Ennio MorriconeEnnio Morricone was truly the greatest composer of all time. His works have been performed in many world films, they are still relevant today. Morricone has left us a huge musical legacy.
Modern Talking
Arabesque (group)
World of Tanks Blitz
Scorpions (band)Contents
1 History
1.1 Formation and early history (1965–1973)
1.2 Rise to fame (1974–1978)
1.3 Commercial success (1978–1992)
1.4 Later days (1993–2009)
1.5 Sting in the Tail, Comeblack, and touring (2010–2014)
1.6 50th anniversary and Return to Forever (2015–2017)
1.7 Rock Believer (2018–present)
2 Legacy
2.1 Influence
2.2 In popular culture
3 Band members
4 Awards and honours
5 Discography
6 Tours
7 See also
8 References
8.1 Citations
8.2 Sources
9 Bibliography
10 External links
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Ennio Morricone
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Ennio Morricone
OMRI
Morricone in 2007
Morricone in 2007
Background information
Birth name Ennio Morricone
Also known as
MaestroDan SavioLeo Nichols
Born 10 November 1928
Rome, Italy
Died 6 July 2020 (aged 91)
Rome, Italy
Genres
Film musicclassicalabsolute musicjazzpoprock
Occupation(s)
Composerorchestratorconductormusicianproducer
Years active 1946–2020
Associated acts
Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova ConsonanzaOrchestra Roma SinfoniettaBruno NicolaiAlessandro AlessandroniEdda Dell'OrsoCurro SavoySusanna RigacciMinaYo-Yo MaMireille MathieuJoan BaezAndrea BocelliMorrisseyRoger WatersSarah BrightmanAmii StewartPaul AnkaMilvaGianni MorandiDalidaCatherine SpaakPet Shop BoysHayley Westenra
Website enniomorricone.org
Signature
EM-Signature.svg
Ennio Morricone, OMRI[1] (Italian: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne]; 10 November 1928 – 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time.[2][3] His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since A Fistful of Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, as well as The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game, and The Hateful Eight.[4] His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history.[5] It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[6]
After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre.[7] Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero, and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide.[8] From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol, and En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and in many films, including Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's Ringo duology and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski, Henri Verneuil, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission (1986),[9] was certified gold in the United States. The album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed for 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.[10]
Ennio Morricone, OMRI (Italian: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne]; 10 November 1928 – 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since A Fistful of Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, as well as The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game, and The Hateful Eight. His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se Telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe", and "E Più Ti Penso". In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million,[11] and by 2016 Morricone had sold more than 70 million records worldwide.[12] In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was nominated for a further six Oscars, and in 2016, received his only competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight, at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar.[13] His other achievements include three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. Morricone influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer,[14] Danger Mouse,[15] Dire Straits,[16] Muse,[17] Metallica,[18] Fields of the Nephilim,[19] and Radiohead.[20]
After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre. Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero, and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide. From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol, and En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and in many films, including Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's Ringo duology and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski, Henri Verneuil, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission (1986), was certified gold in the United States. The album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed for 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.
Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se Telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe", and "E Più Ti Penso". In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million, and by 2016 Morricone had sold more than 70 million records worldwide. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was nominated for a further six Oscars, and in 2016, received his only competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight, at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar. His other achievements include three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. Morricone influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer, Danger Mouse, Dire Straits, Muse, Metallica, Fields of the Nephilim, and Radiohead.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
2.1 First compositions
2.1.1 Composing for radio, television, and pop artists
2.1.2 First film scores
2.2 The Group and New Consonance
2.3 Film music genres
2.3.1 Comedy
2.3.2 Westerns
2.3.2.1 Association with Sergio Leone
2.3.3 Once Upon a Time in the West and others
2.3.4 Association with Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima
2.3.5 Other westerns
2.3.6 Dramas and political movies
2.3.7 Giallo and Horror
2.4 Hollywood career
2.4.1 1970–1985: From Two Mules to Red Sonja
2.4.2 1986–2020: From The Mission to The Hateful Eight
2.4.3 Association with De Palma and Levinson
2.4.4 Other notable Hollywood scores
2.4.5 Association with Quentin Tarantino
2.5 Composer for Giuseppe Tornatore
2.6 Television series and last works
3 Live performances
4 Personal life and death
5 Influence
6 Discography
7 Prizes and awards
8 General sources
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. At the time of his birth Italy was under fascist rule.[21] His family came from Arpino, near Frosinone. Morricone had four siblings — Adriana, Aldo,[nb 1] Maria, and Franca — and lived in Trastevere in the centre of Rome. His father was a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras while his mother set up a small textile business.[22] During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone.[23]
Morricone's father first taught him to read music and to play several instruments. He entered the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni.[21] He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months. He studied the trumpet, composition, and choral music under the direction of Goffredo Petrassi, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.
In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by Carlo Zecchi on the occasion of a tour of the Veneto region.[24] He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946,[25] continuing to work in classical composition and arrangement.[21] Morricone received the Diploma in Instrumentation for Band Arrangement with a mark of 9/10 in 1952. His studies concluded at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1954 when he obtained a final 9.5/10 in his Diploma in Composition under Petrassi.[26]
Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents.[27] In 1946, he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of seven "youth" Lieder.[28]
In the following years, he continued to write music for the theatre as well as classical music for voice and piano, such as "Imitazione", based on a text by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, "Intimità", based on a text by Olinto Dini, "Distacco I" and "Distacco II" with words by R. Gnoli, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments with words by poet Salvatore Quasimodo, and "Verrà la Morte", for alto and piano, based on a text by novelist Cesare Pavese.[28]
In 1953, Morricone was asked by Gorni Kramer and Lelio Luttazzi to write an arrangement for some medleys in an American style for a series of evening radio shows. The composer continued with the composition of other 'serious' classical pieces, thus demonstrating the flexibility and eclecticism that always has been an integral part of his character. Many orchestral and chamber compositions date, in fact, from the period between 1954 and 1959: Musica per archi e pianoforte (1954), Invenzione, Canone e Ricercare per piano; Sestetto per flauto, oboe, fagotto, violino, viola, e violoncello (1955), Dodici Variazione per oboe, violoncello, e piano; Trio per clarinetto, corno, e violoncello; Variazione su un tema di Frescobaldi (1956); Quattro pezzi per chitarra (1957); Distanze per violino, violoncello, e piano; Musica per undici violini, Tre Studi per flauto, clarinetto, e fagotto (1958); and the Concerto per orchestra (1957), dedicated to his teacher Goffredo Petrassi.[28][29]
Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.[30]
Morricone's career as an arranger began in 1950, by arranging the piece Mamma Bianca (Narciso Parigi).[31] On occasion of the "Anno Santo" (Holy Year), he arranged a long group of popular songs of devotion for radio broadcasting.[32]
Throughout his career, Morricone composed songs for several national and international jazz and pop artists, including Gianni Morandi (Go Kart Twist, 1962), Alberto Lionello (La donna che vale, 1959), Edoardo Vianello (Ornella, 1960; Cicciona cha-cha, 1960; Faccio finta di dormire, 1961; T'ho conosciuta, 1963; and also Pinne, fucine ed occhiali, I Watussi and Guarda come dondolo[33]), Nora Orlandi (Arianna, 1960), Jimmy Fontana (Twist no. 9; Nicole, 1962), Rita Pavone (Come te non-ce nessuno and Pel di carota from 1962, arranged by Luis Bacalov), Catherine Spaak (Penso a te; Questi vent'anni miei, 1964), Luigi Tenco (Quello che conta; Tra tanta gente; 1962), Gino Paoli (Nel corso from 1963, written by Morricone with Paoli), Renato Rascel (Scirocco, 1964), Paul Anka (Ogni Volta), Amii Stewart, Rosy Armen (L'Amore Gira), Milva (Ridevi, Metti Una Sera A Cena), Françoise Hardy (Je changerais d'avis, 1966), Mireille Mathieu (Mon ami de toujours; Pas vu, pas pris, 1971; J'oublie la pluie et le soleil, 1974), and Demis Roussos (I Like The World, 1970).[34][35]
In 1963, the composer co-wrote (with Roby Ferrante) the music for the composition "Ogni volta" ("Every Time"), a song that was performed by Paul Anka for the first time during the Festival di Sanremo in 1964. This song was arranged and conducted by Morricone and sold more than three million copies worldwide, including one million copies in Italy alone.[36]
Another success was his composition "Se telefonando". Performed by Mina, it was a track on Studio Uno 66, the 4th studio album by Mina. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a 1960s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade No. 7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus. During the following decades, the song was recorded by several performers in Italy and abroad including covers by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).[37] Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose site in the reader's poll conducted by the newspaper la Repubblica to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.[38]
In 1987, Morricone co-wrote It Couldn't Happen Here with the Pet Shop Boys. Other compositions for international artists include: La metà di me and Immagina (1988) by Ruggero Raimondi, Libera l'amore (1989) performed by Zucchero, Love Affair (1994) by k.d. lang, Ha fatto un sogno (1997) by Antonello Venditti, Di Più (1997) by Tiziana Tosca Donati, Come un fiume tu (1998), Un Canto (1998) and Conradian (2006) by Andrea Bocelli, Ricordare (1998) and Salmo (2000) by Angelo Branduardi, and My heart and I (2001) by Sting.[39]
After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as a ghost writer for films credited to already well-known composers, while also arranging for many light music orchestras of the RAI television network, working especially with Armando Trovajoli, Alessandro Cicognini, and Carlo Savina. He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.[40]
1961 marked his real film debut with Luciano Salce's Il Federale (The Fascist). In an interview with American composer Fred Karlin, Morricone discussed his beginnings, stating, "My first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created, a genre that I never completely abandoned even when I went on to much more important films with major directors".[41]
With Il Federale Morricone began a long-run collaboration with Luciano Salce. In 1962, Morricone composed the jazz-influenced score for Salce's comedy La voglia matta (Crazy Desire). That year Morricone also arranged Italian singer Edoardo Vianello's summer hit "Pinne, fucile, e occhiali", a cha-cha song, peppered with added water effects, unusual instrumental sounds and unexpected stops and starts.[42]
Morricone wrote works for the concert hall in a more avant-garde style.[43] Some of these have been recorded, such as Ut, a trumpet concerto dedicated to Mauro Maur.[44]
From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (G.I.N.C.), a group of composers who performed and recorded avant-garde free improvisations. The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development of improvisation and new music methods. The ensemble functioned as a laboratory of sorts, working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore "New Consonance".[45]
Known as "The Group" or "Il Gruppo", they released seven albums across the Deutsche Grammophon, RCA, and Cramps labels: Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (1966), The Private Sea of Dreams (1967), Improvisationen (1968), The Feedback (1970), Improvvisazioni a Formazioni Variate (1973), Nuova Consonanza (1975), and Musica su Schemi (1976). Perhaps the most famous of these is their album entitled The Feed-back, which combines free jazz and avant-garde classical music with funk; the album frequently is sampled by hip hop DJs and is considered to be one of the most collectable records in existence, often fetching more than $1,000 at auction.[46]
Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores.[47] Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collective AMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation group Voice Crack, John Zorn,[48] and in the techniques of modern classical music and avant-garde jazz groups. The ensemble's groundbreaking work informed their work in composition. The ensemble also performed in varying capacities with Morricone, contributing to some of his 1960s and 1970s Italian soundtracks, including A Quiet Place in the Country (1969) and Cold Eyes of Fear (1971).[49]
Morricone's earliest scores were Italian light comedy and costume pictures, where he learned to write simple, memorable themes. During the 1960s and 1970s he composed the scores for comedies such as Eighteen in the Sun (Diciottenni al sole, 1962), Il Successo (1963), Lina Wertmüller's I basilischi (The Basilisks/The Lizards, 1963),[41] Slalom (1965), Menage all'italiana (Menage Italian Style, 1965), How I Learned to Love Women (Come imparai ad amare le donne, 1966), Her Harem (L'harem, 1967), A Fine Pair (Ruba al prossimo tuo, 1968), L'Alibi (1969), This Kind of Love (Questa specie d'amore, 1972), Winged Devils (Forza "G", 1972), and Fiorina la vacca (1972).
