Patty Pravo

Patty Pravo

Patty Pravo in concert in September 2010
Background information
Birth name Nicoletta Strambelli
Born (1948-04-09) 9 April 1948
Venice, Italy
Origin Italy
Genres Pop, pop rock, chanson
Occupation(s) Singer
Instruments Piano
Years active 1966–present
Labels RCA Italiana, Philips, Compagnia Generale del Disco, Fonit Cetra, Sony Music Entertainment, Carosello, Warner Music Group
Website http://www.pattypravoweb.com/

Patty Pravo (born 9 April 1948; Nicoletta Strambelli) is an Italian singer. She debuted in 1966 and remained most successful commercially for the rest of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Having suffered a decline in popularity in the next decade,[1] she experienced a career revival in the mid-1990s and reinstated her position in Italian music charts. Her most popular songs include "La bambola" (1968), "Pazza idea" (1973), "Pensiero stupendo" (1978) and "...e dimmi che non vuoi morire" (1997). She has scored fourteen top 10 albums (including three number ones) and fourteen top 10 singles (including two number ones) in her native Italy. Pravo has participated in Sanremo Music Festival nine times, most recently in 2016, and have won three critics' awards at the festival. She has also performed twelve times at Festivalbar. Patty Pravo is reportedly the third best-selling Italian artist of all time, after Mina and Adriano Celentano, having sold more than 110 million records as of 2014.[2]

Biography

Strambelli studied at the conservatory institute of Benedetto Marcello and was acquainted with American poet Ezra Pound and the Pope John XXIII.[1] At the age of fifteen she left home to live in London and then Rome, where she began her career singing in the Piper Club.[3]

In 1966, Pravo released her first single, "Ragazzo triste" (English: "Sad Boy"), the Italian version of the song "But You're Mine" by Sonny & Cher. It was met with chart success and would later become the first pop song broadcast on Vatican Radio.[4] "Ragazzo triste" was followed by other popular singles in 1967, "Sto con te" ("I'm with You") and "Se perdo te" ("If I Lose You"), the latter written by English songwriter Paul Korda. In 1968, Pravo released what would become her most popular single and a number 1 hit, "La bambola" ("The Doll"), as well as her debut LP, Patty Pravo. The album topped the Italian albums chart and "La bambola" was awarded a gold disc.[5]

In following years, the singer released other successful top 10 singles: "Gli occhi dell'amore" ("The Eyes of Love") and "Tripoli 1969", both released in 1968, "Il paradiso" ("Paradise", 1969), written by Lucio Battisti and performed at Festivalbar, and "La spada nel cuore" ("A Sword in the Heart", 1970), performed in duet with Little Tony, which came fifth at Sanremo Music Festival.[6] Her albums Concerto per Patty (1969) and another LP simply titled Patty Pravo (1970) were all commercially successful and reached the top 10. In 1971, Pravo departed from RCA Records and went on to record three albums for Philips, which presented more complex, less-accessible sound, beginning with Di vero in fondo (To the Truth Inside, 1971). In 1972, Pravo married Italian designer Franco Baldieri, but they soon separated.[7]

In 1973, Pravo reunited with her previous label RCA and released what would become one of the biggest hits of her career, the number 1 single "Pazza idea" ("Crazy Idea"). The song's parent album, also titled Pazza idea, peaked at the top of the Italian albums chart. It was followed by another chart-topping LP, Mai una signora (Never a Lady, 1974) which spawned a popular single "Come un Pierrot" ("Like a Pierrot") and the Festivalbar song "Quale signora" ("Which Lady"). Albums Incontro (The Meeting) and Tanto (So Much), released in 1975 and 1976, respectively, both placed within the top 10 and included successful singles of the same names. Tanto was a collaboration with Vangelis, who arranged and played keyboard on the album.[8][9]

In 1978, alongside Amanda Lear and Grace Jones, Pravo appeared in a controversial[10] Italian TV show, Stryx, where she performed a song in each episode. Songs from Stryx would appear on her next album, Miss Italia, which also included "Pensiero stupendo" ("Wonderful Thought"), a track that turned out one of her most successful and highest-charting singles to date (#2 in Italy). In 1979, the singer had another top 20 hit with "Autostop" from her LP Munich Album.

