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Comment by emmelaich | Hacker News Reader

(off topic ..)

Can someone help me find this?

There is a black and white music video of an Italian girl singing an American folk/pop song -- I think it is "If I had a hammer". Maybe from the 1960s or 50s.

It's bit faster than the usual version plus the girl looks pretty threatening - like she's carrying a knife and not afraid to use it.

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It's Rita Pavone and she's holding a hammer while singing :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGIXrziSLCQ the video says 1964

Thank you!

Random hint if you like this stuff: https://youtu.be/OEVYhqnHF1E

Yikes. Twisters were scary folk.

Btw, the Italian title says "give me a hammer".

For the record, Rita Pavone had a massive success with that song. The translation removed all the original socialist themes, and ended up being a perfect fit for her image: a grumpy, androgynous teenager ready to explode. She was a prototype of rebellious female adolescent, with short hair and an angry mouth, which was fairly scandalous on Italian media at the time. She often played opposite to Gianni Morandi, who was at the other end of the spectrum - the spotless good-hearted kid that every mother would want.

My Italian parents were slightly incredulous when I found out about the actual origins of “If I had a hammer”. For them it was just a fun and unthreatening mainstream hit they used to dance to, and had never heard the original.

That's her, (name) Rita, (surname) Pavone. (Song name) Datemi un martello (Give me a hammer). She's holding an actual hammer. https://youtu.be/lGIXrziSLCQ

She's been quite popular, perhaps as much as Adriano Celentano (the one mentioned in this article link) who's been and still is very popular in Italy both as an artist and as a (political) thinker.

It's a pity that Celentano is nowhere near to his 60s hits, for either style or innovation... it's more run of the mill adult pop.

Man, Celentano is literally 80. Do you really want to see him dance?

No, retire. :-)

For those interested in listening to Italian music I’d add Mina to the list, of course, Ornella Vanoni, Mia Martini (whom I’ve discovered only recently, this song where she sings along with Vanoni is pure musical joy: https://youtu.be/TjMUPdnNjsw) and last but especially not least Luigi Tenco (if you google his name you’ll find quite an interesting life-story, and his lyrics for “Ciao amore” resonate to an almost middle-aged guy like me even today, 50+ years after they’ve been written, as for the first time in my life I’m seriously thinking about immigrating). There was a time (from the ‘60s up to the early ‘90s) when Italian music was ruling over much of Europe (just go to an Adriano Celentano YT video and you can see fan comments written in Russian, German, Spanish etc), it was glorious.

I wouldn’t say it “ruled”, but there was a presence. It went both ways: Italian music would routinely adapt and translate songs from other countries, something pretty rare these days.

Some Italian acts are still massively popular outside the country: Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti... but the industry currently focuses more on the Spanish and SouthAmerican markets.

Over here in Eastern Europe it kind of did rule, along with French music. I mean, as a kid of the ‘80s I knew lots and lots of Italian and French singers (and actors), while I had only heard about Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elvis and The Beatles from the Anglo-Saxon countries. France and Italy had many steps ahead in terms of “soft power” and “mass culture dominance” in the ‘70s and the ‘80s, but they somehow have failed to capitalize on it and we are all now under US cultural dominance, with some British undertones (not that there’s anything wrong with that, just stating the facts). There are some “return of these repressed” French and Italian cultural presences here and there in nowadays mainstream mass culture (with Tarantino and his love for Italian movies of that era being the best example) but otherwise we’re living in a mono-cultural world, of which this article is a prime example (they had to explain to its readers who Celentano is, for instance).

The “failure to capitalize” in Italy was due to huge economic pressure on public finances in the late ‘80s, that wiped any surplus (which cultural industries need, in order to thrive) and fostered a mindset where “culture doesn’t pay”. Liberalisation of the tv sector also opened the doors to a flood of cheap imports from US, UK and Japan.

And some times go the other way the standard "I who have nothing" is the English version of "Uno Dei Tanti"

When I read the OP, since it was talking about the fascination of Italians with American culture at the time, I was surprised it didn't include a bit about the barrage of Italian covers of English/American songs from the time.

For example, besides the song you were looking for, Celentano himself did a cover for Stand by Me (Pregherò), which is a really weird Christian-themed take on the original.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer

There's a french version (big hit back in the days) by Claude François: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7nrcb3oGkc

maybe this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6PpPqbR4YU ?

Yes, same as the other two but this is the best quality.

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