“THE ITALIAN SONGBOOK”
By Mahnuel Muñoz
On February 9, 1967, an internal memo was issued on Reprise Records in relation to a Frank Sinatra project titled “The Italian Songbook.”
After recording “Sinatra & Strings“, Frank had asked arranger Don Costa to project an album of Italian songs. Costa set about the task: he researched the country’s popular musical legacy, recorded his own mother singing and soon had arrangements for “Anema E Core“, “Mala Femmenea” and “Al di la” which, in the words of the Costa himself, “were oozing olive oil and garlic.” The project lay dormant for five years, only to be briefly resumed at the beginning of 1967 and finally left on the boulevard of broken dreams…
We will be left with the eternal longing to hear Frank sing the songs mentioned above and the rest of those included in the note: “La Strada“, “Arrivederci Roma“, “Just Say I Love Her” and “Non Dimenticar“…
At least we will always have his pasta sauce recipe.
