Domenico Modugno hit #1 with “Volare”

Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue) Domenico Modugno

Writer(s): Franco Migliacci, Domenico Modugno, Mitchell Parish (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 7, 1958 Peak: 15 US, 16 CB, 16 HR, 10 UK, 17 AU, 4 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, -- UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 5.0 radio, 27.5 video, 41.59 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue)” translates as “To Fly (In the Blue Painted Sky).” This song definitely flew. It soared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks and was named the magazine’s song of the year. It was the first foreign-language song to top the chart and also the first #1 written or co-written by its singer. SF It is the only record to originate in Italy and top the American charts. FB At the very first Grammy awards, the song took home the prizes for Record and Song of the Year, making it the only foreign-language recording to accomplish this feat. WK Modugno performed the song for the first time on January 31, 1958 with Johnny Dorelli for the Sanremo Music Festival. Italian singers characteristically stood with their arms on their chests, not moving on stage. Modugno, however, opened up his arms as if he was going to fly. His performance “is now considered to be the event that changed the history of Italian music.” WK It got the song selected ast the Italian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958. It took third place, but with combined sales of all versions of the song topping 22 million worldwide, it has become one of the all-time most popular entries in the contest. WK The song came about when Franco Migliacci was waiting for Domenico Modugno to show up for a planned trip to the sea. Migliacci started drinking wine and fell asleep. When he woke up, he looked at reproductions of two Marc Chagall paintings on his wall. He was inspired by them and some vivid dreams to write a song about a man who dreams of painting himself blue and being able to fly. WK Bob Dylan described it as “a whimsical song” that is “zooming and whizzing…it gets up to speed and barges into the sun, ricochets off the stars, smokes pipe dreams and blasts into cloud cuckoo land.” BD Mitchell Parish wrote English lyrics for the song, as did Gracie Fields. The song has also been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, and Portuguese. WK The Ames Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins, David Bowie, Petula Clark, Ella Fitzgerald, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, the McGuire Sisters, the Platters, Cliff Richard, Barry White, and Frank Zappa have all covered the song. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Domenico Modugno FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 41. BD Bob Dylan (2022). The Philosophy of Modern Song. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Pages 153-4. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 3/13/2021; last updated 10/23/2022.

 

Today in Music (1941): Artie Shaw charted with “Stardust”

Stardust Isham Jones

Writer(s): Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish (see lyrics here) First Charted: September 13, 1930 Peak: 11 US, 12 GA (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Stardust Artie Shaw

First Charted: January 18, 1941 Peak: 2 US, 8 GA (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.5 US (includes 1 million in sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.28 video, -- streaming

Awards (Hoagy Carmichael): Click on award for more details. Awards (Isham Jones): Awards (Louis Armstrong): Awards (Artie Shaw): Awards (Nat “King” Cole): Awards (The Dominoes):

About the Song: Hoagy Carmichael’s first major songwriting success NRR grew out of a visit to his University of Indiana alma mater when the inspiration for a melody came to him while he was reminiscing about a lost college love. TY Stuart Gorell, who had been a fellow student and the lyricist for Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” offered the idea for the song title when he said it “sounded like dust from the stars drifting down through the summer sky.” TY The melody came so easily that Carmichael wondered if he’d actually recalled someone else’s composition. LW However, his melody didn’t follow the traditional Tin Pan Alley format of the day; instead he crafted two separate melodies for the chorus and the verse. LW Originally conceived as “an up-tempo dance instrumental” NPR in 1927. However, publisher Irving Mills suggested reworking it as a romantic vocal ballad. LW In 1929, Mitchell Parish penned the lyrics MM although Hoagy’s son claims they were based on words already written by his father. LW Mills had the first chart version of the song in 1930 (#20 US), but it was Isham Jones who had the greatest success with his version in the slower tempo format, taking it to #1 in 1931. By decade’s end, Bing Crosby (#5 US, 1931), Louis Armstrong (#16 US, 1931), Wayne King (#17 US, 1931), Lee Sims (#20 US, 1931), Jimmie Lunceford (#10 US, 1935), Benny Goodman (#2 US, 1936), and Sammy Kaye (#16 US, 1939) all charted with the song. In the 1940s, additional versions charted by Glenn Miller (#20 US, 1940), Tommy Dorsey (#7 US, 1941), and Baron Elliott (#18 US, 1943). All told, the song charted fifteen times from 1930 to 1943, PM helping brand it as “a certifiable American classic.” NPR Other later charting versions included the Dominoes (#12 US, 1957), Nat “King” Cole (#79 US, 1957), Frank Sinatra (#20 AC, 1962), Nino Tempo with April Stevens (#32 US, #10 AC, 1964), Johnny Mathis (#4 AC, 1975), and Harry Connick Jr. (#46 AC, 1993). Dorsey seemingly had “a stranglehold on the song” JA after returning to the top ten in 1941 with a new version sporting vocals by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers. That same version recharted in 1943. However, in a 1956 Billboard poll, disc jockeys rated Artie Shaw’s arrangement not just the best version of “Stardust,” but as their favorite record of all time. PM It has been recorded more than 2000 times LW in more than forty languages, RCG making it one of the most recorded songs in popular music, JA the most recorded love song of all time, PM and “the standard that defines the meaning of the word.” MM Country singer Willie Nelson calls it his all-time favorite song and Bette Midler has the lyrics carved in the stone of her fireplace. LW Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Hoagy Carmichael DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Dominoes JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 180. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Pages 60-1. MM Max Morath (2002). The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Popular Standards. New York, NY; Penguin Putnam Inc. Pages 182-3. NPR National Public Radio web site (1999). “The Most Important American Musical Works of the 20th Century” NRR National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress The Full National Recording Registry RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) TY Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. New York, NY: Quill. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Pages 76, 584, and 638. Related Links: First posted 1/8/2012; last updated 11/22/2022.