▶︎ Beauty is the Beast*

Guest post by Philippe Edouard exploring some back streets of Italian beat music.  

Philippe is a longtime friend of PopArchives from France. He has previously contributed accounts of 1960s yé-yé and 40s youth movement the Zazous.

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A little bit of organization in my digital disco wouldn’t be a bad thing. You download too much, and your brain forgets things.

Then suddenly I notice an Italian title that intrigues me. I click on the song, and there, I’m struck as if by a liver-punch, carried away by a frantic tornado of rhythm.

La Ragazza Bruttina is a nugget of Italian beat by I Tipi (= the types i.e. guys, characters ...) from 1967. 

Fuzz guitar and distortion, raw sound, choirs, bursts of machine gun fire from the drummer … This immediately reminds us of The Who. As for the coda, it is monstrous.

In short, I Tipi have assimilated the essence of swinging London, giving birth to this freakbeat italiano.

The lyrics of La Ragazza Bruttina (the ugly girl) are against judging by appearances and gossiping, topics that ring true today. In the song the lovers, the young man and his “ugly girl”, are indifferent to this.

So I set off to investigate the trans-alpine sites and … surprise! We don't know much about this combo.

Originally from Milan, the band was formed around 1964, and comprised Tino Guasconi (harmonica, guitar and vocals), Tonino Cantacessa (drums), Mauro Baroni (bass guitar), Rodolfo Pace (lead guitar and vocals), Franco Mutti (organ and vocals). Another less detailed source also cites Wolfango (guitar) and Secondo (bass).

They recorded at West-Side, a small Milanese label. The single was distributed by MPM, also from the Lombard capital. It is produced by Cesare La Loggia, owner of the label.

The A side, Oggi Sono Tanto Triste is a cover of a Cliff Richard song, 50 Tears For Every Kiss from Cliff’s LP 21 Today (1961), written by Sammy Bella (Wilbur Meshel). It was also the B-side of Cliff's Italian single, How Wonderful To Know (1962), an adaptation of the Tito Schipa standard, Anema E Core.

Oggi Sono Tanto Triste is a typical slow song of the era, adapted by former Samurai guitarist Giuseppe 'Beppe' Cardile and singer-songwriter Dante Pierretti, with an arrangement by Ugo Marino. 

I Tipi's record was not a hit, but another cover of Oggi Sono Tanto Triste appeared on the B-side of Giuliano E I Notturni's single Il Ballo Di Simone on Milan label Rifi (April 1968) a #3 hit in Italy). Did Guiliano's success negatively affect Il Tipi’s sales figures or did it help them? Readers can make up their own minds. We don't know, so we might as well be non-commital. In the following decades other artists recorded this romantic song.

By turning the record over we discover the gem. It is a safe bet that few people heard the masterpiece, La Ragazza Bruttina when it was first released (as La Ragazza), especially since there was an error on the sleeve of the initial pressing.

The wrongly printed title is Il Ballo Di Simone, a title that we saw above, as the hit A side of Giuliano E I Notturni's version of Oggi Sono Tanto Triste, in April 1968.

Should we conclude that the two records were released at the same time, and caused confusion at the printer? Il Tipi’s 45 would then date from 1968 and not 1967. Indeed, on the back of its sheet music, several hits from 1968 are offered to budding musicians.¹

In images found online, a white sticker has been affixed over the erroneous title on the front of the sleeve with la ragazza typed in a similar font. On the back of the sleeve, the title has been hastily struck out with a white marker².

Nevertheless, this famous first edition, with the red-orange label, is sought after by collectors today.

Composer credits for La Ragazza Bruttina are to the conductor Ugo Marino who also arranged the track, and to Tea (Teresa Russo) who had written Lonely Girl (1966), an excellent jerk style record for The Black Stars, a German beat band in Italy that had some critical success on the peninsula. She co-wrote the same group’s Ci Fermiamo Due Minuti (1966).

Bad luck or perhaps inexperience affected Tea.³ She is the co-author of Senza Di Te for the popular singer Fausto Leali, but her name disappears from the credits. The same thing happens with Io Potrei / Je Voudrais, a song in Italian and French by Orietta Berti, an entry for the Festival de la Canción del Mediterráne in Barcelona (1967). Fortunately, Tea has now regained her rights to this title. For La Ragazza Bruttina it's worse, since on the third pressing her name is replaced by that of the band's harmonica-guitarist, Tino Guasconi.

