"Love Theme from ''The Godfather''" is an
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
theme from the 1972 film ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caa ...
'', composed by
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
. The piece was lyricized in English by
Larry Kusik Larry Kusik (also known as Larry Kusic) is a lyricist. He is perhaps best known for writing the lyrics for the tune " Speak Softly Love", the love theme from the 1972 film ''The Godfather''. He has also written lyrics to many other movie themes, inc ...
into "Speak Softly, Love", a
popular song released in 1972. The highest-charting rendition of either version was by vocalist
Andy Williams, who took "Speak Softly Love" to number 34 on ''
Billboard'' magazine's
Hot 100[.] and number seven on its
Easy Listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
chart.
[.]
Background
Larry Kusik Larry Kusik (also known as Larry Kusic) is a lyricist. He is perhaps best known for writing the lyrics for the tune " Speak Softly Love", the love theme from the 1972 film ''The Godfather''. He has also written lyrics to many other movie themes, inc ...
wrote the original, English lyrics, and
Nino Rota
Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...
wrote the music, that was used in ''Fortunella'', a 1958 Italian film directed by
Eduardo De Filippo
Eduardo De Filippo (; 24 May 1900 – 31 October 1984), also known simply as ''Eduardo'', was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works ''Filumena Marturano'' and '' Napoli Milionaria''. Consid ...
with script by
Federico Fellini. Different sets of lyrics for the song were written in French (''Parle plus bas''), Italian (''Parla più piano''), Portuguese (''Fale baixinho''),
Sicilian (''Brucia la terra''), and Spanish (''Amor háblame dulcemente'').
Dalida
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida, was an Italian-French singer and actress born in Egypt. She sang in eleven languages and sold millions of records internationally. Her best known son ...
sings the French version; the Sicilian version is sung by
Anthony Corleone (Franc D'Ambrosio) in ''
The Godfather Part III
''The Godfather Part III'' is a 1990 American crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from the screenplay co-written with Mario Puzo. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy García, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegn ...
''. It was first heard in America in 1969 on ''
The Merv Griffin Show
''The Merv Griffin Show'' is an American television talk show starring Merv Griffin. The series ran from October 1, 1962 to March 29, 1963 on NBC, May 10, 1965 to July 4, 1969 in first-run syndication, from August 18, 1969 to February 11, 1972 ...
'' sung by Angela Bacari in English and Italian.
Awards
Rota's score for ''The Godfather'' had been nominated for a 1973
Academy Award for Best Original Score. However, it was disqualified from consideration when the academy learned Rota had used a more comedic version of the song for the film ''
Fortunella'' (1958). Nonetheless, Rota's score for ''
The Godfather Part II
''The Godfather Part II'' is a 1974 American epic crime film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film is partially based on the 1969 novel ''The Godfather'' by Mario Puzo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola. ''Part II'' s ...
'' won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Score, despite the fact that it contained the same piece.
Chart performance
The first version of the song to reach any of the charts in ''
Billboard'' magazine was "Love Theme from ''The Godfather''" by pianist
Roger Williams. His instrumental recording debuted in the issue dated 1 April 1972, and "
bubbled under" the
Hot 100 for five weeks, peaking at number 116,
[.] and another piano rendition by
Ferrante and Teicher
Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances ...
got as high as number 28
Easy Listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
during its four-week chart run that began in the 8 April issue.
[.] The version that the film's music director,
Carlo Savina
Carlo Savina (2 August 1919 - 23 June 2002) was an Italian composer and conductor who composed, arranged, and conducted music for films, and is especially remembered for being the music director of films such as ''The Godfather'' (1972), ''Amarc ...
, and his orchestra recorded for the soundtrack first charted on the Hot 100 in the 22 April issue and made it to number 66 during a nine-week chart run.
[.] It also reached number 24 on the Easy Listening chart during its three weeks there that began in the 20 May issue.
[.]
Charts (Love Theme)
"Speak Softly Love"
The Andy Williams version of "Speak Softly Love" also made its first appearance in the 8 April issue and reached number 34 on the Hot 100 during its 11 weeks there
[ and number seven Easy Listening over the course of 12 weeks.][ A recording of the song by ]Al Martino
Al Martino (born Jasper Cini; October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop croone ...
debuted on both of those charts in the 29 April issue and peaked at number 80 during its four weeks on the Hot 100[.] and number 24 on the Easy Listening chart, where it also spent four weeks.[.]
