![]() ![]() That's how 'Datemi un martello' came out to be such a 'scattered-brain' oeuvre.įrom the Trini Lopez's disc recorded ‘live’ at the P.J.’s in L.A., the producer only kept the 'live' feel with people shouting and clapping hands. He would do a 'surf-hully-gully' version of that political statement. Bardotti, who was a cultured man knew all about politics but since the start he thought he'd do something 'naughty' with the Hays & Seeger's tune. They summoned song-writer Sergio Bardotti and gave him a copy of Trini Lopez's 'If I had a hammer' 45 rpm for him to 'adapt' it. Now, they needed a powerful rocker to be the flip-side of 'Che m'importa del mondo', a beautiful ballad. The album ' Non è facile avere 18 anni' had been released just in time to cash in on the 1963 Christmas sales. On the other side of the Atlantic, RCA Italiana's Artist & Repertoire man was searching for a new hit-song for Rita. Its original lyrics say: ‘ It’s a hammer of Justice, it’s a hammer of Freedom, it’s a song about the Love between my brothers and my sisters all over the land! ’ The song was often sung and chanted during the marches for the Civil Rights during that period. Martin Luther King made his ‘ I have a dream ’ historical speech. Trini Lopez took ' If I had a hammer' even higher a year later, reaching # 3 on 1st July 1963, a few weeks before the legendary March on Washington when Dr. It was revived 12 years later as 'If I had a hammer', by Peter, Paul & Mary reaching # 10 on 8 September 1962 at the Billboard singles chart. ‘ The Hammer song’, a folk song written by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger in support of the progressive movement in the U.S.A., was first recorded in 1950, by The Weavers, a folk music quartet with Seeger, Hays, Ruth Alice 'Ronnie' Gilbert & Fred Hellerman. Sergio Bardotti was given the task to turn ‘ If I had a hammer’ into something more ‘palatable’ to the Italian younger set. ‘ DATEMI UN MARTELLO’ ( If I had a hammer) – ‘Give me a hammer, please’ is a celebration of sorts. So it is quite commom for folks to misunderstand foreign-language hits and find swearing words. I remember my younger sister thought Gigliola Cinquetti sang ‘ um belo cú de ferro’ (a lovely iron arse) instead of ‘ un bene così vero’ (a love so true) in ‘ Dio come ti amo’, in 1965. For Anglo ears who are not used to hearing foreign hits played on their radios it may sound strange that such a thing may have happened but to Brazilians whose hit parades were filled with hits sung in other languages (than the native Portuguese) everything was possible. For some Brazilian ears the part Rita says: ‘ u-una volta non ci porti pure me?’ (why don’t you take me to the match some time?) sounded like ‘ o cú na boca.’ which means ‘ the arse in the mouth’. I remember my older brother coming home one day and saying there was a record out by an Italian singer who sang something ‘ obscene’. It got some air play in Brazil as of September 1963, when it was released as an EP along with ' Come te non c'è nessuno', ‘ Alla mia età’ and ‘ Clémentine Chérie’. ‘ LA PARTITA DI PALLONE’ – The football match – This was the first Pavone song I have ever heard. That was Pavone’s way of saying: ‘ Here I am, take heed!’ The single went all the way to number one in the Italian charts. Pavone’s record had an infectious guitar introduction devised by Argentine arranger Luis Enriquez played by Enrico Ciacci, that hooked the listener straight away. She suspects he might actually be seeing someone else and tells him she’ll go back to her mum’s if he doesn’t change his ways. Cocky Mazzetti’s original record was the lament of a married young lady who is left home alone on Sundays while her fancy-free hubby goes out to watch his favourite football team playoffs. ![]() ‘ La partita di pallone’ ( The football match) a song first released in the summer of 1962 to cash in on FIFA's World Cup fever in Chile where Brazil came up on top for the 2nd time in a row. ![]() ![]() The liner-notes on the back of Rita Pavone’s first album say she was a 17 year-old from Turin who had won a new-talent contest in Rome in September 1962, and went on to record a 45 rpm single for RCA Italiana. ![]()
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