Countless Neapolitan songs have been interpreted by non-Neapolitan, often international, artists. Today we focus on the phenomenon of Anema e Core: a love without borders.
The Case of Anema e Core
Certainly, among the most famous Neapolitan songs is Anema e Core, a piece by Salve D’Esposito and Tito Manlio. Initially, the title was supposed to be Che matenata ‘e sole (What a morning sun), but the author had already had success with the song Me so ‘mbriacato ‘e sole (I got drunk on the sun). However, the piece would have had a title too similar, so the choice turned to Anema e Core (Soul and heart). The first to interpret the song was Roberto Murolo at the Capri Festival in 1950 (as reported by Sciotti in his volume dedicated to Capri); the song, with its sweet sound and intimate atmosphere, brings the Neapolitan song back to the center of international hits. However, it would be Tito Schipa who made the song popular by including it in his international concerts. As Sciotti recalls in the aforementioned volume, Manlio gave an interview to L’Avvenire del Mezzogiorno on Sunday, September 27, 1953, in an article signed by Scozio titled A Posillipo con Tito Manlio:
This last song was greatly appreciated by the famous tenor Tito Schipa, who sang it for the first time during one of his stays abroad. Upon returning to Italy, the golden-voiced tenor begged me to write new songs for him, and exclusively for him, in both Italian and dialect.
The International Success of the Song
The danceability of the song means that it crosses national borders, finding great success even among American stars. From that moment on, Anema e Core is performed in every corner of the world, and countless interpreters follow: Mario Abbate, Renzo Arbore, Frankie Avalon, Al Bano, Fred Bongusto, Carlo Buti, Renato Carosone, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Fausto Cigliano, Perry Como, Ornella Vanoni and Toquinho, Gigliola Cinquetti, Giorgio Consolini, Vic Damone, Jula de Palma, Mirna Doris, Eddie Fisher, Floriana, Beniamino Gigli, Grace Jones, Gianni Nazzaro, Tullio Pane, Anna Maria Pierangeli, Ezio Pinza, Nilla Pizzi, Massimo Ranieri, Franco Ricci, Cliff Richard, Giacomo Rondinella, Nini Rosso, Stefano Russo, Rino Salviati, Tony Sigillo, Nino Taranto, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Luciano Tajoli, Achille Togliani, Peter Van Wood, Bruno Venturini, Claudio Villa, Luciano Virgili, Iva Zanicchi, Michael Bublé, Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Lucio Dalla, and Francesco De Gregori, just to name a few.
Some sources report that Anema e Core was played in England (as reported by Napoligrafia ANEMA E CORE (napoligrafia.it)) to welcome the Italian national football team. Not only that, it seems that the song was the first Italian song to be broadcast on Soviet radio after the beginning of the Cold War, crossing a border that would remain impassable for many years.
Anema e Core in Italy
In Italy, among the many singers who have interpreted Manlio and D’Esposito’s masterpiece, De Gregori stands out, who in 2018 recorded the song together with his wife. For the Italian singer-songwriter, it is an homage not only to the Neapolitan song but also to the companion of a lifetime, “Chicca”.
What the Roman singer-songwriter records is a limited edition vinyl; the disc, dated October 26, 2018, has only 99 copies with two versions present, one acoustic and the other orchestral. The cover is by Mimmo Paladino, one of the main exponents of the Italian Transavantgarde. We see on the cover two profiles (probably the same De Gregori with his life partner) side by side with the title of the song presented on a red background.
Where can you listen to Anema e Core? Of course at Napulitanata.
By Antonio Di Criscito