His best-known scores for comedies includes La Cage aux Folles (1978) and La Cage aux Folles II (1980), both directed by Édouard Molinaro, Il ladrone (The Good Thief, 1980), Georges Lautner's La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding (1985), Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) and Warren Beatty's Bulworth (1998). Morricone never ceased to arrange and write music for comedies. In 2007, he composed a lighthearted score for the Italian romantic comedy Tutte le Donne della mia Vita by Simona Izzo, the director who co-wrote the Morricone-scored religious mini-series Il Papa Buono.[50]
Although his first films were undistinguished,[clarification needed] Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Before being associated with Leone, Morricone already had composed some music for less-known western movies such as Duello nel Texas (aka Gunfight at Red Sands) (1963). In 1962, Morricone met American folksinger Peter Tevis, with the two collaborating on a version of Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty. Tevis is credited with singing the lyrics of Morricone's songs such as "A Gringo Like Me" (from Gunfight at Red Sands) and "Lonesome Billy" (from Bullets Don't Argue).[51] Tevis later recorded a vocal version of A Fistful of Dollars that was not used in the film.
The turning point in Morricone's career took place in 1964, the year in which his third child, Andrea Morricone, who would also become a film composer, was born. Film director Sergio Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[52]
Because budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, jew's harp, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.[21]: 69–77
As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Initially, Morricone was billed on the film as Dan Savio. A Fistful of Dollars came out in Italy in 1964 and was released in America three years later, greatly popularising the so-called Spaghetti Western genre. For the American release, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone decided to adopt American-sounding names, so they called themselves respectively, Bob Robertson and Dan Savio. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point.[53] The film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossed US$4.5 million for the year.[53] It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release,[53] against its budget of US$200,000.[54][55]
With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 20-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni.[56] Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers "an extraordinary voice at my disposal".[57]
The composer subsequently scored Leone's other two Dollars Trilogy (or Man with No Name Trilogy) spaghetti westerns: For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). All three films starred the American actor Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name and depicted Leone's own intense vision of the mythical West. Morricone commented in 2007: "Some of the music was written before the film, which was unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it; he kept the scenes longer because he did not want the music to end." According to Morricone this explains "why the films are so slow".[58]
Despite the small film budgets, the Dollars Trilogy was a box-office success. The available budget for The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly was about US$1.2 million, but it became the most successful film of the Dollars Trilogy, grossing US$25.1 million in the United States and more than 2,3 billion lire (1,2 million EUR) in Italy alone. Morricone's score became a major success and sold more than three million copies worldwide. On 14 August 1968 the original score was certified by the RIAA with a golden record for the sale of 500,000 copies in the United States alone.[59]
The main theme to The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly, also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No.2 Billboard pop single in the U.S. and a U.K. No.1 single (for four weeks from mid-November that year).[60]
"The Ecstasy of Gold" became one of Morricone's best-known compositions. The opening scene of Jeff Tremaine's Jackass Number Two (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighbourhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece. While punk rock band The Ramones used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as a closing theme during their live performances, Metallica uses "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983.[61][62] This composition is also included on Metallica's live symphonic album S&M as well as the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge. An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals by lead singer James Hetfield) appeared on the 2007 Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone. This metal version was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2009, the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Coolio extensively sampled the theme for his song "Change".[63]
Subsequent to the success of the Dollars trilogy, Morricone also composed the scores for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Leone's last credited western film A Fistful of Dynamite (1971),[64] as well as the score for My Name Is Nobody (1973).[65]
Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with as many as 10 million copies sold, including one million copies in France,[66][67] and more than 800,000 copies in the Netherlands.[68][69][70] One of the main themes from the score, "A Man with Harmonica" (L'uomo Dell'armonica), became known worldwide and sold more than 1,260,000 copies in France.[71]
In early 2003, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore announced he would direct a film called Leningrad.[72] The film has yet to go into production and Morricone was cagey as to details on account of Tornatore's superstitious nature.[73]
Two years after the start of his collaboration with Sergio Leone, Morricone also started to score music for another Spaghetti Western director, Sergio Corbucci. The composer wrote music for Corbucci's Navajo Joe (1966), The Hellbenders (1967), The Mercenary/The Professional Gun (1968), The Great Silence (1968), Compañeros (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? (1972).[74][75]
In addition, Morricone composed music for the western films by Sergio Sollima, The Big Gundown (with Lee Van Cleef, 1966), Face to Face (1967), and Run, Man, Run (1968), as well as the 1970 crime thriller Violent City (with Charles Bronson) and the poliziottesco film Revolver (1973).[74][76][77]
Other relevant scores for less popular Spaghetti Westerns include Duello nel Texas (1963), Bullets Don't Argue (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966), The Hills Run Red (1966), Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse (1967) and Tepepa (1968), A Bullet for the General (1967), Guns for San Sebastian (with Charles Bronson and Anthony Quinn, 1968), A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).[21]: 115–117
With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968).[78]
Morricone collaborated with Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket, 1965), Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers (1966), and Queimada! (1969) with Marlon Brando), Roberto Faenza (H2S, 1968), Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco e Vanzetti, 1971), Giuseppe Patroni Griffi ('Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1971), Mauro Bolognini (Drama of the Rich, 1974), Umberto Lenzi (Almost Human, 1974), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, 1975), Bernardo Bertolucci (Novecento, 1976), and Tinto Brass (The Key, 1983).[21]: 115–116
In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti, una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he collaborated with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. His soundtrack for Sacco e Vanzetti contains another well-known composition by Morricone, the folk song "Here's to You", sung by Joan Baez. For the writing of the lyrics, Baez was inspired by a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti: "Father, yes, I am a prisoner / Fear not to relay my crime". The song became a hit in several countries, selling more than 790,000 copies in France only.[79] The song was later included in movies such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[80]
In the beginning of the 1970s, Morricone achieved success with other singles, including A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) and God With Us (1974), having sold respectively 477,000 and 378,000 copies in France only.[81][82]
In 1977 Morricone scored John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic and Alberto De Martino's apocalyptic horror film Holocaust 2000, starring Kirk Douglas. In 1982 he composed the score for John Carpenter's science fiction horror movie The Thing.[83] Morricone's main theme for the film was reflected in Marco Beltrami's film's score of prequel of the 1982 film, which was released in 2011.
The Dollars Trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967 when United Artists, who had already enjoyed success distributing the British-produced James Bond films in the United States, decided to release Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. The American release gave Morricone an exposure in America and his film music became quite popular in the United States.[84]
Morricone never left Rome to compose his music and never learned to speak English. But given that the composer always worked in a wide field of composition genres, from "absolute music", which he always produced, to "applied music", working as orchestrator as well as conductor in the recording field, and then as a composer for theatre, radio, and cinema, the impression arises that he never really cared that much about his standing in the eyes of Hollywood.[85]
In 1970, Morricone composed the music for Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara, an American-Mexican western film starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. The same year the composer also delivered the title theme The Men from Shiloh for the American Western television series The Virginian.[86]
In 1974–1975 Morricone wrote music for Spazio 1999, an Italian-produced compilation movie made to launch the Italian-British television series Space: 1999,[87] while the original episodes featured music by Barry Gray. A soundtrack album was only released on CD in 2016[88] and on LP in 2017.[89] In 1975 he scored the George Kennedy revenge thriller The "Human" Factor, which was the final film of director Edward Dmytryk. Two years later he composed the score for the sequel to William Friedkin's 1973 film The Exorcist, directed by John Boorman: Exorcist II: The Heretic. The horror film was a major disappointment at the box office. The film grossed US$30,749,142 in the United States.[90]
In 1978, the composer worked with Terrence Malick for Days of Heaven starring Richard Gere, for which he earned his first nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Score.[91]
Despite the fact that Morricone had produced some of the most popular and widely imitated film music ever written throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Days of Heaven earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score, with his score up against Jerry Goldsmith's The Boys from Brazil, Dave Grusin's Heaven Can Wait, Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express (the eventual winner), and John Williams's Superman: The Movie at the Oscar ceremonies in 1979.[92]
The Mission, directed by Joffé, was about a piece of history considerably more distant, as Spanish Jesuit missionaries see their work undone as a tribe of Paraguayan natives fall within a territorial dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese. At one point the score was one of the world's best-selling film scores, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.[93][94]
Morricone finally received a second Oscar nomination for The Mission.[95] Morricone's original score lost out to Herbie Hancock's coolly arranged jazz on Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight. It was considered a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing.[96] Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with The Guardian: "I definitely felt that I should have won for The Mission. Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year was Round Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The Mission. There was a theft!"[97] His score for The Mission was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such as Michael Giacchino and Carter Burwell.[96] The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.[98]
On three occasions, Brian De Palma worked with Morricone: The Untouchables (1987), the 1989 war drama Casualties of War and the science fiction film Mission to Mars (2000).[83] Morricone's score for The Untouchables resulted in his third nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score.[99]
In a 2001 interview with The Guardian, Morricone stated that he had good experiences with De Palma: "De Palma is delicious! He respects music, he respects composers. For The Untouchables, everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course, we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write – a triumphal piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the seventh!' because it was the worst. And guess what he chose? The seventh one. But it really suits the movie."[97]
Another American director, Barry Levinson, commissioned the composer on two occasions. First, for the crime-drama Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty, which received ten Oscar nominations,[100] winning two for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh) and Best Costume Design.[101]
"He doesn't have a piano in his studio, I always thought that with composers, you sit at the piano, and you try to find the melody. There's no such thing with Morricone. He hears a melody, and he writes it down. He hears the orchestration completely done", said Levinson in an interview.[102]
During his career in Hollywood, Morricone was approached for numerous other projects, including the Gregory Nava drama A Time of Destiny (1988),[103] Frantic by Polish-French director Roman Polanski (1988, starring Harrison Ford), Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 drama film Hamlet (starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close), the neo-noir[104] crime film State of Grace by Phil Joanou (1990, starring Sean Penn and Ed Harris),[105] Rampage (1992) by William Friedkin,[106] and the romantic drama Love Affair (1994) by Warren Beatty.[107]
In 2009, Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the film score for Inglourious Basterds.[108][109] Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa.[110] However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the soundtrack. The tracks came originally from Morricone's scores for The Big Gundown (1966), Revolver (1973) and Allonsanfàn (1974).[111][112]
In 2012, Morricone composed the song "Ancora Qui" with lyrics by Italian singer Elisa for Tarantino's Django Unchained, a track that appeared together with three existing music tracks composed by Morricone on the soundtrack. "Ancora Qui" was one of the contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but eventually the song was not nominated.[113] On 4 January 2013 Morricone presented Tarantino with a Life Achievement Award at a special ceremony being cast as a continuation of the International Rome Film Festival.[114] In 2014, Morricone was misquoted as claiming that he would "never work" with Tarantino again,[115] and later agreed to write an original film score for Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which won him an Academy Award in 2016 in the Best Original Score category.[116] His nomination for this film marked him at that time as the second oldest nominee in Academy history, behind Gloria Stuart.[117] Morricone's win marked his first competitive Oscar, and at the age of 87, he became the oldest person at the time to win a competitive Oscar.[118]
In 1988, Morricone started an ongoing and very successful collaboration with Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore. His first score for Tornatore was for the drama film Cinema Paradiso. The international version of the film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival[119] and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Morricone received a BAFTA award with his son Andrea, and a David di Donatello for his score. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the US as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version).[116] After the success of Cinema Paradiso, the composer wrote the music for all subsequent films by Tornatore: the drama film Everybody's Fine (Stanno Tutti Bene, 1990), A Pure Formality (1994) starring Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski, The Star Maker (1995), The Legend of 1900 (1998) starring Tim Roth, the 2000 romantic drama Malèna (which featured Monica Bellucci) and the psychological thriller mystery film La sconosciuta (2006). Morricone also composed the scores for Baarìa (2009), The Best Offer (2013) starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland and the romantic drama The Correspondence (2015)[116]
The composer won several music awards for his scores in Tornatore's movies. Morricone received a fifth Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for Malèna. For Legend of 1900, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.[120] In September 2021 Tornatore presented out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival a documentary film about Morricone, Ennio.[121]
Morricone wrote the score for the Mafia television series La piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible").[122] In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on the Ultimo crime dramas, resulting in Ultimo (1998), Ultimo 2 – La sfida (1999), Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato (2004) and Ultimo 4 – L'occhio del falco (2013).[123] For Canone inverso (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by the Paolo Maurensig, directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in the David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbons.[124]
In the 2000s, Morricone continued to compose music for successful television series such as Il Cuore nel Pozzo (2005), Karol: A Man Who Became Pope (2005), La provinciale (2006), Giovanni Falcone (2007), Pane e libertà (2009) and Come Un Delfino 1–2 (2011–2013).[125]
Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.[126]
In 2008, the composer recorded music for a Lancia commercial, featuring Richard Gere and directed by Harald Zwart (known for directing The Pink Panther 2).[127]
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.[128] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years.[129][130] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.[131][132][133]
Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns of Dolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.[134]
In 2013, Morricone collaborated with Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on a new version of her hit single "La solitudine" for her 20 years anniversary greatest hits album 20 – The Greatest Hits.[135]
Morricone composed the music for The Best Offer (2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore.[136]
He wrote the score for Christian Carion's En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait (2015) and the most recent movie by Tornatore: The Correspondence (2016), featuring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko.[137] In July 2015, Quentin Tarantino announced after the screening of footage of his movie The Hateful Eight at the San Diego Comic-Con International that Morricone would score the film, the first Western that Morricone scored since 1981.[138] The score was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.[139][140]
Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education at Saint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry.[141] Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.[142]
To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longer suites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort of symphony in various movements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and ethnic instruments share the stage.[143]
On 20 September 1984 Morricone conducted the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire at Cinésymphonie '84 ("Première nuit de la musique de film/First night of film music") in the French concert hall Salle Pleyel in Paris. He performed some of his best-known compositions such as Metti, una sera a cena, Novecento and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.[144] Michel Legrand and Georges Delerue performed on the same evening.[145]
On 15 October 1987 Morricone gave a concert in front of 12,000 people in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the Italian operatic soprano Alide Maria Salvetta.[146] A live-album with a recording of this concert was released in the same year.[147]
On 9 June 2000 Morricone went to the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent to conduct his music together with the National Orchestra of Belgium.[148] During the concert's first part, the screening of The Life and Death of King Richard III (1912) was accompanied with live music by Morricone. It was the very first time that the score was performed live in Europe. The second part of the evening consisted of an anthology of the composer's work. The event took place on the eve of Euro 2000, the European Football Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands.[149]
Morricone performed over 250 concerts as of 2001.[150] The composer started a world tour in 2001, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Gasteig in Munich in 2004.[151]
He made his North American concert debut on 3 February 2007 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero."[152]
On 22 December 2012 Morricone conducted the 85-piece Belgian orchestra "Orkest der Lage Landen" and a 100-piece choir during a two-hour concert in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.[153]
In November 2013 Morricone began a world tour to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his film music career and performed in locations such as the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Santiago, Chile, Berlin, Germany (O2 World, Germany), Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna (Stadhalle). Back in June 2014, Morricone had to cancel a US tour in New York (Barclays Center) and Los Angeles (Nokia Theatre LA Live) due to a back procedure on 20 February. Morricone postponed the rest of his world tour.[154]
In November 2014 Morricone stated that he would resume his European tour starting from February 2015.[155]
On 13 October 1956, Morricone married Maria Travia (born 31 December 1932), whom he had met in 1950. Travia wrote lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. Together, they had four children: Marco (b. 1957), Alessandra (b. 1961), conductor and film composer Andrea (b. 1964) and filmmaker Giovanni (b. 1966), who lives in New York City.[156] They remained married for 63 years until his death.
