Battisti international playlist

Battisti international

It was the British group Amen Corner who in 1969 decided the international success of Battisti as a songwriter: they produced a version of an obscure piece sung by a young Italian singer who went by the name of La Ragazza 77 (alias Ambra Borelli). Called Il paradiso della vita ((If Paradise Is) Half as Nice in English), the song reached number one in the UK. It also inspired Patty Pravo to record it with a new arrangement and title, Il paradiso. In reality, already the year before the American band Grass Roots had success with their version of Balla Linda (changed to Bella Linda in English). In a short time, then, Battisti began to be acknowledged, and the covers of his songs gradually spread throughout Europe and the world. German, French, Spanish, English, Swedish and Slovenian: you can hear the songs of Battisti that we all know in these languages, in versions that give them an unusual, curious and almost surprising character, proving how much the quality of his music is appreciated abroad. The culmination of this phenomenon is no doubt the song Music Is Lethal with English words by the great David Bowie: this is a version of Io vorrei… non vorrei… ma se vuoi, realized by Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson.