Splendido! Italian Singles Collection (CD) - Petula Clark

Two CDs. It was regular practice in the 1960s for stars to record their hits in foreign languages, whether it was the Beatles trying their hand at German or Gene Pitney more successfully getting his head around Italian. The era's female singers seemed to be more adaptable - Sandie Shaw and Françoise Hardy, for example, had parallel careers with recordings in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian - and Petula Clark was probably the most prolific of all. This release is a two-CD anthology of Petula's complete Italian language singles. Among the tracks are five superb songs she rendered exclusively in that language - including 'Invece No', which she performed at the San Remo Song Festival in 1965, and 'Splendido', recorded for the TV mini-series Coralba in 1970 - plus a further five of which she recorded no English versions, notably 'Quelli Che Hanno Un Cuore', her particularly lovely cover of Bacharach & David's 'Anyone Who Had A Heart'. Many of the songs will be familiar to Petula's British fans in their English versions - among them 'Ciao Ciao' ('Downtown'), 'L'amore È Il Vento' ('My Love') and 'Cara Felicita' ('This Is My Song') - while others were first recorded by her in French or German, countries in which she scored many big hits. Rarely for a female artist of the time, Petula wrote or co-wrote many of her own songs - sometimes under the alias Al Grant - an impressive nine of which are featured here.

Track List

1. Chariot (Sul Mio Carro)
2. Darling Chéri
3. Monsieur
4. Se Mi Vuoi Amare
5. La Nostra Storia
6. Sto Volentieri Con Te
7. Quelli Che Hanno Un Cuore
8. È Finito Tutto
9. Pagherai
10. La Frontiera
11. Invece No
12. Non Mi Guardi Mai
13. Ciao Ciao
14. Se Te Ne Vai
15. Io Resto Qui
16. Ma
17. Gocce Di Mare
18. Un Giorno Mi Hai Sorriso
19. L'amore È Il Vento
20. Cara Felicità
21. Cosa Cerchi Nel Mondo
22. Kiss Me Good-Bye
23. È Stato Il Vento
24. Il Sole Nel Cuore
25. LÀ Dove Muore Il Sole
26. Splendido
27. Piccolo Baby
28. Melody Man
29. Settembre Mi Riporterà
30. È Una Canzone Cosi
31. Amor