Morricone lived in Italy his entire life and never desired to live in Hollywood. He was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[157]
Morricone described himself as a Christian leftist,[158] stating that he voted for the Christian Democracy (DC) for more than 40 years[159] and then, after its dissolution in 1994, he approached the centre-left coalition.[160]
Morricone loved chess,[161] having learned the game when he was 11. Before his musical career took off, he played in club tournaments in Rome in the mid-1950s. His first official tournament was in 1964, where he won a prize in the third category for amateurs. He was even coached by 12-time Italian champion IM Stefano Tatai for a while. Soon he got too busy for chess, but he would always keep a keen interest in the game and estimated his peak Elo rating to be nearly 1700.[162] Over the years, Morricone played chess with many big names including GMs Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Judit Polgar, and Peter Leko.[162] He once held GM Boris Spassky to a draw[162] in a simultaneous competition with 27 players, where Morricone was the last one standing.[citation needed]
Ennio Morricone
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Ennio Morricone
OMRI
Morricone in 2007
Morricone in 2007
Background information
Birth name Ennio Morricone
Also known as
MaestroDan SavioLeo Nichols
Born 10 November 1928
Rome, Italy
Died 6 July 2020 (aged 91)
Rome, Italy
Genres
Film musicclassicalabsolute musicjazzpoprock
Occupation(s)
Composerorchestratorconductormusicianproducer
Years active 1946–2020
Associated acts
Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova ConsonanzaOrchestra Roma SinfoniettaBruno NicolaiAlessandro AlessandroniEdda Dell'OrsoCurro SavoySusanna RigacciMinaYo-Yo MaMireille MathieuJoan BaezAndrea BocelliMorrisseyRoger WatersSarah BrightmanAmii StewartPaul AnkaMilvaGianni MorandiDalidaCatherine SpaakPet Shop BoysHayley Westenra
Website enniomorricone.org
Signature
EM-Signature.svg
Ennio Morricone, OMRI[1] (Italian: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne]; 10 November 1928 – 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time.[2][3] His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since A Fistful of Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, as well as The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game, and The Hateful Eight.[4] His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history.[5] It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[6]
After playing the trumpet in jazz bands in the 1940s, he became a studio arranger for RCA Victor and in 1955 started ghost writing for film and theatre.[7] Throughout his career, he composed music for artists such as Paul Anka, Mina, Milva, Zucchero, and Andrea Bocelli. From 1960 to 1975, Morricone gained international fame for composing music for Westerns and—with an estimated 10 million copies sold—Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling scores worldwide.[8] From 1966 to 1980, he was a main member of Il Gruppo, one of the first experimental composers collectives, and in 1969 he co-founded Forum Music Village, a prestigious recording studio. From the 1970s, Morricone excelled in Hollywood, composing for prolific American directors such as Don Siegel, Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Warren Beatty, John Carpenter, and Quentin Tarantino. In 1977, he composed the official theme for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He continued to compose music for European productions, such as Marco Polo, La piovra, Nostromo, Fateless, Karol, and En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait. Morricone's music has been reused in television series, including The Simpsons and The Sopranos, and in many films, including Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. He also scored seven Westerns for Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari's Ringo duology and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown and Face to Face. Morricone worked extensively for other film genres with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Mauro Bolognini, Giuliano Montaldo, Roland Joffé, Roman Polanski, Henri Verneuil, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. His acclaimed soundtrack for The Mission (1986),[9] was certified gold in the United States. The album Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone stayed for 105 weeks on the Billboard Top Classical Albums.[10]
Morricone's best-known compositions include "The Ecstasy of Gold", "Se Telefonando", "Man with a Harmonica", "Here's to You", the UK No. 2 single "Chi Mai", "Gabriel's Oboe", and "E Più Ti Penso". In 1971, he received a "Targa d'Oro" for worldwide sales of 22 million,[11] and by 2016 Morricone had sold more than 70 million records worldwide.[12] In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music". He was nominated for a further six Oscars, and in 2016, received his only competitive Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight, at the time becoming the oldest person ever to win a competitive Oscar.[13] His other achievements include three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, ten David di Donatello, eleven Nastro d'Argento, two European Film Awards, the Golden Lion Honorary Award, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. Morricone influenced many artists from film scoring to other styles and genres, including Hans Zimmer,[14] Danger Mouse,[15] Dire Straits,[16] Muse,[17] Metallica,[18] Fields of the Nephilim,[19] and Radiohead.[20]
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
2.1 First compositions
2.1.1 Composing for radio, television, and pop artists
2.1.2 First film scores
2.2 The Group and New Consonance
2.3 Film music genres
2.3.1 Comedy
2.3.2 Westerns
2.3.2.1 Association with Sergio Leone
2.3.3 Once Upon a Time in the West and others
2.3.4 Association with Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima
2.3.5 Other westerns
2.3.6 Dramas and political movies
2.3.7 Giallo and Horror
2.4 Hollywood career
2.4.1 1970–1985: From Two Mules to Red Sonja
2.4.2 1986–2020: From The Mission to The Hateful Eight
2.4.3 Association with De Palma and Levinson
2.4.4 Other notable Hollywood scores
2.4.5 Association with Quentin Tarantino
2.5 Composer for Giuseppe Tornatore
2.6 Television series and last works
3 Live performances
4 Personal life and death
5 Influence
6 Discography
7 Prizes and awards
8 General sources
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Early life and education
Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera Ridolfi and Mario Morricone, a musician. At the time of his birth Italy was under fascist rule.[21] His family came from Arpino, near Frosinone. Morricone had four siblings — Adriana, Aldo,[nb 1] Maria, and Franca — and lived in Trastevere in the centre of Rome. His father was a professional trumpeter who performed in light-music orchestras while his mother set up a small textile business.[22] During his early schooldays, Morricone was also a classmate of his later collaborator Sergio Leone.[23]
Morricone's father first taught him to read music and to play several instruments. He entered the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to take trumpet lessons under the guidance of Umberto Semproni.[21] He formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at age 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program that he completed within six months. He studied the trumpet, composition, and choral music under the direction of Goffredo Petrassi, to whom Morricone would later dedicate concert pieces.
Goffredo Petrassi, Morricone's teacher
In 1941 Morricone was chosen among the students of the Saint Cecilia Conservatory to be a part of the Orchestra of the Opera, directed by Carlo Zecchi on the occasion of a tour of the Veneto region.[24] He received his diploma in trumpet in 1946,[25] continuing to work in classical composition and arrangement.[21] Morricone received the Diploma in Instrumentation for Band Arrangement with a mark of 9/10 in 1952. His studies concluded at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1954 when he obtained a final 9.5/10 in his Diploma in Composition under Petrassi.[26]
Career
First compositions
Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and he was encouraged to develop his natural talents.[27] In 1946, he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of seven "youth" Lieder.[28]
In the following years, he continued to write music for the theatre as well as classical music for voice and piano, such as "Imitazione", based on a text by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, "Intimità", based on a text by Olinto Dini, "Distacco I" and "Distacco II" with words by R. Gnoli, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments with words by poet Salvatore Quasimodo, and "Verrà la Morte", for alto and piano, based on a text by novelist Cesare Pavese.[28]
In 1953, Morricone was asked by Gorni Kramer and Lelio Luttazzi to write an arrangement for some medleys in an American style for a series of evening radio shows. The composer continued with the composition of other 'serious' classical pieces, thus demonstrating the flexibility and eclecticism that always has been an integral part of his character. Many orchestral and chamber compositions date, in fact, from the period between 1954 and 1959: Musica per archi e pianoforte (1954), Invenzione, Canone e Ricercare per piano; Sestetto per flauto, oboe, fagotto, violino, viola, e violoncello (1955), Dodici Variazione per oboe, violoncello, e piano; Trio per clarinetto, corno, e violoncello; Variazione su un tema di Frescobaldi (1956); Quattro pezzi per chitarra (1957); Distanze per violino, violoncello, e piano; Musica per undici violini, Tre Studi per flauto, clarinetto, e fagotto (1958); and the Concerto per orchestra (1957), dedicated to his teacher Goffredo Petrassi.[28][29]
Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.[30]
Composing for radio, television, and pop artists
Morricone's career as an arranger began in 1950, by arranging the piece Mamma Bianca (Narciso Parigi).[31] On occasion of the "Anno Santo" (Holy Year), he arranged a long group of popular songs of devotion for radio broadcasting.[32]
In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI. He was hired by RAI in 1958 but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA Victor, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, Domenico Modugno, and Mario Lanza.
Throughout his career, Morricone composed songs for several national and international jazz and pop artists, including Gianni Morandi (Go Kart Twist, 1962), Alberto Lionello (La donna che vale, 1959), Edoardo Vianello (Ornella, 1960; Cicciona cha-cha, 1960; Faccio finta di dormire, 1961; T'ho conosciuta, 1963; and also Pinne, fucine ed occhiali, I Watussi and Guarda come dondolo[33]), Nora Orlandi (Arianna, 1960), Jimmy Fontana (Twist no. 9; Nicole, 1962), Rita Pavone (Come te non-ce nessuno and Pel di carota from 1962, arranged by Luis Bacalov), Catherine Spaak (Penso a te; Questi vent'anni miei, 1964), Luigi Tenco (Quello che conta; Tra tanta gente; 1962), Gino Paoli (Nel corso from 1963, written by Morricone with Paoli), Renato Rascel (Scirocco, 1964), Paul Anka (Ogni Volta), Amii Stewart, Rosy Armen (L'Amore Gira), Milva (Ridevi, Metti Una Sera A Cena), Françoise Hardy (Je changerais d'avis, 1966), Mireille Mathieu (Mon ami de toujours; Pas vu, pas pris, 1971; J'oublie la pluie et le soleil, 1974), and Demis Roussos (I Like The World, 1970).[34][35]
In 1963, the composer co-wrote (with Roby Ferrante) the music for the composition "Ogni volta" ("Every Time"), a song that was performed by Paul Anka for the first time during the Festival di Sanremo in 1964. This song was arranged and conducted by Morricone and sold more than three million copies worldwide, including one million copies in Italy alone.[36]
"Se telefonando" (0:18)
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Sample from "Se telefonando".
