Sanremo 50 years ago: “Your mother’s eyes” by Sandro Giacobbe
“Your mother’s eyes” – Third place
Sandro Giacobbe – Sanremo 1976
Authors: Sandro Giacobbe, Daniele Pace, Oscar Avogadro
There is a curious coincidence that makes the relationship between Sandro Giacobbe and the Sanremo Festival special: it is the‘the only artist to have participated in three editions held, each time, in a different venue. The first, in 1976, was there‘the last one was hosted in the Casino’s Party Hall, while the second, in 1983, was held at the Ariston Theatre, the fixed venue for subsequent editions, with the exception of 1990. Precisely that‘year Jacob returned to the race for the third time, in a‘experimental edition hosted at the Palafiori in Bussana, a fraction of the Ligurian municipality closer to Arma di Taggia than to the center of Sanremo. However, let’s focus on the first participation, that of 1976, a‘a year that marked the first real attempt to relaunch the event. According to many insiders, the Festival had come to an end, thanks to a considerable decline in interest from the public. To revive it, the twenty-sixth edition was entrusted to Vittorio Salvetti, the “king” of the Festivalbar, which focused on international guests, on the presence of numerous bands in the competition and on an unprecedented management: Giancarlo Guardabassi, a well-known voice on the radio, who presented the three evenings from his position, without ever going on stage. In this context, Sandro Giacobbe made his debut with “Your mother’s eyes”, a song destined to mark a small, big revolution.
«I was coming from a particularly fortunate moment, I had already published two important songs, “My lady” e “The forbidden garden”, and with “I prisoner” had won the Gondola d‘gold of Venice. I was on the rise when they asked me to participate in Sanremo. I accepted without hesitation, even though in recent years the Festival was considered a little‘ in decline and less attractive than other events, it still remained an event with a prestigious history behind it. So we started looking for the right song. With the authors Daniele Pace and Oscar Avogadro we were working on the tracks that would make up my third album, entitled “I put all‘auction…”. The one that convinced us the most was precisely “Your mother’s eyes”, inspired by a somewhat specific situation‘ detail that had happened to me some time before, in my apprentice years. I was dating a little girl and I discovered that her mother was the same woman I had previously met in a club, with whom I had had a brief flirtation. I told this story to Daniele, between me and him c‘it was a lot of harmony. When we started talking about certain topics, about certain complicated relationships, he got excited becauseé loved to write something that went beyond the traditional song, touching on quite new and, if we want, even scandalous topics for the‘era. We deliberately played on‘misunderstanding. The text could make one think that the protagonist had also had a relationship with her mother, but in reality there‘idea was more poetic: through the woman’s eyes, he understood that he was in love with her daughter. Behind that‘embarrassment, c‘for us it was poetry. However, the song had some problems with censorship. All‘At the time, Rai submitted the texts to a commission that assessed their conformity with common sense of decency. We knew how daring the theme was, and in fact they made us change some sentences to take part in the Festival. Now I no longer remember what changes were made, but it was 1976, the desire to open up to new topics c‘it was, but the time was not yet ripe to dare more. Yet, it was a‘edition “revolutionary”, in fact the piece by Peppino di Capri which told of a striptease won. We were trying to relaunch Sanremo and to do so we‘there was a need to bring the younger audience closer. A curious episode concerns the voting system, entrusted to newspapers. I was in the lead, but all‘lastly I was penalized by a Ligurian newspaper from the same region as me, Il Secolo XIX. I discovered the turnaround while they were photographing me: suddenly the photographers ran away, and I finished third, tied with Toto Cutugno’s Albatros. Not bad, becauseIt’s “Your mother’s eyes” became my forte, the song that everyone remembers when it starts. I challenge you to sing instead “I don’t do it anymore”. Once, jokingly, Peppino told me that he didn’t even remember it, and he rarely proposed it at his concerts. I don’t think there is a secret behind the long-lasting success of “Your mother’s eyes”, but two elements that have certainly worked are: an easy-to-memorize melody and an intriguing, original and disruptive theme, one of those that leave their mark”.
Sandro Giacobbe
The winner of Sanremo 1976 was “I don’t do it anymore” by veteran Peppino Di Capri, three years after his previous triumph with “A great love and nothing more”. After twenty-six editions dominated by chaste feelings, in all possible and cloying declinations, finally on the Riviera we talked about murky and carnal topics: this is how the Festival discovered sex. Seventeen out of thirty songs dealt with themes that were decidedly more libertine than puritanical. Always at the center of the scene was‘love, which was starting to no longer rhyme only with heart. Sandro Giacobbe contributed to this renewal, even if his own “Your mother’s eyes” stopped on the lowest step of the podium ex aequo with “Volo AZ 504″ by Albatros. As mentioned, the Genoese singer-songwriter then returned to Sanremo twice more, in 1983 with “Primavera” and in 1990 with “I would like to.” But it was with this first festival participation that he rightfully entered the history of Italian pop music, with a song that made people dream and awaken.‘entire generation.
This text is taken, courtesy of the authors and the publisher, from “Sanremo e la classification del tempo”, by Nico Donvito and Marco Rettani (Azzurra Music, 324 pages – book + CD -, €29.90)
