Antonio De Vita (10 February 1932 – 14 January 1998), best known as Tony De Vita, was an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. Born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, De Vita graduated at the

Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory The Milan Conservatory (''Conservatorio di Milano'') is a college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year ...

in his hometown. He started his career as a pianist, accompanying artists such as

Johnny Dorelli Johnny Dorelli (real name Giorgio Guidi; born 20 February 1937) is an Italian actor, singer and television host. Early life Dorelli was born in Meda, Italy. In 1946 he moved to New York City with his family, where his father, Nino D'Aurelio ...

and

Betty Curtis Roberta Corti, better known by her stage name Betty Curtis (21 March 1936 – 15 June 2006), was an Italian singer active from 1957 to 2004. Curtis grew up in the Zone 8 of Milan's borough Cagnola. She started singing in night clubs at an early ...

. In 1963 he debuted on television as the conductor in the variety show ''La fiera dei sogni'', and from then he appeared in dozens of popular shows, including '' Senza Rete'', '' Fantastico'' and ''

Domenica in ''Domenica in'' is an Italian Sunday long-running television show broadcast by Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the com ...

''.Aldo Grasso, Massimo Scaglioni. ''Enciclopedia della Televisione''. Garzanti, Milano, 1996 – 2003. . De Vita composed over five hundred songs and musical scores. He is best known for his long collaboration with the singer Mina. Among his best known compositions, the song "

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

", which was later recorded by

Matt Monro Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons, 1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career. AllMusic has described Monro as "one of the m ...

(1962),

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

(1963) and

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

(1964) with the title " Softly, as I Leave You".

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Vita, Tony 1932 births 1998 deaths Musicians from Milan Italian male conductors (music) Italian music arrangers Italian songwriters Male songwriters Milan Conservatory alumni Italian male pianists 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century pianists 20th-century Italian male musicians 20th-century Italian composers