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Another success was his composition "Se telefonando". Performed by Mina, it was a track on Studio Uno 66, the 4th studio album by Mina. Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a 1960s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade No. 7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus. During the following decades, the song was recorded by several performers in Italy and abroad including covers by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).[37] Françoise Hardy – Mon amie la rose site in the reader's poll conducted by the newspaper la Repubblica to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.[38]
In 1987, Morricone co-wrote It Couldn't Happen Here with the Pet Shop Boys. Other compositions for international artists include: La metà di me and Immagina (1988) by Ruggero Raimondi, Libera l'amore (1989) performed by Zucchero, Love Affair (1994) by k.d. lang, Ha fatto un sogno (1997) by Antonello Venditti, Di Più (1997) by Tiziana Tosca Donati, Come un fiume tu (1998), Un Canto (1998) and Conradian (2006) by Andrea Bocelli, Ricordare (1998) and Salmo (2000) by Angelo Branduardi, and My heart and I (2001) by Sting.[39]
First film scores
After graduation in 1954, Morricone started to write and arrange music as a ghost writer for films credited to already well-known composers, while also arranging for many light music orchestras of the RAI television network, working especially with Armando Trovajoli, Alessandro Cicognini, and Carlo Savina. He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.[40]
In 1959, Morricone was the conductor (and uncredited co-composer) for Mario Nascimbene's score to Morte di un amico (Death of a Friend), an Italian drama directed by Franco Rossi. In the same year, he composed music for the theatre show Il lieto fine by Luciano Salce.
1961 marked his real film debut with Luciano Salce's Il Federale (The Fascist). In an interview with American composer Fred Karlin, Morricone discussed his beginnings, stating, "My first films were light comedies or costume movies that required simple musical scores that were easily created, a genre that I never completely abandoned even when I went on to much more important films with major directors".[41]
With Il Federale Morricone began a long-run collaboration with Luciano Salce. In 1962, Morricone composed the jazz-influenced score for Salce's comedy La voglia matta (Crazy Desire). That year Morricone also arranged Italian singer Edoardo Vianello's summer hit "Pinne, fucile, e occhiali", a cha-cha song, peppered with added water effects, unusual instrumental sounds and unexpected stops and starts.[42]
Morricone wrote works for the concert hall in a more avant-garde style.[43] Some of these have been recorded, such as Ut, a trumpet concerto dedicated to Mauro Maur.[44]
The Group and New Consonance
From 1964 up to their eventual disbandment in 1980, Morricone was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (G.I.N.C.), a group of composers who performed and recorded avant-garde free improvisations. The Rome-based avant-garde ensemble was dedicated to the development of improvisation and new music methods. The ensemble functioned as a laboratory of sorts, working with anti-musical systems and sound techniques in an attempt to redefine the new music ensemble and explore "New Consonance".[45]
Known as "The Group" or "Il Gruppo", they released seven albums across the Deutsche Grammophon, RCA, and Cramps labels: Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (1966), The Private Sea of Dreams (1967), Improvisationen (1968), The Feedback (1970), Improvvisazioni a Formazioni Variate (1973), Nuova Consonanza (1975), and Musica su Schemi (1976). Perhaps the most famous of these is their album entitled The Feed-back, which combines free jazz and avant-garde classical music with funk; the album frequently is sampled by hip hop DJs and is considered to be one of the most collectable records in existence, often fetching more than $1,000 at auction.[46]
Morricone in 1978 with Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza
Morricone played a key role in The Group and was among the core members in its revolving line-up; in addition to serving as their trumpet player, he directed them on many occasions and they can be heard on a large number of his scores.[47] Held in high regard in avant-garde music circles, they are considered to be the first experimental composers collective, their only peers being the British improvisation collective AMM. Their influence can be heard in free improvising ensembles from the European movements including the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, the Swiss electronic free improvisation group Voice Crack, John Zorn,[48] and in the techniques of modern classical music and avant-garde jazz groups. The ensemble's groundbreaking work informed their work in composition. The ensemble also performed in varying capacities with Morricone, contributing to some of his 1960s and 1970s Italian soundtracks, including A Quiet Place in the Country (1969) and Cold Eyes of Fear (1971).[49]
Film music genres
Comedy
Morricone's earliest scores were Italian light comedy and costume pictures, where he learned to write simple, memorable themes. During the 1960s and 1970s he composed the scores for comedies such as Eighteen in the Sun (Diciottenni al sole, 1962), Il Successo (1963), Lina Wertmüller's I basilischi (The Basilisks/The Lizards, 1963),[41] Slalom (1965), Menage all'italiana (Menage Italian Style, 1965), How I Learned to Love Women (Come imparai ad amare le donne, 1966), Her Harem (L'harem, 1967), A Fine Pair (Ruba al prossimo tuo, 1968), L'Alibi (1969), This Kind of Love (Questa specie d'amore, 1972), Winged Devils (Forza "G", 1972), and Fiorina la vacca (1972).
His best-known scores for comedies includes La Cage aux Folles (1978) and La Cage aux Folles II (1980), both directed by Édouard Molinaro, Il ladrone (The Good Thief, 1980), Georges Lautner's La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding (1985), Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) and Warren Beatty's Bulworth (1998). Morricone never ceased to arrange and write music for comedies. In 2007, he composed a lighthearted score for the Italian romantic comedy Tutte le Donne della mia Vita by Simona Izzo, the director who co-wrote the Morricone-scored religious mini-series Il Papa Buono.[50]
Westerns
Although his first films were undistinguished,[clarification needed] Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Before being associated with Leone, Morricone already had composed some music for less-known western movies such as Duello nel Texas (aka Gunfight at Red Sands) (1963). In 1962, Morricone met American folksinger Peter Tevis, with the two collaborating on a version of Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty. Tevis is credited with singing the lyrics of Morricone's songs such as "A Gringo Like Me" (from Gunfight at Red Sands) and "Lonesome Billy" (from Bullets Don't Argue).[51] Tevis later recorded a vocal version of A Fistful of Dollars that was not used in the film.
Association with Sergio Leone
The turning point in Morricone's career took place in 1964, the year in which his third child, Andrea Morricone, who would also become a film composer, was born. Film director Sergio Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[52]
The Dollars Trilogy
Main article: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (soundtrack)
Because budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, jew's harp, trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.[21]: 69–77
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly main theme (0:27)
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From The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film score
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As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring. Initially, Morricone was billed on the film as Dan Savio. A Fistful of Dollars came out in Italy in 1964 and was released in America three years later, greatly popularising the so-called Spaghetti Western genre. For the American release, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone decided to adopt American-sounding names, so they called themselves respectively, Bob Robertson and Dan Savio. Over the film's theatrical release, it grossed more than any other Italian film up to that point.[53] The film debuted in the United States in January 1967, where it grossed US$4.5 million for the year.[53] It eventually grossed $14.5 million in its American release,[53] against its budget of US$200,000.[54][55]
With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 20-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni.[56] Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers "an extraordinary voice at my disposal".[57]
The composer subsequently scored Leone's other two Dollars Trilogy (or Man with No Name Trilogy) spaghetti westerns: For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). All three films starred the American actor Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name and depicted Leone's own intense vision of the mythical West. Morricone commented in 2007: "Some of the music was written before the film, which was unusual. Leone's films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it; he kept the scenes longer because he did not want the music to end." According to Morricone this explains "why the films are so slow".[58]
Despite the small film budgets, the Dollars Trilogy was a box-office success. The available budget for The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly was about US$1.2 million, but it became the most successful film of the Dollars Trilogy, grossing US$25.1 million in the United States and more than 2,3 billion lire (1,2 million EUR) in Italy alone. Morricone's score became a major success and sold more than three million copies worldwide. On 14 August 1968 the original score was certified by the RIAA with a golden record for the sale of 500,000 copies in the United States alone.[59]
The main theme to The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly, also titled "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", was a hit in 1968 for Hugo Montenegro, whose rendition was a No.2 Billboard pop single in the U.S. and a U.K. No.1 single (for four weeks from mid-November that year).[60]
"The Ecstasy of Gold" became one of Morricone's best-known compositions. The opening scene of Jeff Tremaine's Jackass Number Two (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighbourhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece. While punk rock band The Ramones used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as a closing theme during their live performances, Metallica uses "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983.[61][62] This composition is also included on Metallica's live symphonic album S&M as well as the live album Live Shit: Binge & Purge. An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals by lead singer James Hetfield) appeared on the 2007 Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone. This metal version was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2009, the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist Coolio extensively sampled the theme for his song "Change".[63]
Once Upon a Time in the West and others
Main article: Once Upon a Time in the West (soundtrack)
Subsequent to the success of the Dollars trilogy, Morricone also composed the scores for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Leone's last credited western film A Fistful of Dynamite (1971),[64] as well as the score for My Name Is Nobody (1973).[65]
Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West is one of the best-selling original instrumental scores in the world today, with as many as 10 million copies sold, including one million copies in France,[66][67] and more than 800,000 copies in the Netherlands.[68][69][70] One of the main themes from the score, "A Man with Harmonica" (L'uomo Dell'armonica), became known worldwide and sold more than 1,260,000 copies in France.[71]
The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer. Morricone's last score for Leone was for his last film, the gangster drama Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Leone died on 30 April 1989 of a heart attack at the age of 60. Before his death in 1989, Leone was part-way through planning a film on the Siege of Leningrad, set during World War II. By 1989, Leone had been able to acquire US$100 million in financing from independent backers for the war epic. He had convinced Morricone to compose the film score. The project was cancelled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film.
In early 2003, Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore announced he would direct a film called Leningrad.[72] The film has yet to go into production and Morricone was cagey as to details on account of Tornatore's superstitious nature.[73]
Association with Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima
Two years after the start of his collaboration with Sergio Leone, Morricone also started to score music for another Spaghetti Western director, Sergio Corbucci. The composer wrote music for Corbucci's Navajo Joe (1966), The Hellbenders (1967), The Mercenary/The Professional Gun (1968), The Great Silence (1968), Compañeros (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution? (1972).[74][75]
In addition, Morricone composed music for the western films by Sergio Sollima, The Big Gundown (with Lee Van Cleef, 1966), Face to Face (1967), and Run, Man, Run (1968), as well as the 1970 crime thriller Violent City (with Charles Bronson) and the poliziottesco film Revolver (1973).[74][76][77]
Other westerns
Other relevant scores for less popular Spaghetti Westerns include Duello nel Texas (1963), Bullets Don't Argue (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966), The Hills Run Red (1966), Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse (1967) and Tepepa (1968), A Bullet for the General (1967), Guns for San Sebastian (with Charles Bronson and Anthony Quinn, 1968), A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Life Is Tough, Eh Providence? (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).[21]: 115–117
Dramas and political movies
Morricone in 2012
With Leone's films, Ennio Morricone's name had been put firmly on the map. Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968).[78]
Morricone collaborated with Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket, 1965), Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers (1966), and Queimada! (1969) with Marlon Brando), Roberto Faenza (H2S, 1968), Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco e Vanzetti, 1971), Giuseppe Patroni Griffi ('Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1971), Mauro Bolognini (Drama of the Rich, 1974), Umberto Lenzi (Almost Human, 1974), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, 1975), Bernardo Bertolucci (Novecento, 1976), and Tinto Brass (The Key, 1983).[21]: 115–116
In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti, una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he collaborated with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. His soundtrack for Sacco e Vanzetti contains another well-known composition by Morricone, the folk song "Here's to You", sung by Joan Baez. For the writing of the lyrics, Baez was inspired by a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti: "Father, yes, I am a prisoner / Fear not to relay my crime". The song became a hit in several countries, selling more than 790,000 copies in France only.[79] The song was later included in movies such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.[80]
In the beginning of the 1970s, Morricone achieved success with other singles, including A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) and God With Us (1974), having sold respectively 477,000 and 378,000 copies in France only.[81][82]
Giallo and Horror
Morricone's eclecticism found its way to films in the horror genre, such as the giallo thrillers of Dario Argento, from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) to The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) and The Phantom of the Opera (1998). His other horror scores include Nightmare Castle (1965), A Quiet Place in the Country (1968), The Antichrist (1974), Autopsy (1975), and Night Train Murders (1975).
