PopArchives: The Blog: February 2025

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, released in 1967 by I Tipi (= the types i.e. guys, characters ...). 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. Their album 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 recording was not a success but a further cover by Giuliano E I Notturni in April 1968 did better, on Milan label Rifi. 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 song performed by ... Giuliano E I Notturni (#3 in Italy). We saw it above, in the spring of 1968, on the A side of their competing cover of Oggi Sono Tanto Triste.

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 German band The Black Stars. She co-wrote the same group’s Ci Fermiamo Due Minuti (1966), a German beat set in Italy that had some critical success on the peninsula.

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 Mediterránein 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.

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.