Rita Pavone

Italian singer Rita Pavone’s youthful charm helped make her a star in Italy and throughout Europe, as well as in the US and Latin America. Over the course of the 1960s, she is estimated to have sold some ten million records.

She was born on 23 August 1945 in Turin, northern Italy. She enjoyed performing from an early age and made her first public appearance in 1959 singing an Al Johnson song at the Alfieri Theatre in her hometown. As a teenager she took a job ironing in a clothes factory and supplemented her income by singing at various local clubs.

Things didn’t go smoothly for the young singer when she first chose to pursue a career in music in earnest. In 1961, she was turned down by the RCA label after bosses there failed to spot the potential in the small, freckled redhead. However, within a year, she had won the Festa degli sonosciuti talent contest – the first prize for which, ironically, was a contract with RCA.

The contest had been organised by Teddy Reno, a singer in the 1940s and 50s. He became her manager, producer and later, in 1968, her husband.

The catchy La partita di pallone was issued as Rita’s first 45. It topped the charts in February 1963, ultimately selling a million copies globally.

Rita was invited to replace Mina for a 12-week run on the Saturday night television show Studio uno. She used her regular slot on the programme to launch her follow up single, Come te non c’è nessuno. The song toppled her debut disc from the top of the charts in March 1963 and became the biggest-selling song of the year. (The B-side, Clementine chérie, was from the film of the same name, in which she had appeared.)
 
A third single, Alla mia età, was issued within weeks and was held off the top of the charts only by its predecessor.

Cuore, a cover of the Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill-penned Heart, originally recorded by Wayne Newton, became her follow up 45. It topped the charts, and the B-side, Il ballo del mattone, repeated the feat in its own right.

Rita had originally recorded the song as Coeur for release in France, where it proved a hit. The song in its various versions – including an English one, which spent three months in the UK charts in the winter of 1966-67 – went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. In Spain, in particular, she became a huge star.

The title track of her second album, Non è facile avere 18 anni, gave the singer another hit at the end of 1963. The decision was also taken to have the tiny teen record specifically for the German market, and her Wenn ich ein Junge wär’ proved a big seller in December that year.

Back at home, the easy listening Che m’importa del mondo, from the film La noia, topped the charts in January 1964, and Datemi un martello, a cover of If I had a hammer, Scrivi and L’amore mio all provided further hits.

In May that year, Rita was launched in the US with an album modestly entitled The international teenage sensation and appearances on The Ed Sullivan show, Shindig and Hullabaloo. Her heavily accented delivery charmed record buyers and a single, Remember me, taken from the album, reached number 26 in the Billboard charts that summer. A second US album, Small wonder, hit the shops a few months later and a third LP followed in 1965.

In Italy, Rita starred in the TV series Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca, which aired from December 1964, and scored another top ten hit with the theme tune, the, frankly, dreadful Viva la pappa col pomodoro, performed to the accompaniment of a zither.

The follow up, Lui, represented something of a return to form, winning the Cantagiro song contest and landing the singer back in the top ten in the spring and summer of 1965.

Stasera con te, from the TV special Stasera Rita, provided a further top ten hit later that year – while You only you, a translation of its B-side, Solo tu, gave the singer a second UK hit in January 1967.