Gianni Pettenati: goodbye to the voice of “Gialla flag”

His voice was that of the hit “Yellow Flag”, a famous song and symbol of light music from the 1960s: Gianni Pettenati died in his home in Albenga, in the province of Savona, at the age of 79. The announcement of the disappearance, which took place in the night, was given with a post on social media by his daughter Maria Laura: “In his home, as he wanted, with his close affections, with the love of his sons Maria Laura, Samuela and Gianlorenzo and the beloved cipria cat, after a long and exhausting illness, left us dad. We do not have Never stop loving you.

Born in Piacenza on October 29, 1945, gossipy, as he remembers Adnkronos, He made his debut in 1965, winning the Bellaria Festival and joined the Juniors group. In 1966, accompanied by the same group, he recorded his first 45 rpm, a cover of “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan entitled “as a rolling stone”, followed by what remains its greatest success “Gialla flag”, Italian version of “The Pied Piper” engraved the same year as Patty Pravo (in the original language, as side B of the single “sad boy” for the promotion of the local Piper Club in Rome, becoming the song symbol of the famous disco), become an evergreen.

The next 45 laps, again with the juniors, is “the superman” (Cover of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman”, while on the B disc of the disc appears “you can make me cry” (cover of “I put a spell on you” by Screamin ‘Jay Hawkins, engraved with the arrangement of the version of Alan Price ), with the Italian text of Mogol. Always in 1967 Pitrenati participates in the Sanremo Festival with “La Revolution”, on a disc for the summer with “I believe in you”, at Cantagiro with “A horse and a head” (written by Paolo Conte) and royal scale on the Rai National Channel in the team with the winner of that year, Claudio Villa, and with Iva Zanicchi, beating Gianni Morandi, Sandie Shaw and Dino.

In 1968 together with Antoine he accessed the final of the Sanremo Festival with “La Tramontana”, lucky song that the singer Piacentino has always re -proposed in his concerts. Follow other successes such as “Hot heat”, “Cin Cin”, “Your whims” and artistic collaborations with different authors of the Italian song. Music critic, Pettenati is the author of several books on the history of Italian light music including “those eran days – 30 years of Italian songs” (memories, with Red Ronnie); “The 60s in America” ​​(Virgil Edizioni); “Mina as I am” (Virgil editions); “I Renato Zero” (Edizioni Virgilio); “Alice leaves” (Asefi editions).

Here the story of “yellow flag”