One of the popular Italian balcony songs during the pandemic was Umberto Tozzi’s Gloria. This comes after renewed popularity in Laura Branigan’s cover of the Umberto Tozzi-Giancarlo Bigazzi song in the States when the hit became a rally song during the St. Louis Blues championship run last season. On display in the NHL Hall of a Fame is a 45 single of the song since the embrace of the song coincided with the Blues’ season turnaround.

Branigan, who died at age 52 with an undiagnosed brain anueryism, agreed to record the single in 1982 after some push from one of her first album producers, Greg Mathison, who worked keyboards on the original version. Branigan went on to cover 3 other Bigazzi singles. In 1983, “Mama,” also originally by Tozzi, was released with English lyrics by Diane Warren, who had her first songwriting hit with Branigan on “Solitaire” from the same album.

A year later, Branigan’s version of Tozzi’s “Ti Amo,” was released and while it had only minor success in the US, it hit the top 10 in both Australia and Canada, countries with a larger population of newer Italian immigration.

The other Bigazzi single was “Self Control, written with Raf, who also sang the song in English in the original version. In some parts of Europe, the two singles hit the charts simultaneously while Branigan’s version is the only one known outside of Europe.

Italy wasn’t the only European country Branigan plucked new singles from – “Solitaire” was initially a popular French single and “Deep in the Dark” was an English cover of the popular 80s German worldwide hit “Der Kommissar.”

Here’s a 20-song playlist of the Italian tormentoni of the summer for those lucky enough to have heard these tunes at the beach or the bar this season – and for others to hear what we missed out on:

Tiziano Ferro’s current album, Il Mestiere della Vita, continued to show the singer-songwriter’s versatility and why Ferro has become the top selling Italian artist in the world.  He’s able to rule the Italian summer radio airwaves with happy pop  like “Lento/Veloce,” throw in some rap on “My Steelo,” and get serious with a love song like “Il Conforto.”  Of particular note to this poster is “Quasi Quasi,” a track that could be mistaken for a Mina cover; Ferro seems to be able to transport his voice to any era.

A touch of the 60s sound seems to always be part of the Ferro’s album mix.  In his previous album, Ferro channels Don Backy in “Paura No Ho:”

Ferro’s love of the era also was shown on a track he wrote with Roberto Casalino for Giusy Ferreri, who made her radio debut with this single, “Non ti scordar mai di me.”   Her performance here reminded many of Amy Winehouse, herself a great admirer of 60s bands.

Recently in a Roman court, a lawyer who has written books on the death of singer Rino Gaetano  formally requested the courts re-open an investigation into the death of the singer-songwriter who died in a car accident on June 2, 1981 at age 30.  Gaetano suffered serious head injuries during the crash and hospitals in the area were unwilling to treat him due to lack of space and unavailable specialists.

Gaetano is best known for hits “Ma il cielo è sempre più blu” and “Gianna.”   Shortly before his passing, Gaetano took part in a concert series titled Qconcert with Riccardo Cocciante where he had performed a cover of a Cocciante single from 1978, “A Mano a Mano.”   In the song, the singer attempts to convince an ex-love to return to him – italian and translated lyrics here.

Although “A mano a mano” never charted, Gaetano’s tender grit quietly made the song a favorite of many in Italy and its popularity has increased immensely in the past few years.   It has become a staple in music reality shows, was featured in the soundtrack and trailer for the 2014 film “Allacciate le cinture,” and was part of the deluxe edition of Andrea Bocelli’s 2013 “Passione” album, cementing the single as an Italian pop classic to international audiences.

Below are the original and Bocelli versions of the ballad:

Fifty years ago this month, the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” was at the top of the Billboard charts and the trio were becoming international stars.   To help spread the music of Motown across the globe, founder Berry Gordy had his biggest stars re-record their music in different languages and Italian seems to have been the most popular.  Here’s an old NPR segment on the topic and samples of “L’Amore Verra / You Can’t Hurry Love” and Stevie Wonder’s “Il sole è di Tutti / A Place In The Sun” from Italian TV.