Season 399 - Bella Italia

Dang- Louis Prima is my cousin...really. Maybe I ought to play a thing. great theme! Nod from our only Sicilian (that I know) ukester

Another Bella Ciao - una canzone così bella e malinconica - I think I've done it at least twice before.



Un meraviglioso wekk Ylle!

Very interesting Season. I didn't comment on most but I thought each showed the skill of each. Made me want to practice more. Just a simpleton strummer now, but I have aspirations to get better.

MP and Crisscross were particularly nice.

I know the excitement is building for the big 400, and okay, Ralf has posted, but it's not over yet... 399.. The End of the 4th Century...

Have you heard of Vasco Rossi? Only the best known Italian rock singer ever! I couldn't butcher the Italian by trying to sing it, so it uses English approximations of what I heard...

This took longer than I thought, so likes and comments are extra appreciated.

Ogni Volta get D’giorno
Ony volya in my corn hole
Ony volta in an EL Camino
that resembles everything



Ony volta in McDonald’s p***
And then I called her
Ogni volta

Ony volta she a hay ho
Ony volta is Scot Baio
Ony suck so you know

Ony volta miss your order
Ony volta made from venison
Ony volta aint your matey
Ony volta

Ony volta is salivating
Ony volta rape your daddy
Only play quarters and then its off to Bob’s place
Ony volta is guilty
Rob you blind like you're in Chicago
Ogni volta…. Ony volta cuando?

Onyvolta came to Australia
Only know who’s got to
Ony volta… aint in fashion yet
Ony cant play piano
Ony volta owes my Mom dough
That bastard owes her dough
Took my money

Dion DiMucci king of Doo Wap

TCK said:

Dang- Louis Prima is my cousin...really. Maybe I ought to play a thing. great theme! Nod from our only Sicilian (that I know) ukester

Click to expand...

Bolognese.

And happy belated Dave. Hope you weren’t without electricity too long.

TCK said:

Dang- Louis Prima is my cousin...really. Maybe I ought to play a thing. great theme! Nod from our only Sicilian (that I know) ukester

Click to expand...

Jump, jive, and wail, Dave!

Thanks for hosting this one Ylle. Well I whacked new strings on this uke an hour ago, played the hell out of it to stretch the strings out as best I could then got this one down.

Ooops, jumped back just before season 400. Although relatively close to IT, with lots of Italian hits over the years, I took a song from Rosemary Clooney (aunt of George) who sang it first in 1954. Dean Martin covered it later.
Funny: I know the song from Italian ukelistas

an original for the season



MARIO ANDRETTI

Before the days of Ayrton Senna there was Mario Andretti.
Like two parked buses on the lounge, dad and I would chew spaghetti
over a six-pack of cold beer. The pit-stop crew let out a cheer
as on every other Sunday: Grand Prix time was here!

The bookies said name your own price for any other driver,
but if you're placing one on Mario you might need more than a fiver.
The runway girls exited the stage, the cars sputtered and gleamed
as we sat there on the couch and watched the lights turn red to green.

The engines hummed and the engines roared like a pack of wolves that howl.
Andretti left them on the grid like a jet plane leaves a town;
from pole position he disappeared like a cheque book in Majorca -
any punter worth his salt knew it was already over.

He may as well have been taking a country drive somewhere -
it was tumbleweeds and crickets, no sign of any other driver there.
By half way through the race the only contest worth a mention
was the jostling for places between daylight, third and second.

In the final straight I thought I glimpsed Andretti's twinkling eye.
As the chequered flag came down we raised our glasses, my dear old dad and I,
to Mario on the dais, spraying champagne and confetti.

It was me, my dad, a TV set, cold beer and spaghetti.
Over before it started; that much was elementary.
Before the days of Ayrton Senna there was Mario Andretti.

and perhaps the last one from me this week
thank you Ylle!



SOPHIA LOREN

Sophia, Sophia,
if I had known you then.
I remember when

I saw your pretty face in glossy magazines,
I watched you shine like gold on all those movie screens.
If I had known you in those days
I would have made 'em pay
if I had known you then.

Days they pass us by in the twinkling of an eye
and we are left to wonder how the time does fly.

Sophia, Sophia,
if I had known you then.
Oh, if I had known you then.

The Italian prog rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is one of my all-time favorite bands. This is the title song from an album they did based on the story of Ulysses (Homer, not James Joyce). One of the fun parts of doing a video of a PFM song is when an Italian viewer comments on how bad my pronunciation of Italian is. Mea culpa, mio amico.

"Cambiera" means "It will change". I think.

This is how it ended up this week:

Very pretty tune, Viking, but there's one last one (from me anyways). I shouldn't have changed the title and a couple lines... It's kinda like talking behind someone's back in front of dozens of people - anyways, not wanting my twice-yearly visit to my balcony to end, I sang a few more songs, about nothing in particular... Then I sang a Leonard Cohen song, with a feeling of guilt and 2 glasses of scotch. I recorded another one.. maybe I'll put it on the island.

Just dropping to say thanks for a fun and entertaining season Ylle. No secondo from me, solo il primo.

Season 399 is now over. Thank you all so much for playing, listening and commenting! I'll post a wrap later this week.
Let's continue with myths, legends and terrific Season 400.

Season 399 - wrap

Thank you for Season 399 - Bella Italia!

We had 55 entries from 32 Seasonistas and I enjoyed hearing and seeing your entries very much. There were many highlights. To name a few - three brilliant versions of "Bella Ciao", mountain goat's (Jon's) very special collection of originals, terrific jazz covers by mep1 (Mads). There were fine duets Pa and Cha, as well as JackLuis and Gary. Wee_ginga_yin (Rob) brought several songs from different genres and styles.

I also loved the Italian dance music by BEV (Lynda), pop, rock and other modern vibes by RAB11 (Ryan), DelGriff (Del) and Desert Pavement (Andy), prog rock by uke4ia (Jim), classic melodies by crisscross (Christian) and mythinformed (Mark), evergreens and novelty songs...

As always, selecting a winner it's not easy. But Italians know, what to do - Mamma is the most important person in the family, so I asked my mamma who was visiting. She selected AlanDP, who brought two fine songs
- Blue Moon With Heartache
- That's Amore

Congratulations, Alan! The Allegro sopranino uke from Italy will travel to Texas via Finland.

Evviva stagioni dell'ukulele! Thank you all again.

And a final video with one of my favorite Italian pop songs, with fish in Italy (Aquarium of Genoa, summer 2017) and cats in Finland (autumn 2019):

Thanks Ylle. Anyone that's got the balls to tackle a big Dino ballad deserves this fine prize, well done Alan

Thank you for hosting, Ylle, and congratulations to Alan and all those mentioned.