Pooh
Hurricane

LA RECENSIONE

Excluding the individual tracks sung in foreign languages by our artists since the '60s, the idea of albums designed to break into certain foreign markets (not all), such as the English-speaking one, has occurred to only a few.

Lucio Battisti was the first to try with 'Images' (1977), a total failure; three years later the Pooh tried with 'Hurricane', with better luck but not in America nor in other English-speaking countries.

'Hurricane' is the choice of some tracks from '76 to '78 rearranged for American market tastes, but more or less in line with the originals (more powerful and robust is the American version of 'Rotolando respirando' ['Hurricane'] and more engaging is the one of 'Pronto, buongiorno è la sveglia' ['Ready Get Up And Good Morning']): the result in the arrangements is music better than the originals, while the pronunciation is... typically Italian, though better than the 'provincial' Battisti who sounds 'awkward.'

Nevertheless, three excellent tracks out of 9: besides those previously mentioned, 'Your Love' ('Che ne fai di te') and, especially, 'A Million Miles From Nowhere' ('La città degli altri') - the lyrics and singing are stunning.

(Forgettable is 'Give Me Only This Moment' ['Dammi solo un minuto']).

To find Italian artists capable of singing with good English pronunciation, apart from Ivana Spagna and her '80s Dance ('Easy Lady'), we had to wait until the '90s: I'm not talking about Elisa who started with 'Flowers', but others who perhaps didn't record albums but, in TV programs and beyond, reinterpreted English songs sounding, at the very least, close to the real 'English' artists.