Spaghetti, pollo, insalatina e una tazzina di caffè

Between 1966 and 1968 there was a sudden and inexplicable renewed interest in songs from the 1920s and ‘30s, probably sparked by the international success of Winchester Cathedral, a song by an original English group, the New Vaudeville Band, who made that musical style the cornerstone of their repertoire. 

In this delightful song, Fred Bongusto tackles that atmosphere, with singing filtered through a megaphone in the style of those bygone days, while surrounding his voice is a perfect musical setting by Ruggero Cini, one of the best arrangers at the Italian RCA, and an equally successful performance by the Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni as the chorus. 

Bongusto wrote the music, while the lyrics were the fortunate intuition of Franco Migliacci, also the record’s producer. This was a one-off, which was natural given that it was well outside Bongusto’s musical tastes and, despite being relegated to the B side of the record, E mi consuma l’estate quickly became the real hit on that 45. It was helped by the fact that it appeared in the soundtrack of The Tiger and the Pussycat, an entertaining Italian comedy directed by Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassman, Ann Margret, Luigi Vannucchi, Antonella Steni and Fiorenzo Fiorentini.