Francoise Hardy website (she looks fantastic on that front page photo!)

Tuesday, 2 September 2008

Morricone mania

Ennio Morricone has been a prolific composer of film and television scores but he's written some great pop songs as well. Here are two of them. Tomorrow: same tunes, different language!

Catherine SpaakThe first is the only song I've ever learnt phonetically, so I have no idea what the subject matter is. Luckily Catherine Spaak (niece of four time Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak) seems to know what she's on about in this single from 1964. I just know it sounds as if it should be sung in the saddle!

Catherine Spaak - Questi Vent'Anni Miei mp3 (available for 7 days)

Mina MazziniWith the second song I can have a bloody good guess that this is something to do with a telephone. The tune was partially filched from the siren of a Marseille police car and is sung by the woman known as 'Queen of Screamers'.

Mina - Se Telefonando mp3 (available for 7 days)

And handily, there's a video of Mina performing just this song on youtube, with a little wobbly dance at the end, bless her!




You can find both of these on Canto Morricone, Vol. 1: The Ennio Morricone Songbook - The 60's. The whole series of those albums
is really worth forking out for. Promise!