Despite everything, I Tipi recorded a new single. If we follow the logic of record company data, 1968 seems more likely than the 1967 seen everywhere on specialized sites. Un Pensiero... Una Lacrima is a baroque and soaring slow song by the Tea-Marino duo that has aged quite well. This title competes with Lalla Castellano's version.⁴

Once again, it's the B-side that is captivating. I Tuoi Capelli is the cover of Just A Little by The Beau Brummels. The song, using the characteristics of the A-side, is slowed down and the arrangement works wonders. The adaptation is uncredited, which is surprising.

With these interesting attempts, we can't wait to listen to their third opus, knowing that a new title is being recorded. But the group disappears like a meteor lighting up a summer night. Too bad, we would have liked to hear the rebellious and unreleased track, I Ragazzi Della Revolta.

In 1995, the CD Flower Punk Rock was released, compiling several current combos including I Fichissimi, creators of the legendary EP Un Mondo Fichissimo the previous year. They wonderfully covered I Tipi’s La Ragazza Bruttina and then also disappeared, while complaining that some were speculating on the resale of their vinyl record.

In 2010, I Fenomeni recorded the song which was officially released in 2023 on an LP limited to 200 copies.

In 2016 I Tipi Della Casa Occupata paid tribute, as a wink, to I Tipi and I Fichissimi by covering La Ragazza, released via YouTube by “cultural association” Killerdogz Music Factory.

It may be frustrating but ultimately, I Tipi and I Fichissimi did not have time to disappoint us. What do you think?

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FOOTNOTES

1. Il Ballo Di Simone was originally released in December 1967 as Simon Says by 1910 Fruitgum Company but it charted #4 USA in January 1968. Note also that 1910 Fruitgum Company recorded Il Ballo Di Simone for release in Italy, but with the title Semplicissimo (Simon Says), no doubt hoping to benefit from Giuliano E I Notturni's success with the song.

2. The correction may have been made later by the owner of the record. No image of the intact cover has appeared on the net so far.

3. The name Tea/Teresa Russo remains truly mysterious. Who is behind it? Is it a generic or collective name? She can be found in the late 70s and early 80s on series of library music LPs, such as Ball Bearing Group or Horizons on the old label of Abramo Allione (1895-1982). Moreover, at the time of the Black Stars, she was already rubbing shoulders with Allione who is credited under the name of Brolma (or was it his son Italo?).

4. Originally from Candela, in the south of Italy, Lalla Castellano went to Milan for her studies, took singing lessons at the conservatory and played the transverse flute. While she sang as an amateur, she was spotted and signed with Decca. She recorded a series of yéyé tracks and then moved to Italo Allione's Equipe label where she rubbed shoulders with The Black Stars (see Tea).

*A note on the title
Beauty is the Beast, a twist on Beauty and the Beast, works even better in French where the words est (is) and et (and) are homophones, thus creating a play on words. In speech, La Belle et la Bête and La Belle est la Bête sound the same.

 

I Tipi - La ragazza bruttina (1967)

 

I Tipi - I Tuoi Capelli (1967), adaptation of Beau Brummels - Just A Little

 

I Fichissimi - La ragazza bruttina (1994, 1995)

 

I Fenomeni - La Ragazza Bruttina (2010, 2023)

 

I Tipi della casa occupata - La ragazza bruttina (2016)

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BONUS TRACK 1910 Fruitgum Company, Simon Says, Italian version

1910 Fruitgum Company  - Semplicissimo (Simon Says), (1968),
also released by Giuliano E I Notturni as Il Ballo Di Simone (1968)

▶︎ Obscure Originators (31) The Fun And Games

From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features.

The Grooviest Girl In The World was a #3 New Zealand hit in 1969 for Hutt Valley band The Simple Image.

The original version was released in the US in 1968 by The Fun And Games, a six-piece band from Texas with four members who had been band-mates since their high school years in Houston. They included the Romano brothers, Joe and Rock, who both went on to successful careers in various branches of the arts (there is a Wikipedia page about Rock).

The Fun And Games 1969 [link]

The Fun And Games version of The Grooviest Girl In The World was produced by one of its writers, Gary Zekley. He is partly known for singing, co-writing and producing on the single Yellow Balloon (1967 #25 USA) and the subsequent album by The Yellow Balloon. These later became artifacts of the retrospectively named genre of Sunshine Pop. 

