Who Are These Composers~ Sergio Bardotti

Sergio Bardotti was born in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy on February 14, 1939. He was an Italian composer and songwriter, and one of the major authors of light music and songs of the 1960s.

Sergio Bardotti graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at the University of Pavia where he was a pupil at the Ghislieri College from 1957 to 1961. He started as a songwriter after obtaining a contract with Carisch Publishing in 1961 with two 45s under the pseudonym Sergio Duties, which go unnoticed; The following year he participated in the Six Days of the Song with The Dimensions, but does not get to the finals.

He then began collaborating with RCA Italiana as a producer and author of texts. However, the first work he deals with is not related to music but to literature, as he published a collection of poetry books read by authors (among which are Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Salvatore Quasimodo, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alfonso Gatto ).

He then works with emerging talents like Rita Pavone and in 1963, so wrote “Datemi un martelloto”, a cover of Pete Seeger's song “If I Had a Hammer”.

In 1966 he became the artistic director of the ARC sub-label, specializing in discovering and launching new talents: Lucio Dalla, The Rokes, Mal & The Primitives, Dino, Ricky Shayne and many more.

Subsequently, with the transformation of the record market in the seventies he became an early supporter of the idea of the concept album.

For film, he also worked with Bacalov with various soundtracks, including those of the films “The Tenth Victim” (1965, with Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress ), the comedy “The Fate” (1966), “Ricatto alla Mala” (1972, with Olivia Hussey and Raf Vallone), “The Last Spring Snow” (1973, with Bekim Fehmiu, Agostina Belli and Renato Cestie ).

Bardotti had also been an author and television producer since the 1980s, participating in the writing of various editions of ‘Domenica In’. For Raiuno he collaborated between 1986 and 1990 on ‘Fantastico’, on ‘Sunday’ in 1991 and in 2000, and on the broadcast of ‘Evening Awards’ and ‘One Hundred’ (with Gianni Morandi, 1989), ‘Number One’, ‘Concert for the Pope’ (1998) ‘New Year's Day-The Angels Night’ on Raiuno (1998 and 1999 ), ‘Sanremo Summer’ and ‘Pavarotti International’ ( 2001 ).

For the theater Bardotti worked with Luis Bacalov on a musical comedy for children, “The Musicians”, which was very popular in Latin America under the title “Os saltimbancos” which was brought to the screen in two films.

Sergio Bardotti died of a heart attack on April 11, 2007 in Rome, Italy

In November 2008, a double tribute album was released called “Bardoci” (“Bardotti” in Brazil, the country where the author was most loved) made by the Tenco Club and with the participation of artists like Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Max Manfredi, Joan Manuel Serrat, Ornella Vanoni, Elisabetta Prodon, Massimo Ranieri, Fiorello, Sergio Cammariere, Simone Cristicchi, Luca Faggella, Vittorio De Scalzi, Teresa De Sio and many others. In May 2010, the book Eyes of Boy was published.

BARDOTTI, Sergio (aka Sergio Duties) [2/14/1939, Pavia, Lombardy, Italy – 4/11/2007, Rome, Lazio, Italy (heart attack)] – writer, composer, songwriter.

The Grand Duel* – 1972 (co)

It Can Be Done Amigo* – 1972

[*Score is available on CD]