Cantagiro, the songs of 1964

Cantagiro, the songs of 1968

The Cantagiro, a singing event created by Ezio Radaelli, and still in progress although with different methods than the initial ones (the first edition took place in 1962), is a travelling song competition modelled on the Giro d’Italia: a caravan made up of various singers that moves between the cities of Italy, with evening performances and public voting at each stage, until the final stage where the overall winner is proclaimed.

1968

GROUP A

1° Caterina Caselli The face of life

2nd Gianni Morandi Chimera

3rd Dalida A little bit of love

4° The Chameleons Me for her

5th Jimmy Fontana Our fairy tale

6° Massimo Ranieri Prayer for her

7° The Rokes Save the last dance for me

8th Gian Pieretti Happiness happiness

9th Bobby Solo Siesta

10° I Dik Dik The wind

11th Antoine Good morning hello

Bruno Filippini Happiness

Claudio Villa When the wind rings the bells

Mario Guarnera Congratulations

Mario Zelinotti A blow to the heart

Mauro Lusini Oh Susy Susy

Nicola Di Bari The world is grey, the world is blue

The Nomads In Death of SF (Song for a Friend)

Tony Del Monaco Magic

Shirley Bassey Tomorrow Tomorrow

GROUP B

1° The Showmen I would like just one hour of you

2° Mino Reitano I had a heart (that loved you so much)

3° Elio Gandolfi One more year

4th Lucio Battisti Balla Linda

5° Sergio Leonardi Forget Me Not

6th Mario Tessuto I wrote the end

7° The Scooters The daughter of the tomato king

8th Primitives’ Disease Doll

9° The Rich and the Poor The Last Love

10th Nancy Cuomo Yesterday (only yesterday)

11th Mini Molly The Last Prayer

GROUP B – Other songs in the competition

Anonima Sound Speak Up

Giusy Romeo The wave

The Honeybeats Do whatever you want

Rinaldo Ebasta I’m crazy about Lola

A book by Federico Pieri and Daniele Sgherri – “Cantagiro vol. 1” – reconstructs the history of the event, covering the editions from 1962 to 1969, telling its story and publishing all the covers of all the 45 rpm records of all the competing songs; from it we have drawn the information for this series of articles.