1958
VOLARE * MARINO MARINI AND HIS QUARTET * DURIUM 16632 * UK
This record is not really Rock and Roll, though it belongs to that era, nor is the cover shown the right sleeve for the record, but hey it's them though. Volare, from the Italian meaning 'to fly' was written and first recorded by Domenico Modugno as the Italian entry of the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, where it came third; the winner was the long forgotten French entry Dors, Mon Amour. Volare went on to become a hit every European country as well as England and the USA where it topped the charts for five weeks and was the biggest selling record of the year, later receiving a Grammy for record of the year and another for song of the year. The song was covered at the time by many recording artists, including Dean Martin and the above Marino Marini, and is now the most widely recorded Eurovision song of all time with versions by Frank Sinatra, Al Martino, Ella Fitzgerald and David Bowie, and in Trinidad Fitz Vaughan Bryan and His Orchestra released an instrumental version for the Cook label (see below).
Its success is incontrovertible proof of just how useless anything that is meant to be democratic and European is, given that all those different country's taking part in such exercises would probably have recognised the records value and potential had it just been a case of voting for it in their own country's, but as soon as they all come together then it's feudal Europe of the 14th century, and still is when they get together. The EP sleeve above is showing the group outside of the front entrance to the British Museum; it can be seen from the photograph that the museum is in a un refurbished state without any light shows, images of coming attractions or any other mediation now used to attract idle tourists seeking diversion, or more accurately 'recreational learning'.
VOLARE * FITZ VAUGHAN BRYAN * COOK 5882 * T