Ferdinando "Fred" Buscaglione (; 23 November 1921 – 3 February 1960) was an Italian singer and actor who became very popular in the late 1950s. His public persona – the character he played both in his songs and his movies – was of a humorous mobster with a penchant for whisky and women.

Biography

Ferdinando Buscaglione was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, Italy on 23 November 1921. The father was a painter and the mother a porter and piano teacher, both coming from Graglia, his great passion for music appeared at a very young age. When he was 11, his parents enrolled him at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in

. During his teen years, he performed at night clubs in Turin singing

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and playing double bass and violin. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he was incarcerated in an American internment camp in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

. His musical talent was apparent and he was allowed to join the orchestra of the allied radio station of Cagliari. This permitted Buscaglione to continue to make music and to experiment with new sounds and rhythms coming from the U.S. (Most foreign music had been officially forbidden by the Italian Fascist regime.) After the war, Buscaglione returned to Turin and went to live in ''Via Eusebio Bava'' 26 bis and resumed working as a musician for various bands. He then formed his own group, the Asternovas. During a tour in Switzerland in 1949 he met and married the half-German half-Moroccan entertainer Fatima Robin. In the meantime he was gradually creating his public character, inspired by

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

and

Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have ...

's gangsters. His friend

Leo Chiosso Leo Chiosso (b. Turin, 8 August 1920 – d. Chieri, Italy, 26 November 2006) was an Italian lyricist mostly known for his work with Fred Buscaglione. They formed a songwriting duo who produced about forty songs and created Buscaglione's pub ...

was a lyricist who wrote many of his songs. Together they wrote the hits that brought nationwide fame to Buscaglione: ''Che bambola'' (Whatta babe!), ''Teresa non sparare'' (Theresa, don't shoot!), ''Eri piccola così'' (You were small like that), ''Guarda che luna'' (Look, What A (beautiful) Moon), '' Love in Portofino'', ''Porfirio Villarosa'' (a caricature of

Porfirio Rubirosa Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza (January 22, 1909 – July 5, 1965) was a Dominican diplomat, race car driver, soldier and polo player. He was a supporter of dictator Rafael Trujillo, and was also a political assassin under his regime. Rubirosa made ...

), ''Whisky facile'' (Easy Whiskey). After perfecting his routine in night clubs and theatres he started recording his songs in 1955; the first single (a

shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

78rpm record containing 'Che bambola' and 'Giacomino') sold 1,000,000 copies with close to no promotion, propelling him to a degree of fame he never considered possible. By the end of the 1950s, Buscaglione was one of Italy's most wanted entertainers. He appeared on advertising campaigns, on television, in movies. At 38 years of age, he was killed in a car accident when his lilac

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird (colloquially called the T-Bird) is a personal luxury car produced by Ford from model years 1955 until 1997 and 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was pr ...

collided with a truck Lancia Esatau in the early hours before dawn in Rome. Immediately brought to the hospital in a bus flagged down by the truck driver, he arrived there too late. Only hours earlier he had dinner with some friends at a restaurant in Rome and met future Italian pop diva

Mina Mazzini Mina may refer to: Places Iran * Minaq, East Azerbaijan * Mina, Fars * Mineh, Lorestan Province * Mina, Razavi Khorasan * Mehneh, Razavi Khorasan Province United States * Mina, California * Mina, Nevada * Mina, New York * Mina, Ohio * M ...

who made her

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

debut earlier. The two discussed future collaboration that sadly never materialized. Tens of thousands people attended his funeral in Turin on 6 February 1960. He is buried in the ''Cimitero Monumentale''. Alongside his legacy, in songs and movies, Buscaglione deserves mention for having encouraged musicians and singers from the newer generation (the one influenced by the earliest forms of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

) to stand up against the conservative producers and discographers of the time, demanding recognition for their art and their style. In this role he proved instrumental in the rise of the "yellers" scene which from the early 60s started to revolutionize the Italian popular music panorama.

Selected filmography

* ''

Tough Guys ''Tough Guys'' is a 1986 American action comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach, Charles Durning, Dana Carvey and Darlanne Fluegel. It is the eighth film of Touchstone Pictures, and the final ...

'' (1960)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buscaglione, Fred 1921 births 1960 deaths Italian jazz singers Actors from Turin Road incident deaths in Italy 20th-century Italian male actors 20th-century Italian male singers Male jazz musicians Musicians from Turin Italian military personnel of World War II Italian prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by the United States