"Corde della mia chitarra" ("Strings of my guitar") is an Italian song written by , composed by , and performed by

Nunzio Gallo Nunzio Gallo (25 March 1928 – 22 February 2008) was an Italian singer. He was born in Naples and represented his country in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest, coming 6th. The song he performed, "Corde Della Mia Chitarra", is famous for being the ...

and

Claudio Villa Claudio Villa (born Claudio Pica; 1 January 1926 – 7 February 1987) was an Italian singer and actor. Biography Tenor Claudio Villa was born Claudio Pica in the Trastevere quarter of Rome in 1926. He recorded over 3000 songs, sold 45 million ...

. The song is the winner of the Italian national Sanremo Music Festival 1957 where it was performed twice by the two singers and the in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. Both original recordings of the song are ranked among the top 100 most successful songs in Italy in 1957.

Lyrics and melody

With live guitar accompaniment provided by Piero Gozo for Nunzio Gallo's version as seen in the Eurovision contest, and with a vocal ranging between light and classical opera styles, the song is a ballad in the ''

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

'' style as well as the opera tones popular in Italy and Europe in the 1950s. Gallo sings of his mixed feelings at seeing a former lover and realising that she is no longer interested in him. He asks the strings of his guitar to play for him alone, since she has no interest in their music anymore.

Eurovision Song Contest

The song is the longest in the contest's history. Writer John Kennedy O'Connor describes it as "over five minutes long" in his work on the contest, and Des Mangan records it as "5 minutes and 9 seconds", as well as suggesting that the listener "would have thought of many better uses for the strings of his guitar". Following this contest, the rule governing the length of entries was tightened to require them to be no longer than 3.5 minutes initially and later 3 minutes exactly, with both authors agreeing that the change was due to this entry's length. In the 2007 edition of John Kennedy O'Connor's ''The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History'', the song is officially listed as the longest entry in the history of the contest, and was performed after the song which, until 2015, was the officially listed shortest song. The song was performed fourth on the night, following the 's Patricia Bredin with "

All All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

" and preceding 's Bob Martin with " Wohin, kleines Pony?". At the close of voting, it had received 7 points, placing it sixth in a field of ten. It was succeeded as Italian representative at the 1958 contest by

Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno (; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song " Nel blu dipinto di blu", for which he received Grammy ...

with " Nel blu dipinto di blu".

Charts

According to the data calculated at "Hit Parade Italia" which presents weekly and top 100 yearly positions for a mix of both Italian and international songs, the version by

is ranked #69 and the version by

the #38 most successful singles in Italy in 1957.

References

Sources

* * * Eurovision songs of 1957 Eurovision songs of Italy Sanremo Music Festival songs 1957 songs {{Eurovision-stub