In addition, Morricone composed music for many popular and cult Italian giallo films, such as Senza sapere niente di lei (1969), Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970), A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971), Cold Eyes of Fear (1971), The Fifth Cord (1971), Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971), Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) My Dear Killer (1972), What Have You Done to Solange? (1972), Who Saw Her Die? (1972), and Spasmo (1974).
In 1977 Morricone scored John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic and Alberto De Martino's apocalyptic horror film Holocaust 2000, starring Kirk Douglas. In 1982 he composed the score for John Carpenter's science fiction horror movie The Thing.[83] Morricone's main theme for the film was reflected in Marco Beltrami's film's score of prequel of the 1982 film, which was released in 2011.
Hollywood career
The Dollars Trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967 when United Artists, who had already enjoyed success distributing the British-produced James Bond films in the United States, decided to release Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns. The American release gave Morricone an exposure in America and his film music became quite popular in the United States.[84]
One of Morricone's first contributions to an American director concerned his music for the religious epic film The Bible: In the Beginning... by John Huston. According to Sergio Miceli's book Morricone, la musica, il cinema, Morricone wrote about 15 or 16 minutes of music, which were recorded for a screen test and conducted by Franco Ferrara. At first Morricone's teacher Goffredo Petrassi had been engaged to write the score for the great big-budget epic, but Huston preferred another composer. RCA Records then proposed Morricone who was under contract with them, but a conflict between the film's producer Dino De Laurentiis and RCA occurred. The producer wanted to have exclusive rights for the soundtrack, while RCA still had the monopoly on Morricone at that time and did not want to release the composer. Subsequently, Morricone's work was rejected because he did not get permission from RCA to work for Dino De Laurentiis alone. The composer reused the parts of his unused score for The Bible: In the Beginning in such films as The Return of Ringo (1965) by Duccio Tessari and Alberto Negrin's The Secret of the Sahara (1987).
Morricone never left Rome to compose his music and never learned to speak English. But given that the composer always worked in a wide field of composition genres, from "absolute music", which he always produced, to "applied music", working as orchestrator as well as conductor in the recording field, and then as a composer for theatre, radio, and cinema, the impression arises that he never really cared that much about his standing in the eyes of Hollywood.[85]
1970–1985: From Two Mules to Red Sonja
In 1970, Morricone composed the music for Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara, an American-Mexican western film starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. The same year the composer also delivered the title theme The Men from Shiloh for the American Western television series The Virginian.[86]
In 1974–1975 Morricone wrote music for Spazio 1999, an Italian-produced compilation movie made to launch the Italian-British television series Space: 1999,[87] while the original episodes featured music by Barry Gray. A soundtrack album was only released on CD in 2016[88] and on LP in 2017.[89] In 1975 he scored the George Kennedy revenge thriller The "Human" Factor, which was the final film of director Edward Dmytryk. Two years later he composed the score for the sequel to William Friedkin's 1973 film The Exorcist, directed by John Boorman: Exorcist II: The Heretic. The horror film was a major disappointment at the box office. The film grossed US$30,749,142 in the United States.[90]
In 1978, the composer worked with Terrence Malick for Days of Heaven starring Richard Gere, for which he earned his first nomination at the Oscars for Best Original Score.[91]
Despite the fact that Morricone had produced some of the most popular and widely imitated film music ever written throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Days of Heaven earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score, with his score up against Jerry Goldsmith's The Boys from Brazil, Dave Grusin's Heaven Can Wait, Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express (the eventual winner), and John Williams's Superman: The Movie at the Oscar ceremonies in 1979.[92]
1986–2020: From The Mission to The Hateful Eight
Association with Roland Joffé
Main article: The Mission (soundtrack)
The Mission, directed by Joffé, was about a piece of history considerably more distant, as Spanish Jesuit missionaries see their work undone as a tribe of Paraguayan natives fall within a territorial dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese. At one point the score was one of the world's best-selling film scores, selling over 3 million copies worldwide.[93][94]
Morricone finally received a second Oscar nomination for The Mission.[95] Morricone's original score lost out to Herbie Hancock's coolly arranged jazz on Bertrand Tavernier's Round Midnight. It was considered a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing.[96] Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with The Guardian: "I definitely felt that I should have won for The Mission. Especially when you consider that the Oscar winner that year was Round Midnight, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The Mission. There was a theft!"[97] His score for The Mission was ranked at number 1 in a poll of the all-time greatest film scores. The top 10 list was compiled by 40 film composers such as Michael Giacchino and Carter Burwell.[96] The score is ranked 23rd on the AFI's list of 25 greatest film scores of all time.[98]
Association with De Palma and Levinson
On three occasions, Brian De Palma worked with Morricone: The Untouchables (1987), the 1989 war drama Casualties of War and the science fiction film Mission to Mars (2000).[83] Morricone's score for The Untouchables resulted in his third nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score.[99]
In a 2001 interview with The Guardian, Morricone stated that he had good experiences with De Palma: "De Palma is delicious! He respects music, he respects composers. For The Untouchables, everything I proposed to him was fine, but then he wanted a piece that I didn't like at all, and of course, we didn't have an agreement on that. It was something I didn't want to write – a triumphal piece for the police. I think I wrote nine different pieces for this in total and I said, 'Please don't choose the seventh!' because it was the worst. And guess what he chose? The seventh one. But it really suits the movie."[97]
Another American director, Barry Levinson, commissioned the composer on two occasions. First, for the crime-drama Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty, which received ten Oscar nominations,[100] winning two for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dennis Gassner, Nancy Haigh) and Best Costume Design.[101]
"He doesn't have a piano in his studio, I always thought that with composers, you sit at the piano, and you try to find the melody. There's no such thing with Morricone. He hears a melody, and he writes it down. He hears the orchestration completely done", said Levinson in an interview.[102]
Other notable Hollywood scores
During his career in Hollywood, Morricone was approached for numerous other projects, including the Gregory Nava drama A Time of Destiny (1988),[103] Frantic by Polish-French director Roman Polanski (1988, starring Harrison Ford), Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 drama film Hamlet (starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close), the neo-noir[104] crime film State of Grace by Phil Joanou (1990, starring Sean Penn and Ed Harris),[105] Rampage (1992) by William Friedkin,[106] and the romantic drama Love Affair (1994) by Warren Beatty.[107]
Association with Quentin Tarantino
In 2009, Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the film score for Inglourious Basterds.[108][109] Morricone was unable to, because the film's sped-up production schedule conflicted with his scoring of Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa.[110] However, Tarantino did use eight tracks composed by Morricone in the film, with four of them included on the soundtrack. The tracks came originally from Morricone's scores for The Big Gundown (1966), Revolver (1973) and Allonsanfàn (1974).[111][112]
In 2012, Morricone composed the song "Ancora Qui" with lyrics by Italian singer Elisa for Tarantino's Django Unchained, a track that appeared together with three existing music tracks composed by Morricone on the soundtrack. "Ancora Qui" was one of the contenders for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Original Song category, but eventually the song was not nominated.[113] On 4 January 2013 Morricone presented Tarantino with a Life Achievement Award at a special ceremony being cast as a continuation of the International Rome Film Festival.[114] In 2014, Morricone was misquoted as claiming that he would "never work" with Tarantino again,[115] and later agreed to write an original film score for Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which won him an Academy Award in 2016 in the Best Original Score category.[116] His nomination for this film marked him at that time as the second oldest nominee in Academy history, behind Gloria Stuart.[117] Morricone's win marked his first competitive Oscar, and at the age of 87, he became the oldest person at the time to win a competitive Oscar.[118]
Composer for Giuseppe Tornatore
In 1988, Morricone started an ongoing and very successful collaboration with Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore. His first score for Tornatore was for the drama film Cinema Paradiso. The international version of the film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival[119] and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Morricone received a BAFTA award with his son Andrea, and a David di Donatello for his score. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the US as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version).[116] After the success of Cinema Paradiso, the composer wrote the music for all subsequent films by Tornatore: the drama film Everybody's Fine (Stanno Tutti Bene, 1990), A Pure Formality (1994) starring Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski, The Star Maker (1995), The Legend of 1900 (1998) starring Tim Roth, the 2000 romantic drama Malèna (which featured Monica Bellucci) and the psychological thriller mystery film La sconosciuta (2006). Morricone also composed the scores for Baarìa (2009), The Best Offer (2013) starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland and the romantic drama The Correspondence (2015)[116]
The composer won several music awards for his scores in Tornatore's movies. Morricone received a fifth Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for Malèna. For Legend of 1900, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.[120] In September 2021 Tornatore presented out of competition at the 78th Venice International Film Festival a documentary film about Morricone, Ennio.[121]
Television series and last works
Morricone with the Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, in 2016
Morricone wrote the score for the Mafia television series La piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La Morale", and "L'Immorale". Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible").[122] In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son Andrea on the Ultimo crime dramas, resulting in Ultimo (1998), Ultimo 2 – La sfida (1999), Ultimo 3 – L'infiltrato (2004) and Ultimo 4 – L'occhio del falco (2013).[123] For Canone inverso (2000) based on the music-themed novel of the same name by the Paolo Maurensig, directed by Ricky Tognazzi and starring Hans Matheson, Morricone won Best Score awards in the David di Donatello Awards and Silver Ribbons.[124]
In the 2000s, Morricone continued to compose music for successful television series such as Il Cuore nel Pozzo (2005), Karol: A Man Who Became Pope (2005), La provinciale (2006), Giovanni Falcone (2007), Pane e libertà (2009) and Come Un Delfino 1–2 (2011–2013).[125]
Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.[126]
In 2008, the composer recorded music for a Lancia commercial, featuring Richard Gere and directed by Harald Zwart (known for directing The Pink Panther 2).[127]
In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.[128] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best-known film compositions of the last 50 years.[129][130] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.[131][132][133]
Since 1995, he composed the music for several advertising campaigns of Dolce & Gabbana. The commercials were directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.[134]
In 2013, Morricone collaborated with Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on a new version of her hit single "La solitudine" for her 20 years anniversary greatest hits album 20 – The Greatest Hits.[135]
Morricone composed the music for The Best Offer (2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore.[136]
He wrote the score for Christian Carion's En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait (2015) and the most recent movie by Tornatore: The Correspondence (2016), featuring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko.[137] In July 2015, Quentin Tarantino announced after the screening of footage of his movie The Hateful Eight at the San Diego Comic-Con International that Morricone would score the film, the first Western that Morricone scored since 1981.[138] The score was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.[139][140]
Live performances
Main article: List of Ennio Morricone concerts
Morricone in the Festhalle Frankfurt in 2015
Before receiving his diplomas in trumpet, composition and instrumentation from the conservatory, Morricone was already active as a trumpet player, often performing in an orchestra that specialised in music written for films. After completing his education at Saint Cecilia, the composer honed his orchestration skills as an arranger for Italian radio and television. In order to support himself, he moved to RCA in the early sixties and entered the front ranks of the Italian recording industry.[141] Since 1964, Morricone was also a founding member of the Rome-based avant-garde ensemble Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. During the existence of the group (until 1978), Morricone performed several times with the group as trumpet player.[142]
To ready his music for live performance, he joined smaller pieces of music together into longer suites. Rather than single pieces, which would require the audience to applaud every few minutes, Morricone thought the best idea was to create a series of suites lasting from 15 to 20 minutes, which form a sort of symphony in various movements – alternating successful pieces with personal favourites. In concert, Morricone normally had 180 to 200 musicians and vocalists under his baton, performing multiple genre-crossing collections of music. Rock, symphonic and ethnic instruments share the stage.[143]
On 20 September 1984 Morricone conducted the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire at Cinésymphonie '84 ("Première nuit de la musique de film/First night of film music") in the French concert hall Salle Pleyel in Paris. He performed some of his best-known compositions such as Metti, una sera a cena, Novecento and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.[144] Michel Legrand and Georges Delerue performed on the same evening.[145]
On 15 October 1987 Morricone gave a concert in front of 12,000 people in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra and the Italian operatic soprano Alide Maria Salvetta.[146] A live-album with a recording of this concert was released in the same year.[147]
On 9 June 2000 Morricone went to the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent to conduct his music together with the National Orchestra of Belgium.[148] During the concert's first part, the screening of The Life and Death of King Richard III (1912) was accompanied with live music by Morricone. It was the very first time that the score was performed live in Europe. The second part of the evening consisted of an anthology of the composer's work. The event took place on the eve of Euro 2000, the European Football Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands.[149]
Morricone performed over 250 concerts as of 2001.[150] The composer started a world tour in 2001, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Gasteig in Munich in 2004.[151]
Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters
He made his North American concert debut on 3 February 2007 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero."[152]
On 22 December 2012 Morricone conducted the 85-piece Belgian orchestra "Orkest der Lage Landen" and a 100-piece choir during a two-hour concert in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.[153]
In November 2013 Morricone began a world tour to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his film music career and performed in locations such as the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Santiago, Chile, Berlin, Germany (O2 World, Germany), Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna (Stadhalle). Back in June 2014, Morricone had to cancel a US tour in New York (Barclays Center) and Los Angeles (Nokia Theatre LA Live) due to a back procedure on 20 February. Morricone postponed the rest of his world tour.[154]
In November 2014 Morricone stated that he would resume his European tour starting from February 2015.[155]
Personal life and death
On 13 October 1956, Morricone married Maria Travia (born 31 December 1932), whom he had met in 1950. Travia wrote lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. Together, they had four children: Marco (b. 1957), Alessandra (b. 1961), conductor and film composer Andrea (b. 1964) and filmmaker Giovanni (b. 1966), who lives in New York City.[156] They remained married for 63 years until his death.
