Giorgio Calabrese, farewell ten years ago. Eleven songs

Giorgio Calabrese, one of the great authors of Italian song, passed away ten years ago, on March 31, 2016, in Rome. He was born in Genoa on 28 November 1929.
He made his debut as an author of song lyrics at the end of the 1950s, writing many of them for Umberto Bindi (“Il nostri concerto”, “Arrivederci”, “Non mi dire chi sei”). He was artistic director of the Karim label, the first for which Fabrizio De André recorded. He then collaborated for a long time with Mina and Ornella Vanoni, wrote the Italian lyrics of French and Portuguese songs.
Then, from the 1960s, he was the author of television programs such as “Senza rete”, “Fantastico”, “Domenica In” and the Sanremo Festival.
The list of songs written by Giorgio Calabrese is endless: from “Ciao ti dirò”, written with Gian Franco Reverberi and sung by Adriano Celentano, to the aforementioned ones for Bindi, from “Chihuahua” and “Dindi” for Mina to the very classic “E se Tomorrow” (“…and I underline if”) originally recorded by Fausto Cigliano in 1964 to “La Ragazza di Ipanema”, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, sung by us by Bruno Martino, from “The world is gray the world is blue” for NIcola Di Bari to “L’istrione” for Charles Aznavour, from “Tomorrow is another day” for Ornella Vanoni on music by Jerry Chestnut to “Suoneranno le sei” on music by Astor Piazzolla for Mina, the “The rain of March” on music by Antonio Carlos Jobim for Mina to “Via di qua” again for Mina in 1986.
The last song published with lyrics by Giorgio Calabrese was “Meglio Cosi”, written to music by Gianni Ferrio for Johnny Dorelli.
The stature and importance of Giorgio Calabrese in the history of Italian song are enormous: his name, although little known to the general public, is rightfully in the pantheon of the greatest.

To Giorgio Calabrese, Cesare Borrometi and Vito Vita dedicated “And I stress if…”, a book published in 2024 by Coniglio Editore.

Umberto Bindi, “Goodbye”