The singer moved to the USA at the beginning of the 1980s, what was prompted by the hostility of the Italian press towards her.[11] She posed nude for the Italian edition of Playboy in 1980[12] and married American guitarist John Edward Johnson in 1982.[13] Her next record, Cerchi (Circles), was one of her lowest-charting albums to date, but the 1984 single "Per una bambola" ("For a Doll") was a modest chart success and won the critics' award at Sanremo Festival.[6] Nonetheless, subsequent albums failed to match the success of their predecessors from the previous decade, and for the rest of the 1980s Pravo struggled to score another hit release. In 1987, she again took part in Sanremo Festival, this time with the song "Pigramente signora" ("Lazy Lady"). However, the singer was accused of plagiarism of the song "To the Morning" by Dan Fogelberg,[14] and the track was unsuccessful at the festival.[6] The controversy led to the cancellation of her new contract with Virgin Records. Her 1989 album Oltre l'Eden... (More Than Eden...) met with positive critical reception,[15] but was not a chart success. The title track took part in the song contest at Festivalbar. In 1990, Pravo was to perform the song "Donna con te" ("The Woman with You") at Sanremo, but shortly before the event, she refused to sing it over its lyrics. The song was then given to Anna Oxa to perform at the festival.[16] In the same year, Pravo released an album of re-recordings of her classic hits.

In 1992, Pravo was arrested for possessing hashish, but was released after only 3 days.[17] In 1994, the singer traveled to China, where she would make history as the first Italian artist to perform in that country.[18] Chinese music and culture provided inspiration for her next album, Ideogrammi, entirely produced in China.[19] In 1995, Pravo returned to Sanremo with the song "I giorni dell'armonia" ("Days of Harmony"), which was met with lukewarm reception at the festival,[6] but peaked within top 20 in Italy.

The singer celebrated the 30th anniversary of her musical debut in 1996, embarking on a greatest hits tour, and in 1997 once again performed at Sanremo Festival. This time around it was a triumph, and her song "...e dimmi che non vuoi morire" ("...and Tell Me You Don't Want to Die") won the critics' award and came 8th in the general voting competition.[6] The single was a big chart success, peaking at number 2 in Italy (her highest-charting song since the 1970s), and her first live album Bye Bye Patty charted in the top 5 as well. On her next studio album, Notti, guai e libertà (Nights, Trouble and Freedom), Pravo worked with some renowned Italian songwriters, including Ivano Fossati, Franco Battiato and Lucio Dalla. The album was another commercial success (her first top 10 album in two decades), and was followed by a tour. The songs "Les etrangers" and "Strada per un'altra città" were performed at Festivalbar.

Her next album, Una donna da sognare (2000), peaked at no. 6, thus becoming one of her highest-charting albums ever, and the title song became a hit single. Released in 2002, Radio Station also charted within the top 10, and the first single, "L'immenso", was Patty's return to Sanremo Festival, where the song took the 16th place.[6] The singer embarked on a tour and collected a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Her 2004 album, Nic-Unic, was a collaboration with young songwriters and presented an innovative, avant garde sound, with most songs co-written by Patty Pravo herself. The single "Che uomo sei" ("What Kind of Man Are You") was a chart success. In 2007, she released the album Spero che ti piaccia... Pour toi (I Hope You Like It... For You), a homage to Dalida, with a selection of her songs performed in French, Italian and Arabic. Later in the year, Pravo released an autobiography Bla, bla, bla....

To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of her hit "La bambola", the singer released a new version of the song, "La bambola 2008". She embarked on another tour, what would result in a successful double live album Live Arena di Verona – Sold Out, recorded at Verona Arena. She took part in Sanremo Festival with the song "E io verrò un giorno là" ("And I'll Be There One Day") in 2009, without much success,[6] and in 2011, performed "Il vento e le rose" ("The Wind and Roses"), but the song was eliminated from the contest.[20] 2011 saw the release of her new album, Nella terra dei pinguini (In the Land of the Penguins), which charted within Italian top 20. In 2012, she released the single "Com'è bello far l'amore" ("How Nice It Is to Make Love") from Fausto Brizzi's film of the same name, and the song went on to win an Italian Golden Globe".[21] Pravo performed the song "Cieli immensi" ("Immense Skies") at Sanremo 2016, placing at the 6th spot and winning her third critics' award at the festival. The song was a top 20 hit in Italy and the accompanying album, Eccomi (Here I Am), debuted and peaked at #6.[22]

