Morricone Pops is a collection of pop recordings arranged, conducted and / or composed by Ennio Morricone in the late fifties and early sixties; a fascinating period when he was establishing a reputation within Italy, just prior to the start of his collaborations with Sergio Leone that, as we know, brought international fame and provided cinema with a new musical language.
Whether these recordings were released as singles or were created to appear in film, Morricone invested the most throw-away pop with an extraordinary quality; as the numbers, some-times stylishly romantic, often amusingly playful, performed by such popular domestic artists as Barbara Baldassare, Eduardo Vianello, Catherine Spaak, Tony Del Monaco and Miranda Martino, attest.
Included here also are the two sides by the American folk singer Peter Tevis with the choir of Franco Potenza. Notte Infinita and Pastures of Plenty inspired Sergio Leone to commission his film scores from Morricone.
To Leone's ears the single suggested the way forward, provided an unconventional musical blueprint for the landscape of the spaghetti western; what his biographer Christopher Frayling described as "Duane Eddy meets Rodrigo in the middle of a crowded Via Veneto"
The other early film music assignments featured here include the arrangments provided for the Eduardo Vianello numbers in 1 Generale e 1/2, the Italian version of Danny Kaye's On the Double and songs written by Morricone for the Luciano Salace productions, La Cuccagna and Voglia Matta (Crazy Urge), the Walter Chiari comedy I Motorizzati and Camillo Mastrocinque's Diciottenni al sole (Eighteen in the Sun) that was set on Ischia.
Morricone Pops also presents Il Maestro's sensuous arrangements of Nune e peccato, S'e fatto tardi, Estate and Nessuno al mondo performed in Italian by the jazz legend Helen Merrill.

Morricone Pops is a collection of pop recordings arranged, conducted and / or composed by Ennio Morricone in the late fifties and early sixties; a fascinating period when he was establishing a reputation within Italy, just prior to the start of his collaborations with Sergio Leone that, as we know, brought international fame and provided cinema with a new musical language.
Whether these recordings were released as singles or were created to appear in film, Morricone invested the most throw-away pop with an extraordinary quality; as the numbers, some-times stylishly romantic, often amusingly playful, performed by such popular domestic artists as Barbara Baldassare, Eduardo Vianello, Catherine Spaak, Tony Del Monaco and Miranda Martino, attest.
Included here also are the two sides by the American folk singer Peter Tevis with the choir of Franco Potenza. Notte Infinita and Pastures of Plenty inspired Sergio Leone to commission his film scores from Morricone.
To Leone's ears the single suggested the way forward, provided an unconventional musical blueprint for the landscape of the spaghetti western; what his biographer Christopher Frayling described as "Duane Eddy meets Rodrigo in the middle of a crowded Via Veneto"
The other early film music assignments featured here include the arrangments provided for the Eduardo Vianello numbers in 1 Generale e 1/2, the Italian version of Danny Kaye's On the Double and songs written by Morricone for the Luciano Salace productions, La Cuccagna and Voglia Matta (Crazy Urge), the Walter Chiari comedy I Motorizzati and Camillo Mastrocinque's Diciottenni al sole (Eighteen in the Sun) that was set on Ischia.
Morricone Pops also presents Il Maestro's sensuous arrangements of Nune e peccato, S'e fatto tardi, Estate and Nessuno al mondo performed in Italian by the jazz legend Helen Merrill.