Once upon a time there was the Cantastampa. Michele Bovi tells us about it

Once upon a time there was the Cantastampa. Michele Bovi tells us about it

ByJohn

Is Mogol or Sandro Ciotti better? Franco Migliacci or Gianni Minà? Sergio Bardotti or Maurizio Costanzo? Giorgio Calabrese or Emilio Fede? There was a time when journalists tried to replace lyricists in the packaging of songs aimed at climbing the hit parade of best-selling records. They were helped by composers such as Giovanni D’Anzi, Ennio Morricone, Luis Bacalov, Renato Rascel, Stelvio Cipriani, Pino Donaggio and by the voices of Gianni Morandi, Giorgio Gaber, Sergio Endrigo, Mia Martini, Gino Paoli, Iva Zanicchi, Edoardo Vianello, Riccardo Cocciante, just to name a few. And there was television, with the first and second networks, with presenters Corrado, Enrico Simonetti, Isabella Biagini, with high-ranking international guests such as Françoise Hardy and Shirley Bassey. It was an experiment launched by the journalist Sandro delli Ponti and the manager Gianni Ravera with the name of Cantastampa: five legendary editions from 1963 to 1972. Legendary because – inconceivably – there is no longer any document of that event: Rai lost the films of the evenings, the record companies did not publish the songs (with a few exceptions such as “Che mondo Strano”, a moderate success by the English group The Rokes) and to the Italian Society of authors and publishers almost all deposits are counterfeit.

The story of that “phantom festival” is told in the book “Once upon a time the Cantastampa: when journalists ousted the lyricists” (Coniglio editore) created by the journalist Michele Bovi and the writer and lyricist Pasquale Panella who found the exclusive materials of those five editions.

I met Michele Bovi via Zoom to talk about all this. And under the videos you will find today’s journalists reading the texts of yesterday’s journalists.

Part 1:

Part 2:

John
John

With an untamed passion and deep, eclectic knowledge of music, John is the soul of RadioWise UK. Having worked in the music industry for over two decades, his vision was to create a platform that embodies the love and respect for music. John is known for his great attention to detail and insatiable thirst for discovering new talents and music genres.