It was 1937

In 1937, a kilo of bread cost one lira and sixty centimes, an overcoat approximately 400 lire, a litre of gasoline six lire. The top international star of the day was Al Jolson, who, wearing blackface, was all the rage in movies and Broadway theatres. In Italy, on the other hand, the public idolized Carlo Buti. He had established himself a few years previously with his Tuscan verses: His Bambina innamorata was probably the song most sung that year. In 1937, in Italian farmyards (and elsewhere) they were already dancing to Secondo Casadei and one of the most important Italian labels, “Disco grammofono”, had put his orchestra under contract to record dozens of 78s. Meme Bianchi enchanted audiences at the microphone of the EIAR singing most of the big hits of that period. In 1937, in particular, songs like Torna piccina and Vivere were released, both by Bixio, Tornerai, Non dimenticar le mie parole, and thanks to the big screen whose undisputed idle was Vittorio De Sica, Tu che mi fai piangere. But there were also the big American productions. Many of these provided Italian lyricists with the raw material to package hits like Settembre sotto la pioggia or San Francisco. We close by mentioning two geniuses of that period, Rodolfo de Angelis and Nunzio Filogamo, also protagonists of some of the songs released in 1937, and still in the collective memory of audiences.