Quando, quando, quando

"Quando, quando, quando" (pronounced [ˈkwando ˈkwando ˈkwando]) is an Italian pop song from 1962, in the bossa nova style, with music written by Tony Renis and lyrics by Alberto Testa. The song, originally recorded in two different versions by Tony Renis and Emilio Pericoli, competed in the Sanremo Music Festival in 1962, where it placed fourth, and later became a commercial success in Italy, topping the Musica e dischi singles chart.^[1] American entertainer Pat Boone, who recorded the song in 1962, sang the English lyrics written Ervin Drake.^[2]

The song is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with more than 50 million sold.^[3]

English-language versions

The title translates as "When, When, When".

The song has been used and remixed by many artists and in many different arrangements, including English pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2005, Michael Bublé performed the song as a duet with Nelly Furtado. There is an instrumental Latin version by Edgardo Cintron and The Tiempos Noventa Orchestra. The song was a 1962 Billboard Top 100 entry by Pat Boone.

Quando is the only Italian word normally retained in most English-language renditions of the song.

Pat Boone sang the starting piece in Italian but then carried on the rest of it in English, repeating every now and again some Italian words. The Italian words sung by Boone are:

Dimmi quando tu verrai,

dimmi quando... quando... quando...

l'anno, il giorno e l'ora in cui

forse tu mi bacerai...

(Boone says "qui" which means "here" instead of "cui", meaning "which").

Other singers who played the song include:

• Connie Francis, American pop singer of Italian origin, sang in Italian in 1963
• Bobby Curtola, Canadian singer, charted with it in 1967
• Cliff Richard, English singer, in 1968
• Marc Ansoult, Belgian singer in 1968
• Sergio Franchi recorded the song (mostly in Italian, with short chorus in English) on his 1965 RCA Victor album Live at the Coconut Grove.^[4]
• Liz Damon's Orient Express recorded a version in the early 1970s.

Other versions

• Tony Renis, an Italian singer and composer, wrote the song with Alberto Testa in 1962 and performed it at the Sanremo Music Festival the same year.
• Caterina Valente, a German singer, recorded a German version in 1962 "Sag mir Quando, Quando, Quando"
• Tito Rodríguez, a Puerto Rican conductor, arranger and singer recorded this song in mambo style, entitled "Cuando, cuando, cuando".
• Roberto Blanco, a singer of Cuban origins working in Germany, sings in a mixed German and Italian.
• Sinn Sisamouth, a Khmer singer, recorded a Cambodian version in the 1960s.
• Tiiu Varik, Estonian singer, recorded Estonian version in 1964 for Estonian Television. Later also other artists, for example Mati Nuude and Toomas Anni recorded that song.
• Jüri Lipp, an Estonian singer in Canada, recorded an Estonian version in 1968.
• Gisella Cozzo, an Italo-Australian singer song-songwriter, sang both the English and Italian versions in her album Double released in 2015.

In popular culture

• The song was used prominently in the 1962 Italian movie The Easy Life.
• The song was used in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980): when the main protagonists Jake and Elwood first encounter Murph and The Magictones, they are playing this song at the Holiday Inn.
• In the extended cut of the Ivan Reitman film Stripes (1981), Bill Murray begins singing this to avoid being killed by Colombian mercenaries. This scene was not in the theatrical cut.
• The song can be heard at the beginning of the 2004 Russian movie A Driver for Vera.
• Rory Bremner parodied the song in the 2006 season of the Bremner, Bird and Fortune TV series, playing Gordon Brown and Tony Blair with the former asking when the then-prime minister would be leaving office.
• It was also used in 2008 in the Fiat Punto advertisements, mimicking the "Italian Job".
• In the 2006 film Superman Returns, the theme is performed by The Drifters in the elevator scene when Clark Kent and Lois Lane are in the middle of several people reading about the Man of Steel's return in the Daily Planet.
• In Rainer Werner Fassbinder's movie The Merchant of Four Seasons a remake of this song plays a central role in the relationship between the two main characters.
• Dewey performs a ribbon dance whilst singing the song to distract Lois in season 5 of Malcolm in the Middle.
• In Kalyeserye, a soap opera parody in the Philippines longest running noontime variety show Eat Bulaga!, all of Tinidora's dead-like bodyguards are named "Quando" which is based from this song.

References