Franco Simone sings again “A blow to the heart”

Franco Simone has chosen a classic and elegant arrangement to reinterpret “Un colpo al cuore”, a song brought to success in 1968 by one of the most beloved voices in the history of Italian music, Mina.

The singer-songwriter and television author from Salento, with a long career behind him, has made the song written by Giancarlo Bigazzi his own, giving it back to the public in a version with a lounge mood and an orchestral swing. “For me it was an honor to be able to interpret this song, it has a profound value from a musical point of view but not only”, he says.

The operation is part of a larger project.

Giovanni Bigazzi, son of the lyricist and author among the most famous in Italian music (many will also remember him for having been part of Squallor), has decided to start a journey to rediscover his father’s great successes, including hit songs such as “Luglio”, “Rose rosse”, “Lisa dagli occhi blu”, “Gloria”, “Si può dare di più”, “Gente di mare”. All of this will be published on a record that will also be available on vinyl. GB Music has already published the first single of the series in May, 40 years after the release of “Self Control” by Raf, written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Raf and Steve Piccolo in 1984, with the new interpretation by Nicole Magolie.

“When her son Giancarlo asked me to perform this song I felt flattered and honored. Not only because it is an incredible text, brought to success by Mina, but also because it is her parents’ love song. It seems that it was precisely a phrase from that song that made them reconcile after an argument and brought them back together forever”, says Franco Simone; who, regarding his relationship with Mina, adds: “I was lucky enough to meet her after her last concert: a simple woman in her immensity. When I started working on the song I immediately understood that it was unthinkable to compare myself with her interpretation. I made it mine, it was a natural thing”.

The version of “Un colpo al cuore”, proposed by Franco Simone, features the arrangement of Nerio Poggi, aka Papik, and Peter De Girolamo, and was published on September 5, on the occasion of Giancarlo Bigazzi’s birthday.

“I attended the evening organized in Montecatini Terme for the event, his wife Gianna Albini was there. Seeing his emotion was worth more than a gold record”. And he adds: “I met Giancarlo Bigazzi when I worked as a journalist, I always admired him and when he shook my hand I immediately understood that he was a nice person. You can also read it in his lyrics, he worked with artists such as Marcella Bella, Massimo Ranieri, Gigliola Cinquetti, Francesco Guccini, always relating in a discreet way but reserving great attention for them. He wrote immortal things and without rhetoric. He was underestimated by critics and this is a shame, he left us great things”.

Franco Simone, known as the “poet with the guitar”, began his prolific career in the 1970s. In 1974 he participated in the Sanremo Festival, following up with the release of albums with unreleased songs and interpretations that brought him fame overseas, from Canada to Latin America. “Among the best memories? A concert in Chile in front of 150 thousand people, and the publication of the symphonic rock opera ‘Stabat Mater’ in Latin that led me to meet Pope Francis”. For his fifty-year career, in 2022, he received the honor of Knight of the Order “Al merito della Repubblica Italiana”, then he received an honorary degree in Economics and Communication Techniques from the Higher Institute of Finance and Business Organization ISFOA, “For having exported abroad with his songs, the best image of Italianness”.

“There are few of us who have done it and it happens less and less.

Today we have great artists, I think of Marco Mengoni, Diodato, Mahmood who I find very original, but I also see projects of which nothing remains, and this is a shame. Music is a serious thing, you can’t improvise. It’s like wanting to be a writer without ever having read a book”. In the meantime, during the summer he presented the new unreleased single “Luna blu”, in October he will be on stage at the Tenco award to collect the “Album a progetto” award for “Sarò Franco – Canzoni inedite di Califano” and anticipates that there will also be many other new things. In the meantime, he who from the Seventies to today has worked between stages, TV and recording studios experiencing the changes of an entire era, continues to keep up with the times and jokingly adds: “I also recently opened my Tik Tok channel, I want to understand how it works”. .