Il ragazzo della via Gluck

"Il ragazzo della via Gluck" is an Italian song by artist Adriano Celentano. The lyrics meaning "The boy from Gluck Street" were by Luciano Beretta and Miki Del Prete and music by Celentano himself. It was released in 1966 as a double-A side single by Celentano alongside "Chi era lui". The lyrics for the latter were by Mogol and Miki Del Prete and music by Paolo Conte. "Il ragazzo della via Gluck/Chi era lui" single was arranged by Detto Mariano.

History

The song originally appeared in March 1966 in Celentano's album La festa and in the follow-up Celentano album Il ragazzo della via Gluck released in November 1966.

The song was launched at the Sanremo Festival in 1966 with little success and was eliminated from competition after the first night. But it gained great favour with fans making it the best-known and most representative song of Celentano, with many autobiographical references; Via Gluck was the street of Milan where he lived as a boy with the family, and "eight years" ("...passano gli anni, ma 8 son lunghi...." meaning "the years go by ... 8 long years....") is a reference to the top of Celentano's recording career from 1958 to 1966.

Tracklist

• Side-A: "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" (4:17)
• Side-B: "Chi era lui" (2:49)

Adriano Celentano version "Quel Casinha"

In 2004 the singer rerecorded it with new lyrics as "Quel Casinha" in his album C'è sempre un motivo (meaning There's always a reason in English). The new text was sung in Creole with Cesária Évora in a mix of pop/jazz and rock.

Covers

In the same year of release, Giorgio Gaber recorded a cover version, that was published as an attachment to the Italian music magazine Pop. The first was 45 rpm in March 1966 containing "Il ragazzo della via Gluck/Dio come ti amo", and the second in June 1966 containing "Il ragazzo della via Gluck/Una casa in cima al mondo".

Giorgio Gaber also released a take on the song named "La risposta al ragazzo della Via Gluck".

In February 2013, the Italian group Almamegretta, together with James Senese, Marcello Coleman and Clementino, sang a cover of the piece on the fourth evening of Sanremo Music Festival.^[1]

"Tar and Cement"

In 1966, the American singer Verdelle Smith sang an English version titled "Tar and Cement", with songwriting credit to Paul Vance, Lee Pockriss, Luciano Beretta, Michele Del Prete, and Adriano Celentano. It was her only hit. "Tar and Cement" made it to #1 in Australia and to #38 in the U.S. It was also #6 on "Keener 13" from Detroit radio station WKNR for the week ending Monday June 27, 1966.

"Tar and Cement" was reproduced on a 2004 CD, Girls Go Zonk: US Dream Babes reaching #30 in 2005 in Top 150 of Queensland, Australia.^[2]

The song "Tar and Cement" was also recorded by Caroline Munro. "Tar and Cement" was also a big hit for Joe Dolan in Ireland.

"La maison où j'ai grandi"

It became a favourite song in France when covered by Eddy Marnay with French lyrics as "La maison où j'ai grandi". Marnay translated the lyrics from Italian to French.

"La maison où j'ai grandi" was also performed more famously by Françoise Hardy and it appears on her album La maison où j'ai grandi. The album was released without title and is identified chiefly by the song it carries, its major success. Hardy had admired Celentano's autobiographical song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" having seen him perform it at San Remo in January 1966.

Looking back at the song in 2004, she said she felt an emotion of sadness at the time she heard the song for her mother (an accountant's assistant), who had raised Françoise and her younger sister alone.^[3] The lyrics in French were reflection of her life she admitted: "Quand je me tourne vers mes souvenirs/ je revois la maison ou j'ai grandi./ Il me revient des tas de choses..."

"The story of a country boy"

Belgian band The Cousins covered the song in English as "Story of a country boy" on the B-side of their 1966 single "You will find another baby". The song was the lead track on the 1966 French EP "The new sound of The Cousins", a compilation of both their 1966 singles. It was the final release by the original band, which parted ways a few months after its release.

"Lyckliga gatan"

The song enjoyed very similar popularity in Sweden, when the singer Anna-Lena Löfgren sang it with Swedish language lyrics as "Lyckliga gatan". It was released in 1967 and was certified gold in Sweden and platinum and diamond in Norway. It used the melody of the Italian song, with completely different lyrics that nonetheless convey the message and moral of the song. According to Dagens Nyheter, "under her lifetime she was able to perform the song thousands of times from various scenes".

"Immer am Sonntag"

Anna-Lena Löfgren built on her success in Sweden and Norway by recording a German-language version of the song, as "Immer am Sonntag" becoming very successful in Germany, releasing tens of other German language songs.

"Závidím"

Czech version of this song, which lyrics was written by Jiří Grossmann, was performed by Naďa Urbánková.

References