The Simple Image were one of those fine New Zealand bands of the 60s-70s that topped the charts in New Zealand with records that were unfamiliar to most Australians. NZ artists such as The Simple Image, The Dedikation, The Avengers, and The Fourmyula had #1 or #2 NZ hits that never surfaced in Australia.

There's a twist to the story of The Grooviest Girl In The World that I discovered later. Although most Australians would not be able to hum the tune for you, a Boomer from South Australia might know it. The original version by The Fun And Games charted in Adelaide March-May 1969, peaking at #3. (That averages out to #72 Australia; in the US it reached #78 Billboard.) This is a surprising outlier which I suspect is down to radio airplay on Adelaide's 5AD. 

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For more about the song and The Fun And Games see The Simple Image - The Grooviest Girl In The World. 

▶︎ Obscure Originators (30) Bob Wilson

From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features.

In 1960 Bob Wilson released the original version of (And Her Name Is) Scarlet. A later version by The De Kroo Brothers was a #9 Australian hit in 1963

Bob Wilson's recording came out on LA label Era. It was written by Steven Howard, a pseudonym of Era's co-founder and owner Herb Newman (1925-1976). He had co-written The Wayward Wind, a hit for Gogi Grant on an Era single (1956, #1 USA).

Before The De Kroo Brothers got to it, Keith Colley had recorded Scarlet, again on Era (1962), and there had been a German version in 1961.

See full news item

This was interesting, and not hard to find out, but who was Bob Wilson? The trouble is that the world is full of Bob Wilsons, so his identity was infuriatingly difficult to search for. I discovered that even BMI, the US copyrighting outfit, had registered compositions by at least three different Bob Wilsons together under one name.

Eventually, someone emails. This time, it was a longstanding friend of Wilson who had much information about his life and career. Thanks to him and some further digging, I was even able to create a passable Bob Wilson article at Wikipedia.

This Bob Wilson was a guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter from Pleasant Hill, California. As a teenager just out of high school he recorded some singles on Era, then had a long career as a schoolteacher with occasional reappearances on record.

For example, he featured on an album by folk artist Janet Smith in 1968, and he released albums with Rick Shubb (the Shubb Capo inventor) in 1976 and 1999. In the mid-2010s his Bob Wilson Ensemble appeared at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. 

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For more about the song and Bob Wilson see The De Kroo Brothers - (And Her Name Is) Scarlet.

▶︎ Obscure Originators (29) Drafi Deutscher And His Magics

From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features.

In 1960s Germany, singer-songwriter Drafi Deutscher was a chart-topping pop star, but to most  Australian pop fans at the time his name would have been, well, obscure.

Johnny Chester's moderate hit Teeny (1963 #28 Australia), with English lyrics by Johnny himself, is a cover version of Teeny by Drafi Deutscher And His Magics.

More than that, Johnny is singing over the backing track recorded for Drafi’s single, and he repeats the procedure on the B-side with Do The Stomp, a cover of Drafi’s B-side Shu-bi-du-bi-do The Slop, again with Drafi's recycled backing track.

The following year, W&G did this again when Merv Benton sang new lyrics by Noel Watson over the backing tracks from both sides of Drafi's single Shake Hands / Come On, Let’s Go.

English translations or rewrites of songs are not unusual. The lady in Mark Holden's I Wanna Make You My Lady (1976) was an angel in the original Swedish hit Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel. You're My World came from Il Mio Mondo, and My Way came from Comme d'habitude.

The idea of recording vocals over the backing track of an original version is not unheard of either. Six months before Johnny Chester's Teeny, Ben E. King's 1963 hit I (Who Have Nothing) had used the backing track from Uno Dei Tanti (1961), the original version by Joe Sentieri.

Other double-sided covers exist, too. In 1957 The Diamonds covered both sides of The Rays’ single Silhouettes / Daddy Cool, and in 1964 Australian band The Cicadas covered both sides of The Marauders' British single That’s What I Want / Hey Wha’ D’Ya Say with some regional chart success.

But W&G's twofold use of the manoeuvre I like to call the double-sided cover version with English adaptation and recycled backing track must be unique.
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For more about the songs and Drafi Deutscher And His Magics see Johnny Chester - Teeny and Merv Benton - Be Sweet.