"Marina" is a 1959 Italian song by Italian-Belgian singer-songwriter

Rocco Granata Rocco Granata (born 16 August 1938) is an Italian-Belgian singer, songwriter, and accordionist. Granata was born in Figline Vegliaturo, Calabria, southern Italy; but his parents immigrated to Belgium when he was aged ten. Rocco's father was a ...

, his first international hit and best known song. Originally released in 1959 as the B-side of "Manuela", the B-side became more played than the A-side, and by 30 January "Marina" interrupted "

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" by

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for one week at the No.1 spot of Hitkrant's List of European number-one hits of 1960. The song sold millions of copies.
It was #1 in Belgium, #31 in the US, and #1 in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Norway.
It was the #2

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to selec ...

play of the whole year in Automaten-Markt's records after " Seemann" by

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Trivia

The song "Marina" was so popular in Belgium and the Netherlands that many parents named their baby daughters Marina. In the Netherlands, the number of born Marina's rose from 156 in 1958 (before the hit song), to 190 and 250 in 1959 and 1960: an increase of 22% in 1959 and again 32% the next year. A (German) musical feature film entitled ''Marina'' (by

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

) was released in 1960. In 1989, Granata commissioned a dance remix of "Marina" (by Rocco Granata & The Carnations), which again topped the Belgian charts as well as those of Italy and Germany. In 2013 his early life (and his musical career starting with the sudden success of the hit "Marina") was captured in a new biographical movie named ''

Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

'', directed by

Stijn Coninx Stijn, Baron Coninx (born 21 February 1957) is a Belgian film director. Career He studied film directing at HRITCS (currently Ritcs, at Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel). Baron Coninx is best known for his film ''Daens'', which was nominated for a ...

Charts

References

Belgian pop songs 1959 singles 1959 songs Italian-language Belgian songs {{1950s-song-stub