Discography

Studio albums

Year Title ITA
[23][24][25]
1968 Patty Pravo 1
1969 Concerto per Patty 5
1970 Patty Pravo 7
1971 Bravo Pravo 12
Di vero in fondo 7
Per aver visto un uomo piangere e soffrire Dio si trasformò in musica e poesia 17
1972 Sì... incoerenza 12
1973 Pazza idea 1
1974 Mai una signora 1
1975 Incontro 4
1976 Tanto 9
Patty Pravo
1978 Miss Italia 8
1979 Munich Album 22
1982 Cerchi 24
1984 Occulte persuasioni
1989 Oltre l'Eden...
1990 Pazza idea eccetera eccetera...
1994 Ideogrammi
1998 Notti, guai e libertà 7
2000 Una donna da sognare 6
2002 Radio Station 9
2004 Nic-Unic 14
2007 Spero che ti piaccia... Pour toi 46
2011 Nella terra dei pinguini 15
2016 Eccomi 6

Live albums

Year Title ITA
[23][24][25]
1997 Bye Bye Patty 5
2001 Patty Live 99 26
2009 Live Arena di Verona – Sold Out 14

Compilation albums

Year Title ITA
[23][24][25]
1971 Tutti i successi di Patty Pravo
1973 Canzone degli amanti
Poema degli occhi
Valsinha
1976 La magia di Patty Pravo
1977 I successi di Patty Pravo
Le più belle canzoni di Patty Pravo
1979 Momenti stupendi
1980 Emozioni
Patty Pravo
1982 Hit Parade International
Hit Parade International
1984 Questione di cuore
Pazza idea
1985 L'album di Patty Pravo
1987 Per una bambola
Sentimento
Pigramente signora
1990 I grandi successi di Patty Pravo
1993 I grandi successi
1994 I successi di Patty Pravo
1995 Pensiero stupendo
Pensieri stupendi
1996 Superbest
1997 Divina
I capolavori
Il paradiso
Grande Patty
1998 Non ti bastavo più
Gli anni 70
Aristocratica
Le più belle canzoni di Patty Pravo
Patty Pravo
A modo mio e altri successi
1999 I miti musica
2000 Patty Pravo (3 CD box)
Le canzoni d'amore
Patty Pravo – Super Stars
I grandi successi originali – Flashback
2001 I mitici 45
2002 100% Patty 47
Pravo (3 CD box)
2003 La signore della canzone
2004 Anni '70
2005 Canzoni stupende 32
Le più belle canzoni di Patty Pravo
2006 Superissimi Patty Pravo – Gli eroi del juke box
2007 I grandi successi (3 CD box)
Patty Pravo 43
2008 Patty Pravo
A modo mio
The Essential
Amanti
2009 Il meglio di Patty Pravo 87
Gli album originali (6 CD box)
The Universal Music Collection (4 CD box)
Collections
La mia musica
2013 Meravigliosamente Patty 30

Singles

Year Title ITA
[24][25][26]
GER
[27][28]
NLD
[29]
Album
1966 "Ragazzo triste"/"The Pied Piper" 13 Patty Pravo (1968 album)
1967 "Sto con te"/"Qui e là" 39
"Se perdo te"/"Lettera a Gianni" 18
1968 "La bambola"/"Se c'è l'amore" 1 35 11
"Gli occhi dell'amore"/"Sentimento" 2 Tutti i successi di Patty Pravo
"Tripoli 1969"/"Lasciatemi amare chi voglio" 4 Concerto per Patty
1969 "Il paradiso"/"Scende la notte sale la luna" 8
"Concerto per Patty" 18
"Nel giardino dell'amore"/"Ballerina ballerina" 16 Tutti i successi di Patty Pravo
1970 "La spada nel cuore"/"Roma è una prigione" 5
"Per te"/"Il mio fiore nero" 11 Patty Pravo (1970 album)
"La solitudine"/"1941" (with Robert Charlebois) 27
"Non andare via"/"Un poco di pioggia" 13 Bravo Pravo
"Tutt'al più"/"Chissà come finirò" 4
1971 "Love Story"/"Di vero in fondo" 13 Di vero in fondo
"Non ti bastavo più" 6 N/A
1972 "Io" Sì... incoerenza
1973 "Pazza idea"/"Morire tra le viole" 1 17 Pazza idea
1974 "Come un Pierrot"/"La valigia blu" 9 Mai una signora
1975 "Incontro"/"Mercato dei fiori" 6 Incontro
1976 "Tanto"/"Io ti venderei" 22 Tanto
"Grand Hotel" 45 Patty Pravo (1976 album)
1977 "Tutto il mondo è casa mia" 3 N/A
1978 "Pensiero stupendo" 2 Miss Italia
1979 "Sentirti"/"Notti bianche"
"Autostop"/"New York" 13 Munich Album
1984 "Per una bambola" 17 Occulte persuasioni
1985 "Menù" 22 Per una bambola
1987 "Pigramente signora" 24 Pigramente signora
"Contatto" 34
1995 "I giorni dell'armonia" 12 N/A
1997 "...e dimmi che non vuoi morire" 2 Bye Bye Patty
"Pensiero stupendo '97" 5
1998 "Les étrangers" Notti, guai e libertà
"Strada per un'altra città"
"Emma Bovary"
1999 "Angelus"
2000 "Una donna da sognare" 11 Una donna da sognare
"Una mattina d'estate"
"Se chiudi gli occhi"
2002 "L'immenso" 25 Radio Station
"Noi di là (Lagoinha)" 32
2004 "Che uomo sei" 13 Nic-Unic
2008 "La bambola 2008" N/A
2009 "E io verrò un giorno là" 20 Live Arena di Verona – Sold Out
2011 "Unisono" Nella terra dei pinguini
"Il vento e le rose"
"La vita è qui"
2012 "Com'è bello far l'amore" Com'è bello far l'amore (soundtrack)
"La luna" Meravigliosamente Patty
2013 "Non mi interessa" (with Ermal Meta) N/A
2016 "Cieli immensi" 16 Eccomi
"Per difenderti da me"

