Zucchero
The Best of Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari's - Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

How cool to have the opportunity to review... It makes me feel very much like Gianni Minà... I hope I don't utter too many "sch's". Alright, enough joking and beating around the bush, now I'll start, and I'll do it seriously.

The Best Of Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari's - Greatest Hits (1986) contains, in my opinion, the most beautiful songs he has written and sung. He collaborated with authors such as Salerno, Paoli, De Gregori. Released worldwide in both Italian and English versions, the album features a collection of 16 historic songs by the artist and 3 unreleased tracks: Menta e rosmarino, Eppur non t'amo, Niente da perdere.
Anyway, in my opinion, the most beautiful ones are (and have always been!): Donne, Il volo, Diamante (which I prefer in Italian), Menta e rosmarino.

Adelmo has the ability to transform his emotions and experiences into lyrics and sounds that often make the listener's soul vibrate. How can one not recognize the suffering, solitude, and fear of separation from his wife Angela... How I would love to make my man feel the same things that Sugar so well interprets in "Il volo"... Closing my eyes, I feel dizzy because my spirit soars high in the sky, and sometimes I delude myself that at my side, holding my hand is "Uncle" Adelmo... Sigh! How wonderful that would be!
Not that the artist in question is as unapproachable as many stars, and he could surely afford that! When he is in Italy, he can often be met strolling in a small village in Lunigiana (which he renamed Lunisiana Soul), Pontremoli... Or in Roncocesi, the small village in the lower Emilia region where he was born, and where he often returns to meet with his loved ones. And all of this makes him feel close to us... very close, and I like that.

After so many years knowing him, and not just musically, I feel like I have managed to create a really special relationship with him, definitely an internal one, that makes him feel close to me and that, unfortunately, I no longer feel as much listening to some of his latest tracks: too much soul, too much blues...
Where has his "Emilianity" gone that made us recognize him as a "brother"...?
Perhaps this is the price of popularity. When you enter the "Business" gear of "Selling at all costs", maybe you lose something along the way... Surely one thing he will never do is sell his soul (even if very "blue" so much so as to call his son Adelmo jr. Blue...).

Returning to the CD in question, The Best Of Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari's - Greatest Hits, I believe that the author has given his best and that we will hardly (although I really hope not) be able to find in other songs. So much so that the same songs can be found in other more recently published editions.

Well, that's it. I dedicate this DE-Review to Bambulè and Lauro.