Morricone lived in Italy his entire life and never desired to live in Hollywood. He was among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[157]
Morricone described himself as a Christian leftist,[158] stating that he voted for the Christian Democracy (DC) for more than 40 years[159] and then, after its dissolution in 1994, he approached the centre-left coalition.[160]
Morricone loved chess,[161] having learned the game when he was 11. Before his musical career took off, he played in club tournaments in Rome in the mid-1950s. His first official tournament was in 1964, where he won a prize in the third category for amateurs. He was even coached by 12-time Italian champion IM Stefano Tatai for a while. Soon he got too busy for chess, but he would always keep a keen interest in the game and estimated his peak Elo rating to be nearly 1700.[162] Over the years, Morricone played chess with many big names including GMs Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Judit Polgar, and Peter Leko.[162] He once held GM Boris Spassky to a draw[162] in a simultaneous competition with 27 players, where Morricone was the last one standing.[citation needed]
On 6 July 2020, Morricone died at the Università Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, aged 91, as a result of injuries sustained to his femur during a fall.
Arabesque (group)
Arabesque was an all-girl trio formed at the height of the European disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Arabesque (group)
Arabesque was an all-girl trio formed at the height of the European disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Arabesque was an all-girl trio formed at the height of the European disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, West Germany. The group's changing lineup worked with the German composer Jean Frankfurter (Erich Ließmann) and became especially popular in Japan and the Soviet Union.
History
1975–1978: Formation and early years
In 1975, schlager music singer Mary Ann Nagel proposed a girl group to producer Wolfgang Mewes, who accepted. Two additional members were recruited through a singing competition. An Englishwoman (Karen Ann Tepperis), a German-Uzbek (Michaela Rose), and a German (Mary Ann Nagel) comprised the initial group.
After the first album, the band lineup changed by keeping only the original member Michaela Rose, while replacing the two other girls, Karen Ann Tepperis and Mary Ann Nagel, with new members Jasmin Vetter and Heike Rimbeau, respectively. Nagel was replaced due to her becoming tired of the long daily commute from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt am Main, where the group was based. Tepperis was replaced due to the fact that she was pregnant and could not go on tour. The surprising overnight success of Hello Mr. Monkey in Japan prompted the producers to schedule an immediate tour to Japan. The duration of Heike Rimbeau in the group was also short-lived; due to her pregnancy in 1978, she was briefly substituted with Elke Brückheimer. This German country singer appeared only in a few live performances during the year 1979. However, shortly afterward, she too was replaced by Sandra Lauer. Lauer had previously attended the Young Star Music contest in 1975, where she achieved a record deal and released the song "Andy mein Freund" ("My Friend Andy").
In 1979, at age 17, Lauer was invited to become the lead singer of Arabesque. The trio (Lauer, Vetter, Rose) would remain in this lineup from 1979 until their split in 1984.
1979–1984: Breakthrough
Arabesque became extremely popular in Japan, and also had a great deal of success in the USSR. The group first appeared in Japan in 1979 for a television special, performing Hello Mr. Monkey on the 11PM TV show. Lauer even spent her 18th birthday in Japan while they were on tour there in May 1980. They later took part in the Seoul Song Festival in 1981. Further, the group performed a number of concerts in Japan between 1980–1982. During these, they released a live album, dubbed "Fancy Concert". All in all, Arabesque came to Japan on tours a total of 6 times during their career.
Back at home in Germany in 1980, the single "Take Me Don't Break Me" became a hit, which only scraped the German Top 40. Their next single, "Marigot Bay", would become their only Top Ten hit a few weeks later. They made multiple TV appearances in Europe with this song about a lost love. Arabesque never had the same level of success in Germany than in the Far East. Albeit they were almost identical in appearance to other European disco trios (i.e. A La Carte or Luv'), their songs were mostly written to cater a Japanese audience instead of the European discotheque scene. A mere 5 albums were released in their entirety in Germany. The group did release in some 20 other countries, such as Italy, Mexico, Scandinavia, and even became Number 1 in Argentina for some time.
The group's two last singles, "Ecstasy" and "Time To Say Goodbye", became hits only after their split, in various European countries, as they sounded very close to the Italo disco sound, a very popular music genre on the European dance scene at that time. Those songs spread and gained success through LP compilations of dance/pop music, and bootleg tapes, so the band could never take advantage of this success, as neither of those songs could properly appear on any music charts as "singles" anyway. That was a common problem for many 1980s European dance artists.
1984–1989: Duo Rouge
Rouge
Origin Frankfurt, Germany
Genres Euro disco
Years active 1984–1988
Past members Jasmin Vetter
Michaela Rose
After they split up in 1984, Jasmin and Michaela continued on as the duo "Rouge". The duo aimed to continue the tradition and style of Arabesque, and surprisingly featured Jasmin Vetter as the lead singer.
After split
Meanwhile, Sandra Lauer started her own career as a solo artist, collaborating with Michael Cretu as Sandra and later as part of Enigma.
These last Arabesque singles also introduced the "Italo disco" sound to Japan, under the term "eurobeat", previously used in the UK for the Stock Aitken Waterman productions. That soon led to Japan's Super Eurobeat music style.
2006–present: Comebacks
On 16 December 2006, Arabesque (featuring Michaela Rose and two new members, Sabine Kaemper and Silke Brauner) headlined the second "Legends of Retro FM" festival in Moscow. According to Russian press at the time, they were planning a tour in Japan and possibly releasing a new album. The current trio has been performing across many of the former Eastern Bloc countries, as of 2018.
In 2017, Michaela Rose re-recorded one of the Arabesque songs, "Zanzibar", that was released with a support from Monopol Records Also in 2017, Jasmin Vetter launched her own reincarnation of the group (Jasmin Vetter of Arabesque and the City Cats), as part of a celebration of the 40-year anniversary of the group.
Discography
Studio albums
1978 - Friday Night (also called Arabesque-I)
1979 - Peppermint Jack (also called City Cats or Arabesque-II)
1980 - Marigot Bay (also called Arabesque-III)
1980 - Midnight Dancer (also called Arabesque-IV)
1981 - Billy's Barbeque (also called Arabesque-V)
1982 - Caballero (also called Arabesque-VI)
1982 - Why No Reply (also called Arabesque-VII)
1983 - Loser Pays The Piper (also called Arabesque-VIII)
1984 - Time To Say Goodbye (also called Arabesque-IX)
2018 - The Up Graded Collection (Original Michaela Rose)
Singles
1977 "Hello Mr. Monkey"
1978 "Friday Night"
1979 "Fly High Little Butterfly" (Japan only)
1979 "Rock Me After Midnight" (Japan only)
1979 "City Cats" (Germany only)
1979 "Peppermint Jack"
1980 "Hell Driver"
1980 "High Life" (Japan only)
1980 "Parties In A Penthouse" (Japan only)
1980 "Love Is Just A Game" (Australia only)
1980 "Make Love Whenever You Can" (Japan only)
1980 "Take Me Don't Break Me" (Germany only)
1980 "Marigot Bay" (Germany only)
1981 "Midnight Dancer" (Japan only)
1981 "Born to Reggae" (USSR only)
1981 "In For A Penny, In For A Pound"
1981 "Billy's Barbeque" (Japan only)
1981 "Hit The Jackpot" (Japan only)
1982 "Young Fingers Get Burnt" (Japan only)
1982 "Indio Boy" (Germany only)
1982 "Tall Story Teller" / "Caballero"[18]
1983 "Why No Reply"
1983 "Don't Fall Away From Me"
1983 "Pack It Up" (Japan only)
1983 "Dance, Dance, Dance" (Japan only)
1983 "Loser Pays The Piper" (Japan only)
1983 "Sunrise In Your Eyes" (Germany only)
1984 "Heart On Fire" (Japan only)
1985 "Time To Say Goodbye"
1986 "Ecstasy" (Germany only)
1998 "Hello Mr. Monkey (Remix)"
2008 "Marigot Bay 2008" (feat. Michaela Rose) (digital release)
2014 "Dance Into The Moonlight" (feat. Michaela Rose) (digital release)
2017 "Zanzibar" (Original Michaela Rose) (digital release)
2019 "Zanzibar" (DJ FA vs. Arabesque) (digital release)
Arabesque (group)
Arabesque was an all-girl trio formed at the height of the European disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Enzo GhinazziEnzo Ghinazzi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛntso ɡiˈnattsi]; born 11 September 1955), best known as Pupo ([ˈpuːpo]; Italian for '"Little Baby"') is an Italian singer, lyricist, television presenter, writer and voice actor.
Contents
1 Life and career
2 Television career, voice acting and writing
3 Awards
4 Discography
4.1 Singles
4.2 Albums
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Enzo Ghinazzi was born in Ponticino, a frazione of Laterina Pergine Valdarno in the Tuscan province of Arezzo. His father was a mailman and his mother was a housewife, but they both cultivated interests in singing and acting. In 1975 he debuted as a singer-songwriter under the stage name Pupo with "Ti scriverò" ("I will write to you").[1]
Pupo's first album release, Come sei bella ("You are so beautiful"), came in 1976. His second album, Gelato al cioccolato, was his first major success , containing the hit singles "Ciao" and "Gelato al cioccolato", written with Cristiano Malgioglio; the album was the artist's first of 11 gold records. In 1980 Pupo competed for the first time in the Sanremo Music Festival with the gold record winning song "Su di noi [it]" ("Above us"): the song was included in his third album Più di prima ("More than before"), which was Pupo's best selling record and also included "Firenze Santa Maria Novella", a love letter to the city of Florence.[2]
In 1981 he wrote his first hit for another artist : "Sarà perché ti amo", sung by Ricchi e Poveri at the Sanremo Festival that year.[3] Pupo competed again in the Festival in 1983 with "Cieli azzurri" ("Blue skies") and in 1984 with "Un amore grande" ("A big love"), written by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi. In 1986 he released the album Pupo in the USSR, a major success that sparked his fame in Eastern Europe.[4] The following year he won the international children's song festival Zecchino d'Oro as the author of "Canzone amica" ("Friend song"). Pupo toured extensively on international stages , and in 1991 he released his first and to date only live album, Canada's Wonderland, recorded in Toronto.[5] In 1992 he competed for the fourth time at the Sanremo Music Festival, this time under his birth name, with the spiritual "La mia preghiera" ("My prayer").
