Wednesday, July 6, 2011

"Rome, Italian Style" Track of the Day: Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, "More [Theme from Mondo Cane]"

I'm looking forward to the release of Mondo Caine, a bunch of horrible pre-opening credits David Caruso puns from CSI: Miami that are spliced together into a feature-length movie.
Song: "More [Theme from Mondo Cane]" by Frank Sinatra and Count Basie
Released: 1964
Why's it part of the "Rome, Italian Style" playlist?: It's my favorite version of "Ti guarderĂ² nel cuore," a theme Riz Ortolani wrote for the score to the 1962 Italian movie Mondo Cane (the movie's title is Italian for "Dog World," so I guess that means "Doggy Dogg World" would be "Mondo Caney Cane"). Mondo Cane is an example of what was known as the "exploitation documentary" genre, which had documentarians capturing shocking and appalling behavior that later turned out to have been staged for the camera. Today, we call that Jersey Shore.

The most famous thing to come out of Mondo Cane is "Ti guarderĂ² nel cuore." Lyrics were added to the instrumental, the tune was retitled "More" and the rest is history.

Plus, this cover of "More" has Sinatra together with Basie, with Quincy Jones as conductor and arranger. That's like the '60s big-band equivalent of Phil Jackson coaching Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. (So who'd be Dennis Rodman? Basie's drummer Sonny Payne?)

Tomorrow's "Rome, Italian Style" Track of the Day is another film music cover by Basie.

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