I'd like to tell you a little about what happens to a fan whose idol gradually loses her popularity. This happened in Brazil, in the first part of 1965, when Rita Pavone, after having been the most celebrated foreign act in 1964 was quickly losing exposure in the media.
Pavone's chart action in 1964 was impressive: 'Meus 18 anos' was the best selling album of the year: 'Adorabile' the best selling extended-play: 'Datemi un martello' was by far the best selling single of the year, with 'Cuore', 'Scrivi' and 'Sul cucuzzolo' selling really well too.
By December 1964, one could still hear 'Bianco Natale' and a lot of Pavone records on the radio. RCA even released an American album featuring 'Kissin' time' and 11 other tunes sung in English by the Italian dynamo.
By early 1965, notwithstanding, there was a dearth of Pavone's presence in the media. In Italy, Rita was riding high with 'Viva la pappa col pomodoro' and other songs featured in the TV series 'Gian Burrasca'. Yet in Brazil, RCA didn't have new material to keep the fire burning. 'San Francesco' was not exactly the type of song to hit the top of the charts. It went up to #5 and soon after it went into oblivion. That was Rita's last hit in Brazil. Believe it or not the fountain had gone dry.
In late April 1965, due to Rita's approaching second visit to Brazil, RCA released 'Ritorna' which featured 'Lui' (strangely it was never released as a single), left-overs from 'Small Wonder', her second US album (1964) and assorted old and new singles. Her second tour left Brazilian audiences unmoved for the novelty had worn off and the whole thing was a much smaller affair than the hullaballoo she'd caused 10 months earlier.
Besides, Teddy Reno persistence in imposing an unknown 'Viva la pappa' at Rita's recitals at Teatro Record was embarrassing. Mr. Ricordi failed to realize it was boring for Brazilian audiences. He and Rita wasted a quarter-of-an-hour introducing it, trying to make people sing along to a 'tarantella' which made no sense whatsoever for a Brazilians who didn't watch the TV series.
In the 1964 tour, Rita had been accompanied by The Clevers, the best Brazilin surf-music band and Italian pianist-orchestra-conductor Stelvio Cipriani. It was basically a rock show with a lot of interaction between the parties. The 1965 tour was constrained and subdued. It felt like Rita wanted to get it done with it the sooner the better.
Radio & pop-scene had changed dramatically by April 1965. Rita didn't have a current hit playing on the radio anymore. Mex-Tex Trini Lopez was the man-of-the-hour; Trini rode high in the charts with 'Michael' and 'Perfidia' at #1 plus 2 albums ('The Latin Album' and 'PJ's proudly presents...') being sold like hot cakes.
Four months later, when Brazilian rocker Roberto Carlos started 'Jovem Guarda', a Sunday afternoon TV rock show on 22nd August 1965, Rita Pavone was all but forgotten. In fact, with the explosion of the 2nd Brazilian-rock wave, most Italian acts took cover and sort of disappeared. Suddenly there was a plethora o new teen-idols (besides Roberto Carlos) like Wanderléa, Erasmo Carlos, Renato & seus Blue Caps who crushed the likes of Nico Fidenco, Edoardo Vianello, Michele, Sergio Endrigo, Peppino Di Capri and others.
As a Rita Pavone fan - I and the Fan Club members entered a period of grief that lasted almost 2 years. As there was no Internet or satellite broadcast we were shut off from everything happening in Europe. We didn't even know whether Rita Pavone was dead or alive. Italian acts vanished from magazines, newspapers, radio and TV. It felt like a long quarentine.
Some ask the pertinent question: why did Rita Pavone vanish from the Brazilian pop scene in such a devastating way? I guess the local RCA Victor had a lot to do with it. Its management was really slack and didn't keep up with a rapidly changing pop world. They should have released 'Lui' as a single but they pushed for 'Viva la pappa col pomodoro' instead which left the buying public as cold as ice.
By late 1965, RCA should have released 'Stasera con te' backed with 'Solo tu' two remarkable tunes. They simply ignored them and released 'Supercalifragilistic espiralidoso' which is a dreadful song.
While we're on Rita Pavone disappearing act we should also have a look at Italian acts who were still active in the Brazilian charts. 1965 started with John Foster's 'Amore scusami' at the top of the charts; to be followed by Bobby Solo's 'Se piangi, se ridi' (also #1); in July 1965, Pino Donaggio was #1 with 'Io che non vivo (senza te)'; in November, Jimmy Fontana reached #1 with 'Il mondo' followed by Nini Rosso and his haunting 'Il silenzio'. Five Italian acts had reached Number One during 1965.
French music was algo riding high in Brazil with Alain Barrière's 'Ma vie' reaching the top; Charles Aznavour charted with 'Que c'est triste Venice' and 'Isabelle'; Dalida was #5 with 'La dance de Zorba'.
Imported Italian youth magazines take over Brazilian newsstands
Then, by mid-1966 - when Jovem Guarda acts reigned supreme - something unusual happened. Out of nowhere, newsstands all over São Paulo and Rio (I don't know about other capital cities like Belo Horizonte or Porto Alegre) started importing teen-magazines from Italy. 'Big' was the first Italian musical magazine I spotted in a newsstand near where I lived. Then came 'Giovani', the best of them all. Every week one had the supreme joy of seeing coloured photos on their covers bearing the faces of Mina, Rita Pavone, Caterina Caselli, Adriano Celentano, The Rokes and Italian acts we had never seen or heard before. It was a feast for the eyes. Photos of American and British acts like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Donovan, Sonny & Cher were also splattered on the covers of 'Big' and 'Giovani'.