After spending some years out of the national spotlight (while maintaining a solid international fanbase) and then devoting himself to his television career, Pupo rose back to musical stardom with his consecutive appearances at the Sanremo Music Festival in 2009 and 2010. In 2007, the Dutch singer André Hazes covered his song "Forse" ("Maybe") with the title "Blijf bij mi" ("Stay with me"). In 2009 he competed with "L'opportunità" ("The opportunity"), singing alongside Paolo Belli and Youssou N'Dour, reaching the finals. The year after, he came second in the Festival singing "Italia amore mio [it]" with tenor Luca Canonici and Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, member of the former Italian royal family; in the "guest night" of the Festival, World Cup winning football coach Marcello Lippi was invited on stage. The song was a success with the audience, and the trio was considered the moral winner of the Festival.[6]
Pupo started working in television in 1989, when he was called to host Domenica In on Rai 1. In the 2000s he appeared often in football shows, as a supporter of the Serie A club Fiorentina. Pupo focused fully on his television career starting from 2005, starting with the reality show La fattoria [it] on Canale 5 as a reporter from the Brazilian set.[7]
He achieved great success hosting game shows on Rai 1, the Italian public broadcaster's main channel: from Affari Tuoi (the Italian edition of Deal or no Deal) to Reazione a Catena, the Italian adaptation of Chain Reaction. He then hosted the Italian edition of The Singing Bee, called Chi fermerà la musica [it], and three editions of the talent show I raccomandati [it] on Rai 1.[8] Since 2010, Pupo hosts the annual festival of Neapolitan music Napoli prima e dopo [it], which under his tenure has averaged over three million viewers with a 20% audience share on Rai 1.
He also featured as an announcer on Sky Sports with La notte del poker [it], the first Italian poker championship, and he competed in the celebrity edition of the championship.
Meanwhile, Pupo started voice acting in Italian: he played Hammy in the DreamWorks animated movie Over the Hedge[9] and the titular character in the 2010 comedy Marmaduke. He also hosted radio shows on Rai Radio 1, such as Attenti a Pupo and Passato contro futuro.
Pupo also wrote three books. His first autobiography, Un enigma chiamato Pupo ("A mystery named Pupo"), was published in 2001 by Rai Eri (the publishing branch of the Italian public broadcaster). His second autobiography, Banco Solo! Diario di un giocatore chiamato Pupo ("Only bank! Diary of a player called Pupo"), deals with his troubled history with gambling.[10] Pupo then wrote a noir novel, La confessione ("The confession"), published by Rizzoli in 2012.[11]
Gondola d'Oro ("Golden gondola")[12]
"Forse" (1979) [No. 2 Switzerland]
"Lo devo solo a te" (1981) [No. 6 Switzerland]
"Nashville" (1981) [No. 9 Switzerland]
Enzo Ghinazzi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛntso ɡiˈnattsi]; born 11 September 1955), best known as Pupo ([ˈpuːpo]; Italian for '"Little Baby"') is an Italian singer, lyricist, television presenter, writer and voice actor.
Contents
1 Life and career
2 Television career, voice acting and writing
3 Awards
4 Discography
4.1 Singles
4.2 Albums
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Life and career
Enzo Ghinazzi was born in Ponticino, a frazione of Laterina Pergine Valdarno in the Tuscan province of Arezzo. His father was a mailman and his mother was a housewife, but they both cultivated interests in singing and acting. In 1975 he debuted as a singer-songwriter under the stage name Pupo with "Ti scriverò" ("I will write to you").[1]
Pupo's first album release, Come sei bella ("You are so beautiful"), came in 1976. His second album, Gelato al cioccolato, was his first major success , containing the hit singles "Ciao" and "Gelato al cioccolato", written with Cristiano Malgioglio; the album was the artist's first of 11 gold records. In 1980 Pupo competed for the first time in the Sanremo Music Festival with the gold record winning song "Su di noi [it]" ("Above us"): the song was included in his third album Più di prima ("More than before"), which was Pupo's best selling record and also included "Firenze Santa Maria Novella", a love letter to the city of Florence.[2]
In 1981 he wrote his first hit for another artist : "Sarà perché ti amo", sung by Ricchi e Poveri at the Sanremo Festival that year.[3] Pupo competed again in the Festival in 1983 with "Cieli azzurri" ("Blue skies") and in 1984 with "Un amore grande" ("A big love"), written by Umberto Tozzi and Giancarlo Bigazzi. In 1986 he released the album Pupo in the USSR, a major success that sparked his fame in Eastern Europe.[4] The following year he won the international children's song festival Zecchino d'Oro as the author of "Canzone amica" ("Friend song"). Pupo toured extensively on international stages , and in 1991 he released his first and to date only live album, Canada's Wonderland, recorded in Toronto.[5] In 1992 he competed for the fourth time at the Sanremo Music Festival, this time under his birth name, with the spiritual "La mia preghiera" ("My prayer").
After spending some years out of the national spotlight (while maintaining a solid international fanbase) and then devoting himself to his television career, Pupo rose back to musical stardom with his consecutive appearances at the Sanremo Music Festival in 2009 and 2010. In 2007, the Dutch singer André Hazes covered his song "Forse" ("Maybe") with the title "Blijf bij mi" ("Stay with me"). In 2009 he competed with "L'opportunità" ("The opportunity"), singing alongside Paolo Belli and Youssou N'Dour, reaching the finals. The year after, he came second in the Festival singing "Italia amore mio [it]" with tenor Luca Canonici and Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, member of the former Italian royal family; in the "guest night" of the Festival, World Cup winning football coach Marcello Lippi was invited on stage. The song was a success with the audience, and the trio was considered the moral winner of the Festival.[6]
Television career, voice acting and writing
Pupo started working in television in 1989, when he was called to host Domenica In on Rai 1. In the 2000s he appeared often in football shows, as a supporter of the Serie A club Fiorentina. Pupo focused fully on his television career starting from 2005, starting with the reality show La fattoria [it] on Canale 5 as a reporter from the Brazilian set.[7]
He achieved great success hosting game shows on Rai 1, the Italian public broadcaster's main channel: from Affari Tuoi (the Italian edition of Deal or no Deal) to Reazione a Catena, the Italian adaptation of Chain Reaction. He then hosted the Italian edition of The Singing Bee, called Chi fermerà la musica [it], and three editions of the talent show I raccomandati [it] on Rai 1.[8] Since 2010, Pupo hosts the annual festival of Neapolitan music Napoli prima e dopo [it], which under his tenure has averaged over three million viewers with a 20% audience share on Rai 1.
He also featured as an announcer on Sky Sports with La notte del poker [it], the first Italian poker championship, and he competed in the celebrity edition of the championship.
Meanwhile, Pupo started voice acting in Italian: he played Hammy in the DreamWorks animated movie Over the Hedge[9] and the titular character in the 2010 comedy Marmaduke. He also hosted radio shows on Rai Radio 1, such as Attenti a Pupo and Passato contro futuro.
Pupo also wrote three books. His first autobiography, Un enigma chiamato Pupo ("A mystery named Pupo"), was published in 2001 by Rai Eri (the publishing branch of the Italian public broadcaster). His second autobiography, Banco Solo! Diario di un giocatore chiamato Pupo ("Only bank! Diary of a player called Pupo"), deals with his troubled history with gambling.[10] Pupo then wrote a noir novel, La confessione ("The confession"), published by Rizzoli in 2012.[11]
Awards
11 gold records
Gondola d'Oro ("Golden gondola")[12]
Discography
Singles
"Ti scriverò" (1975)
"Come sei bella" (1977)
"Io solo senza te" (1977)
"Ciao" (1978)
"Forse" (1979) [No. 2 Switzerland]
"Su di noi [it]" (1980)
"Cosa farai" (1980)
"Lo devo solo a te" (1981) [No. 6 Switzerland]
"Nashville" (1981) [No. 9 Switzerland]
"Ancora io" (1982)
"E va bene così" (1983)
"Cieli azzurri" (1983)
"Un amore grande" (1984)
"Change generation" (1985)
"La vita è molto di più" (1986)
"Amore italiano" (1987)
"Dove sarai domani" (1989)
"Bambina" (1991)
"La mia preghiera" (1992)
"Senza fortuna" (1995)
"La notte" (1996)
"In eternità" (1997)
"Non è un addio" (1998)
"È Fiorentina" (1998)
"Sei caduto anche tu" (2001)
"L'opportunità" (2009)
"Italia amore mio" (2010)
"La storia di noi due" (2010)
Albums
Come sei bella (1977)
Gelato al cioccolato (1979)
Più di prima (1980)
Lo devo solo a te (1981)
Cieli azzurri (1983)
Malattia d'amore (1984)
Change generation (1985)
Un amore grande (1985)
La vita è molto di più (1986)
Quanta Gente (1986)
Quello che sono (1989)
Canada's Wonderland (1991)
Enzo Ghinazzi 1 (1992)
All the Best (1994)
Pupo 1996 (1996)
In eternità (1997)
Tornerò (1998)
Sei caduto anche tu (2000)
I grandi successi originali (2004)
L'equilibrista (2004)
Since the band's inception, its musical style has ranged from hard rock,[2][3] heavy metal,[4][5] glam metal,[6][7][8] and soft rock.[4][5] The lineup from 1978 to 1992 was the most successful incarnation of the group, and included Klaus Meine (vocals), Rudolf Schenker (rhythm guitar), Matthias Jabs (lead guitar), Francis Buchholz (bass), and Herman Rarebell (drums). The band's only continuous member has been Schenker, although Meine has appeared on all of Scorpions' studio albums, while Jabs has been a consistent member since 1978, and bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mikkey Dee have been in the band since 2003 and 2016 respectively.[9]
During the mid-1970s, with guitarist Uli Jon Roth (who replaced Schenker's younger brother Michael) part of the line-up, the music of the Scorpions was defined as hard rock.[2][3] After Roth's departure in 1978, Schenker and Meine managed to take control of the group, giving them almost all the power to compose music and write lyrics. Matthias Jabs joined in 1978, and with the melodic rock he played and the influence of producer Dieter Dierks in the band, the Scorpions changed their sound to melodic heavy metal mixed with lyrical "power rock ballads", which is evident in the album Lovedrive (1979), which began the evolution of the band's sound, developed later in several of their albums. Over the next decade, the band achieved influence, approval from music critics, and significant commercial success with the albums Animal Magnetism (1980), Blackout (1982), Love at First Sting (1984), the live recording World Wide Live (1985), Savage Amusement (1988), their best-selling compilation Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads (1989), and Crazy World (1990), all awarded at least one platinum award in the United States.[10][11] The band has released twelve consecutive studio albums that were in the top 10 in Germany, one of which reached No. 1, as well as three consecutive albums that were in the top 10 in the Billboard 200 in the United States.
Scorpions are estimated to have sold over 100 million records around the world, making them one of the best-selling hard rock and heavy metal bands.[12] One of their most recognized hits is "Wind of Change" (from Crazy World), a symbolic anthem of the political changes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it remains as one of the best-selling singles in the world with over 14 million copies.[13][14] Two of the songs on their ninth studio album Love at First Sting, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Still Loving You", are regarded as some of the most influential and popular works, both in heavy metal music and among rock ballads, defined as "rock anthem"[15] and "a true hymn of love".[16]
Rudolf Schenker, the band's rhythm guitarist, launched the band in 1965. At first, the band had Merseybeat influences and Schenker himself handled the vocals. He played in a band with Lothar Heimberg before he joined Scorpions. Karl Heinz Vollmer left the band in 1967 because of his military obligations, then he couldn’t associate anymore the concerts and the military life.[17] Things began to come together in 1970 when Schenker's younger brother Michael and vocalist Klaus Meine joined the band. With this line-up they won a music contest in 1972 and recorded two songs for a single that was never released on the CCA label, but the songs, "Action" and "I'm Going Mad" were later released on different compilation albums including Psychedelic Gems 2
In 1972, the group recorded and released their debut album Lonesome Crow, with Lothar Heimberg on bass and Wolfgang Dziony on drums and re-recorded versions of their CCA songs.[18] During the Lonesome Crow tour, the Scorpions opened for upcoming British band UFO. Near the end of the tour, guitarist Michael Schenker accepted an offer of lead guitar for UFO. Uli Jon Roth, a friend of Michael's, was then introduced to the band and he helped them to finish off the tour.
