Quante volte

I knew Mimì mostly for Minuetto, a song written by Dario Baldan Bembo, with lyrics by Califfo, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful Italian songs of the 1970s.

We met when I had just finished CERVO A PRIMAVERA, which was released in December 1980 and in two weeks the single had climbed the charts to settle at the top. Mimi had a little house in Milano Due, a small piano leaning against the wall, and I had never met her in person. She had some song sketches and started to try them in front of me.

When she sang she was divine. Every time she opened her mouth and modulated her voice, I got goose bumps a meter high. Mimi really came from another planet. Every now and then Cocciante also had this effect on me, because his voice sometimes had those shivering tones as well. There are singers who have something extra, something special, something precious, unrepeatable, and they make you understand it immediately. And Mimi had all this: it was unrepeatable. The degree of emotional intensity I felt when listening to Mimì was something that only she could make me feel.

So working with her was something very special for me. After we had been sitting next to each other for a while, she said to me: “Shel, you’re writing a lot of songs for a lot of people. Is it possible that you have nothing for me?” I replied, “Mimi, right now I only have one song that has no lyrics.” And she said, “Would you like me to hear it?” We had tried out songs by various authors for hours, and I had almost forgotten about this piece of mine still without text, and I limited myself to performing it with a few rough words, and also rather badly, because I was excited to play it in front of her, more than if I had been in front of an audience of ten thousand people.

“Shel, this song is beautiful. I want to write the lyrics. May I?” she said, as soon as I’d finished playing it for her. “Of course you can.” What came out was Quante volte, a song that definitely re-launched her, helping her to increase sales. After a long time, she had returned to the charts, perhaps not in first place, but that piece became a classic of her repertoire: even now, every time I sing it in a concert, people are moved.

Excerpt from: Shapiro, Shel, Io sono immortale, Milan, Mondadori, 2010, pp. 168-169