Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy 70th Birthday Pino Donaggio

Giuseppe ‘Pino’ Donaggio was born on November 24, 1941 in Burano, Italy. Coming from a family of musicians he began studying the violin at the age of 10. At the age of 14 he made his solo debut in a Vivaldi concert on Italian radio. His classical career came to an end in 1959 when he discovered rock and roll and made his singing debut with Paul Anka. He then began to write his own songs and became a prominent singer-songwriter. He took part in the 1961 Sanremo Festival with "Come sinfonia" which led to a string of successes including "Il cane di stoffa". His greatest success was with "Io che non vivo" in 1963, which sold 80 million records worldwide and was performed in English as "You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me" sung by Dusty Springfield and Elvis. Pino then began writing scores for films starting with "Don’t Look Now" a British Horror film (1973). He’s continued as a film composer working with Dario Argento and Brian DePalma. Donaggio has scored four Euro-westerns including "China 9, Liberty 37" (1978), "Oblivion" and "Backlash Oblvion 2", "Troublemakers" (all 1994) and "Il mio West" (aka "Gunslinger’ Revenge") (1998). Today we celebrate Pino Donaggio’s 70th birthday.

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