The departure of Michael Schenker led to the breakup of the band. In 1973, Uli Roth, who had helped the Scorpions complete the Lonesome Crow tour, was offered the role as lead guitarist, but turned the band down, preferring instead to remain in the band Dawn Road. Rudolf Schenker eventually decided he wanted to work with Roth, but did not want to resurrect the last Scorpions lineup. He attended some of Dawn Road's rehearsals and ultimately decided to join the band, which consisted of Roth, Francis Buchholz (bass), Achim Kirschning (keyboards) and Jürgen Rosenthal (drums). Uli Roth and Buchholz persuaded Rudolf Schenker to invite Klaus Meine to join on vocals, which he soon did. While there were more members of Dawn Road than Scorpions in the band, they decided to use the Scorpions name because it was well known in the German hard rock scene and an album had been released under that name.[19]
Meanwhile, as "The Hunters", the band recorded "Fuchs geh' voran" and "Wenn es richtig losgeht", German cover versions of "Action" and "Fox on the Run" by the Sweet for EMI's Electrola label.[20]
Following the addition of Jabs, Scorpions left RCA for Mercury Records in the United States and Harvest/EMI Electrola worldwide to record their next album Lovedrive. Just weeks after quitting UFO, Michael Schenker returned to the group for a short period during the recordings for the album. This gave the band three guitarists. Lovedrive was an album that some critics consider to be the pinnacle of their career.[22] Containing such fan favourites as "Loving You Sunday Morning", "Always Somewhere", "Holiday" and the instrumental "Coast to Coast", it firmly cemented the "Scorpions formula" of hard rock songs mixed with melodic ballads. Although it had been widely believed for decades that Michael Schenker's contribution to the record was only limited to three songs, he vehemently maintained he appeared on the whole album during an interview with satellite radio host Eddie Trunk.[23] The album's provocative artwork was named "Best album sleeve of 1979" by Playboy magazine, yet ultimately changed for American release. Lovedrive reached No. 55 on the US charts, demonstrating that the band was gathering an international following. After the completion and release of the album the band decided to retain Michael in the band, forcing Jabs to leave. However, in April 1979, during their tour in France, Michael quit and Jabs was brought in permanently to replace him.
In 1980, the band released Animal Magnetism, again with a provocative cover this time showing a girl kneeling and a Doberman Pinscher sitting in front of a man. Animal Magnetism contained classics such as "The Zoo" and "Make It Real". Soon after the album's release, Meine began experiencing throat problems. He required surgery on his vocal cords and doubts were raised[by whom?] about whether he would ever sing again.
Meanwhile, the band began working on their next album, Blackout in 1981. Don Dokken was brought in to provide guide and backing vocals while Meine recovered.[24] Meine eventually healed completely and was able to finish the album. Blackout was released in 1982 and quickly became the band's best selling album to date, eventually going platinum. Meine's voice showed no signs of weakness and fan response to the album was good. Blackout spawned two singles: "No One Like You" and "Can't Live Without You".
On the Savage Amusement tour in 1988, the Scorpions became only the second Western group (not American) to play in the Soviet Union. Uriah Heep had performed in December 1987 in Leningrad. The following year the band returned to perform at the Moscow Music Peace Festival. As a result, the Scorpions developed an extended Russian fan base and still return to perform.[25] Also in 1989, Scorpions released the compilation album Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads, which, in addition to the band's hits from 1979 to 1988, included several rare or previously unreleased tracks: "Hey You", from the Animal Magnetism sessions; a remixed version of "Is There Anybody There?"; and a cover of The Who's "I Can't Explain", which was also included on that same year's Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell charity compilation album. This is the Scorpions' only compilation album to be certified platinum in the United States.[11]
Wishing to distance themselves from the Savage Amusement style, the band separated from their long-time producer and "Sixth Scorpion", Dieter Dierks, replacing him with Keith Olsen when they returned to the studio in 1990. Crazy World was released that year and displayed a less polished sound. The album was propelled in large part by the massive success of the ballad "Wind of Change". The song muses on the socio-political changes that were occurring in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world at the end of the Cold War. Crazy World is the band's last album to receive gold or platinum certification in the United States.[11] On 21 July 1990, they joined many other guests for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin. Scorpions performed both versions of "In the Flesh" from The Wall.
In early 2006, the Scorpions released the DVD 1 Night in Vienna that included 14 live tracks and a complete rockumentary. In LA, the band spent about four months in the studio with producers James Michael and Desmond Child working on a concept album titled Humanity: Hour I, which was released in late May 2007,[26] and was followed by the "Humanity World Tour".
In a September 2007 podcast interview, Meine said the album was not so much a "concept album", but rather a collection of songs with a common theme. "We didn't want to make another record with songs about boys chasing girls. I mean, come on, give me a break," Meine said.[27]
That is what everybody is asking. There might be. Who knows? Right now we are at the beginning of the world tour. It is exciting to play the new songs and they go very well with the classics. It is exciting that there is a whole new audience out there. There are many longtime fans but there are a lot of young kids. We just played in London and in Paris and there were young kids rocking out to songs that were written way before they were born. It is amazing. I don’t want to think about Hour II right now because Hour I is so exciting. It is very inspiring to see how much the audience enjoys this new music.[28]
On 20 December 2007, the Scorpions played at a concert for the elite of Russia's security forces in the Kremlin. The concert was a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Cheka—predecessor of the KGB. The band claimed they thought they were performing a Christmas concert. They said their concert was by no means a tribute to the Cheka, communism, or Russia's brutal past. Members of the audience included Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.[29]
On 22 February 2009, the band received Germany's ECHO Honorary Award for lifetime achievement at Berlin's O2 World.[30]
In November 2009, the Scorpions announced their 17th studio album, Sting in the Tail, would be released in early 2010,[31] recorded in Hanover with Swedish producers Mikael "Nord" Andersson and Martin Hansen. It was released on 23 March 2010.[32]
On 24 January 2010, the band announced their initial intentions for Sting in the Tail to be their last album, and the tour supporting it their final tour, although the band later made the decision to continue recording past the end of the tour.[33][34] Dokken was scheduled to open for them but cancelled after a dispute.[35]
On 6 April 2010, they were enshrined in Hollywood's Rock Walk in a handprint ceremony,[36] with the band members placing their hands in a long slab of wet cement next to other musical artists.
An album of re-recordings of older songs, Comeblack, was released on 7 November 2011.[37]
Meine was asked in a July 2011 interview about the future of the Scorpions. He replied, "Our newest project comes out in the next few months. It gives you a chance to experience the Scorpions in 3D. You can actually feel the smoke string out of the guitar like it is a live show. It is an incredible experience. The DVD features our concerts in 3D in Germany. We are just about to do the mix and it should be in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia hopefully soon. Indeed, the strong 3D technology makes us feel like pioneers after all these years (he says, laughing). We have an album coming out later this year featuring classics. You know our love for them. The '60s was the era for our inspiration. Our movie/documentary also is soon to be released. We have cameras with us on tours, so this documentary is being made during our tours. It also gives you a picture of the Scorpions career and journey."[38]
Despite initial plans for a break up or retirement, guitarist Matthias Jabs told AZ Central on 12 June 2012 that the Scorpions would not split up.[39] A month later, Jabs told Billboard magazine the band had been working on an album that would contain unreleased songs they recorded for the albums Blackout, Love at First Sting, Savage Amusement, and Crazy World and planned to release it in 2014.[40] In April, the Scorpions announced shows in Russia and Belarus with an orchestra in October 2013. On 11, 12, and 14 September 2013, the band played three MTV Unplugged concerts at the Lycabettus-Theatre in Athens.[41] On 6 November 2013, they announced four more MTV Unplugged Concert in Germany 2014. In December 2013, in an interview at Rock Show radio program in Greece, Meine said he was not sure if the album with unreleased songs they recorded for the albums Blackout, Love at First Sting, Savage Amusement and Crazy World would be released in 2014 or later on.[42]
In 2013, the band released the album MTV Unplugged in Athens. The album featured classic songs like Rock You Like a Hurricane and Big City Nights done acoustically, but also included rare live performances of songs like When The Smoke Is Going Down and Where the River Flows.[43] On 16 August 2014, they announced a new album in the works, due for release sometime in 2015.[44]
On 23 October 2014, Meine spoke to the band's French fan-club Crazyscorps, and announced the new record would be published in February or March 2015, to coincide with the band's 50th anniversary. Contrary to what the band said in 2013, the new album presented not only newly recorded versions of never-published songs, but also new material, written between 2011 and 2014. The album was recorded in Sweden, with producers Martin Hansen and Mikael Nord Andersson. Drummer James Kottak, who left the band in May 2014 for rehab, returned to play drums.[45] The new album Return to Forever was released on 20 February 2015.
On 29 August 2015, the Scorpions announced 50th anniversary deluxe editions of their albums Taken By Force, Tokyo Tapes, Lovedrive, Animal Magnetism, Blackout, Love at First Sting, World Wide Live, and Savage Amusement which were released 6 November 2015. These deluxe releases include "dozens of unreleased songs, alternate versions of big hits, rough mixes, and rare live concert recordings". On 28 April 2016, it was announced that Motörhead drummer Mikkey Dee would fill in for James Kottak and play drums on 12 North American headlining dates,[46][47] including a run of shows at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas dubbed "Scorpions Blacked Out in Las Vegas" with Queensrÿche opening the Vegas shows,[48] and dates in São Paulo. On 12 September 2016, Dee was officially announced as the band's new permanent drummer.[49]
On 18 January 2017, the Scorpions were inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History for leading the two-guitar attack in heavy metal.[50] Proceeds from the ceremony benefitted the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.
In an August 2018 interview with Digital Journal, Scorpions guitarist Rudolf Schenker stated that the band was open to the idea of recording a follow-up to Return to Forever. He explained: "We are still waiting for a moment for inspiration to do another album, like Judas Priest and Metallica did. You have to wait until the time is right."[51] Klaus Meine hinted in May 2019 that "there might be a new album out in 2020."[52]
On 28 April 2020, Scorpions released (on their YouTube channel) a new (2-minute 16-second short) song entitled "Sign of Hope", inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.[53]
On 25 July 2020, Scorpions entered Peppermint Park Studios in Hanover to resume working on their nineteenth studio album.[54] The album's initial sessions, which were supposed to take place in Los Angeles, were done remotely, with producer Greg Fidelman participating via Zoom;[55][56] however, drummer Mikkey Dee confirmed in a March 2021 interview with Robb Flynn of Machine Head that the band had to abandon their plans to work with Fidelman, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[57] Progress on the album had continued to be slow by August 2021, when Scorpions posted a video on Facebook from the studio where they rehearsed a new song (possibly titled "Seventh Sun") for an upcoming tour.[58]
On 29 September 2021, Scorpions announced Rock Believer as the title of their nineteenth studio album and set 11 February 2022 as its release date; the band later pushed back the release of the album to two weeks after its initially planned release date.[59] They will support the album with a European tour with Mammoth WVH.[60]
The Scorpions are one of the best-selling bands in the history of music, according to various sources, the band's sales are about 100 million worldwide,[12] of which 10.5 million are certified in the United States.[61] All their editions with issued sales certificates have repeatedly reached gold and platinum status in various countries around the world. Rolling Stone describes Scorpions as the "heroes of heavy metal",[62] and MTV called them "Ambassadors of Rock". They have received prestigious awards such as three World Music Awards,[63] a star on the Hollywood Rock wall,[64] and a presence in the permanent exhibition of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[65] In 2015, the group celebrated its 50th anniversary.[66]
The Scorpions have been cited as a principal influence on the 1980s hard rock and heavy metal scenes, including artists such as Guns N' Roses,[67][68] Mötley Crüe,[69] Def Leppard,[15] Metallica,[15][70][71] Megadeth,[72] Testament,[73][74] Skid Row,[15] Cinderella,[15] Doro,[75] Helloween,[76][77] Hanoi Rocks,[15] and Yngwie Malmsteen.[70][78]
"Wind of Change" is a podcast from Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media and Spotify that explores a rumor that the song was actually written by the CIA.[79]
2011: Radio Regenbogen Award in the category Lifetime Rock[80]
2011: Pioneer of Pop – awarded by SWR3-New-Pop-Festival[81]
2011: Metal Guru Award from Classic Rock magazine[82]
2012: CGDC Award for Music for Dialogue from the Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation (CGDC)[83]
2012: Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis der Städte und Gemeinden[84]
The Scorpions have played around 2,500 concerts in over 80 countries.[85]
2010–2014: Get Your Sting and Blackout World Tour[41]
2020: Sin City Nights at Zappo Theater from Planet Hollywood Resort Las Vegas. Originally scheduled for 4–25 July 2020, this residency has been postponed to a date to be determined due to restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.[86]
Scorpions (band)
Scorpions are a German rock band formed in 1965 in Hanover by Rudolf Schenker.