A whole new world opened up to us, poor forgotten fans stranded in far-away South America. The Italian language became essential and everyone rushed to improve their basic knowledge of Dante's tongue.
With the advent of Italian teen-magazines at Brazilian newsstands I had a bright idea of writing to one of them in order to find pen pals. Even before I knew my letter had been printed by 'Big' - for it took approximately 8 weeks for those magazines to reach Brazilian shores - I was inundated with letters from all over Italy.
1966 Italian, French & Anglo-American chart action
In 1966, one could easily see Italian music was becoming scarcer. Instrumental 'Se tu non fossi bella come sei' from the sound-track of spaghetti-western 'Un dollaro buccato' by Gianni Ferrio & his orchestra was the only Italian song to reach #1.
Gianni Morandi's 'Se non avessi più te', Pino Donaggio's 'L'ultima telefonata' and Ornella Vanoni's 'Io ti darò di più' all reached Top 5. The French still placed Christophe's 'Aline' and Herve Villard's 'Capri c'est fini' among the Top 5, while Michel Polnareff's 'Love me please love me' hit #1.
The big winner of 1966 was Roberto Carlos (and Jovem Guarda) which had his best year with 'Quero que vá tudo p'ro inferno' and many others. Wanderléa was the new Queen of Rock.
1966 was a good year for Anglo-American rock too. The Byrds placed 'Mr Tambourine Man' and 'Turn, turn, turn'; the Rolling Stones shouted '(I can get no) Satisfaction' all the way to #1; Chris Montez's cover of 'The more I see you' arranged by Herb Alpert, opened a new trend introducing xylophone and hand-clapping marking-time which was copied by every one and his dog. The Mamas & the Papas from California completed the 1966 scene not to mention The Beatles' tend-setter 'Revolver'. Brazilian music aka MPB was big around October '66 with Geraldo Vandré's 'Disparada' and Chico Buarque's 'A banda'.
Rita Pavone was nowhere to be seen in 1966. RCA released a compilation album entitled 'Fortissimo' in mid-1966, but none of the songs spilled over to the air-waves and the singles' chart.
1967 - The end of the Italian reign
One may say 1967 marked the end of the Italian music dominance in Brazil. Roberto Carlos and Brazilian-rock were on top for two consecutive years. The Anglo-American pop surge was just waiting in the wings. That's not to say Italian music vanished altogether but Italians never had the massive presence in the Brazilian charts as they achieved in 1964 and 1965.
Still, in the first part of 1967, The Rokes placed 'Piangi con me' at #5. The British band who had made Italy their home and Italian their language finally broke through with a song that had been a B-side to 'Che colpa abbiamo noi?' in the Italian summer of 1966.
It would take a tragic suicide to put an end to the string of hits Italians placed in Brazil since mid-1963 with 'Al di là'.
Italian 'cantautore' (song-writer-singer) Luigi Tenco shot himself in the head on Friday, 27 January 1967, as a protest against a panel of music judges at Festival di San Remo for having rejected his seminal 'Ciao amore ciao'. Even though it happened in far-away Italy Tenco's suicide had some repercution in the Brazilian media after his bleak 'anthem to nihilism' was released as a single by RCA. DJs and radio people would play the single and comment about his pointless death. That made 'Ciao amore ciao' go up to #3 in the charts making it the last time an Italian song would reach the Top 5 position in a long time.
Even though Rita Pavone had been absent from Brazilian minds for two years, since I started buying 'Giovani' and 'Big', Pavone and other Italian acts became an active part of my everyday routine. I kept on buying those RCA compilation albums to keet up-to-date with what was happening in Italy.
I should point out that even though none of the songs entered the singles' chart, the album sold pretty well and Rita had a deserved 'come back'. But times had changed and the Anglo-American 'invasion' was just around the corner.
I should point out that barely two week after 'Rita o mosquito' opened at Cine Metrópole, on 9 July 1967, Fama Filmes released Gigliola Cinquetti's black-and-white 'Dio come ti amo' which by sheer word-of-mouth advertising turned into a huge success. The romantic yarn in which American heart-throb Mark Damon played Gigliola's romantic interest was shown in and around São Paulo and Rio for years to come. The song which had won San Remo 1966 had been completely overlooked by the Brazilian buying public but after the film release it started climbing up the charts slowly until it got to the top of the extended-play charts two years later. It stayed in the charts for almost 10 years.
In early 1968, Paris Filmes released 'Non stuzzicate la zanzara' (Não brinque com o mosquito) but it didn't get noticed. It played for only a few weeks and went into oblivion.
On 15 July 1968, Fama Filmes released 'Rita nell' West' (Rita no oeste). It fared better than 'Stuzzicate...' but it was just another spaghetti-western with a few songs thrown in. Box-office success didn't translate into chart actions and that's all she wrote.
Rita Pavone visited Brazil in April 1968 as part of her honey-moon with Teddy Reno but she was barely mentioned in the main-stream media. Brazil was under the Anglo-American spell as of 1968 onwards.
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