Nico Fidenco

Prolific singer, songwriter and composer Nico Fidenco was born in Rome as Domenico Colarossi on January 24, 1933. Signed to RCA in Rome in 1960, he had his first major hit as a singer with Legata ad un granello di sabbia. This became the first single to sell over a million copies in Italy. Soon after, Fidenco's beautiful rendition of Su nel cielo was chosen by the director Francesco Maselli for the soundtrack of his film Silver Spoon Set (1960). From then on, Fidenco followed in the footsteps of balladeer/cantautore Peppino Di Capri by recording in both English and Italian. Many of these recordings were covers of songs that featured prominently as motion picture themes, such as Exodus or Moon River (from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Though he never registered a win at the prestigious San Remo music festival, Fidenco nonetheless turned an impressive number of superb ballads. He reached the peak of his popularity and ranking high in the charts by the mid-60's with iconic songs like Goccia di mare, A casa d'Irene, Celestina, Come nasce un amore and Non è Vero. By 1966, Fidenco had turned his attention to writing a plethora of scores for genre movies, ranging from spaghetti westerns (The Texican (1966), Dynamite Jim (1966), etc.) to horror (Zombie Holocaust (1980)), Japanese anime and sexploitation (notably, the Emanuelle series). His warm, melodious voice was still occasionally featured, as in the title song, La ballata del treno, for the western Bandidos. Along with Jimmy Fontana, Riccardo Del Turco and Gianni Meccia, Fidenco co-founded a nostalgic vocal quartet (Super Quattro) in 1984, giving live performances (and releasing a trio of albums) of their respective 60's hits, updated with modern arrangements. The group disbanded in 1994. Fidenco himself retired in 2014 but his distinctive - very evocatively 1960s -- music can still be heard in films like Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019). Fidenco was married to the actress Anna Maria Surdo from 1969 until his death in November 2022.