References

  1. 1 2 Aurelio Pasini. "Patty Pravo | Biography & History | AllMusic". www.allmusic.com. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  2. Paolo Ferrari (25 February 2014). "Pensiero stupendo, Patty Pravo in concerto in un club". La Stampa (in Italian). www.lastampa.it. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  3. Salvatori Dario (9 April 1998). "Non e' stata solo Piper la Roma di Patty Pravo" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  4. Maurizio Targa. "Hit Parade Italia - Canzoni censurate" (in Italian). www.hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  5. Joseph Murrells (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London, UK: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p. 246. ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Patty Pravo Festival di Sanremo 2006 - Festivaldisanremo.com - Il sito Indipendente sul Festival di Sanremo" (in Italian). www.festivaldisanremo.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. "Perchè Patty Pravo ha sposato un amico dell'astrologo Waldner". Qui giovani (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. 17 February 1972. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  8. "Patty Pravo - Tanto". www.vangelismovements.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  9. "Vangelis Collector - Music - Patty Pravo". www.vangeliscollector.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  10. "Enzo Trapani – Stryx (1978) – C'era una volta la tv 2 | Sisohpromatem (Marco Vignolo Gargini)" (in Italian). marteau7927.wordpress.com. 2011-06-17. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  11. "Perchè Patty è fuggita...". Cioè (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. 1981. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  12. "Provaci ancora Pravo!". Playboy (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. September 1980. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  13. "Patty Pravo: dopo i fischi italiani un marito americano". La Domenica del Corriere (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. 18 September 1982. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  14. "Festival di Sanremo -L'Anno 1987" (in Italian). www.festival.vivasanremo.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  15. Patty Pravo; Massimo Cotto (2007). Bla, bla, bla... Milan, Italy: Mondadori. p. 125. ISBN 978-88-04-57015-8.
  16. Lello Garinei (5 March 1990). "Io non canto pornocanzoni: ci pensi la Oxa". Visto (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  17. Raffaela Carretta; Giulia Cerasoli (10 June 1992). "Due milioni di italiani fumano hashish. Finiranno... tutti in carcere?". Epoca (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  18. Patty Pravo; Massimo Cotto (2007). Bla, bla, bla... Milan, Italy: Mondadori. p. 117. ISBN 978-88-04-57015-8.
  19. "La Cina è vicina!". Tutto (in Italian). www.pattypravo.net. October 1994. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  20. Giorgia Iovane (17 February 2011). "Sanremo 2011, Al Bano e Patty Pravo eliminati alla seconda serata" (in Italian). www.televisionando.it. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  21. Giancarlo Passarella (5 July 2012). "Mistero stupendo, nasce un poco strisciando: ma c'era Patty Pravo a ritirare il suo Globo d'Oro?" (in Italian). www.musicalnews.com. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  22. "FIMI - Classifiche - FIMI" (in Italian). www.fimi.it. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  23. 1 2 3 "Top Annuali Album" (in Italian). www.hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  24. 1 2 3 4 "Patty Pravo – Una donna da sognare". italiancharts.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  25. 1 2 3 4 "Patty Pravo – Music Charts". acharts.us. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  26. "Indice per Interprete: P" (in Italian). www.hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  27. "Suche - Offizielle Deutsche Charts" (in German). www.offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
  28. "Charts-Surfer: Liedsuche" (in German). www.charts-surfer.de. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  29. "Discografie Patty Pravo" (in Dutch). dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
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