In the UK Williams began a run of nine weeks on 5 August of that year that led to a number 42 showing. In Spain, his version was a number-one hit, staying at the top of the charts for 15 weeks.[
]
Charts (Speak Softly Love)
Recordings
* Slash
Slash may refer to:
* Slash (punctuation), the "/" character
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Slash (Marvel Comics)
* Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'')
Music
* Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band
* Nash ...
of Guns N' Roses began performing instrumental guitar versions of the song as early as the late 1980s. The song is often referred to as "The Godfather Theme" and is included on his 2010 live album '' Live in Manchester'' and his 2011 live album '' Made in Stoke''. A studio recording exists and was recorded for a rare 2002 soundtrack titled ''The Kid Stays in the Picture
''The Kid Stays in the Picture'' is a 1994 print autobiography by film producer Robert Evans. A film adaptation of the book was released in 2002.
The title comes from a line attributed to studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who was defending Evans a ...
''.
*A Ukrainian version, "Skazhy shcho liubysh" ( uk, Скажи, що любиш; lit. Say you love me) was performed by Sofia Rotaru
Sofiia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru (born 7 August 1947), known as Sofia Rotaru ( uk, Софія Михайлівна Ротару ; russian: link=no, Софи́я Миха́йловна Рота́ру; ro, Sofia Rotaru), is a former Ukrainia ...
in the musical film '' Song Is Always with Us'' (1975), as the Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
administration did not allow her to record an English cover of ''The Godfather''s theme following an offer from Ariola Records
Ariola (also known as Ariola Records, Ariola-Eurodisc and BMG Ariola) is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of the Bertelsmann Music Group, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomera ...
.
* James Booker
James Carroll Booker III (December 17, 1939 – November 8, 1983) was a New Orleans rhythm and blues keyboardist born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Booker's unique style combined rhythm and blues with jazz standards. Musician Dr. J ...
included an instrumental version of the song on his album ''Classified''.
* Jason Kouchak
Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...
sang the original Italian version Parla più piano as a tribute.
* The melody was used as the theme music and as a central plot device in the Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
short animated film ''Contact
Contact may refer to:
Interaction Physical interaction
* Contact (geology), a common geological feature
* Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye
* Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects
* ...
'' (1978).
* Bay Area rapper Mac Dre
Andre Louis Hicks (July 5, 1970 – November 1, 2004), known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper from Vallejo, California. He was an instrumental figure in the emergence of hyphy, a cultural movement in the Bay Area hip hop scene ...
sampled the theme in his hip-hop song "Mafioso" from his album, ''Al Boo Boo'' (2003).
* Hip-hop artist RZA of Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close aff ...
samples the theme in "Black Mozart" on Raekwon
Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...
's album '' Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II'' (2009).
* A heavy metal cover of the song was done by the band Fantômas
Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914).
One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appear ...
on their album '' The Director's Cut'' in 2001.
* Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fr ...
recorded the Sicilian version for his 2015 album ''Cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
''.
* Gianni Morandi
Gianni Morandi (; born 11 December 1944) is an Italian pop singer, actor and entertainer.
Early life
Gian Luigi Morandi was born in a little village called Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. His father Renato was active within the ...
performs a version of song in Italian.
* Italian-French singer Dalida
Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti (; 17 January 1933 – 3 May 1987), professionally known as Dalida, was an Italian-French singer and actress born in Egypt. She sang in eleven languages and sold millions of records internationally. Her best known son ...
performed a French version of the song written by Boris Bergman in her 1972 album '' Il faut du temps''.
* The Latino-Mediterranean band French Latino also performed the French version. in their album ''Guarda la esperanza.''
* German singer Udo Lindenberg
Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer.
Career
Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...
recorded a version with new German lyrics as the closing title track for his 2016 album ''Stärker als die Zeit''.
See also
*" Promise Me You'll Remember (Love Theme from ''The Godfather Part III'')"
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From The Godfather)
1972 singles
Columbia Records singles
Paramount Records singles
Songs with lyrics by Larry Kusik
Andy Williams songs
Scott Walker (singer) songs
Love Theme From The Godfather
Love themes
Songs written for films
Film theme songs
Song recordings produced by Dick Glasser