Nino Rota

Speak Softly Love (Parla più piano)

Italian composer Nino Rota (NEE-noh ROH-tah, 1911-1979) wrote plenty of music for the stage and concert hall, but he is best known for his numerous film scores, especially those composed for Federico Fellini (1920-1993), and for Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films. The “Love Theme” from the original The Godfather (1972) was purely instrumental in the movie—but it appears that in the early seventies there was an unwritten rule that movie tunes would become instant hits if Andy Williams sang them (apparently he was the Celine Dion of his generation), so lyrics by Larry Kusic were added to Rota’s music and the song was released the same year, as Speak Softly Love — and of course it became a big hit for Andy! In The Godfather Part III (1990) the sung version finally made its film debut, only in Italian (Parla più piano).

--November 18, 2007 (Bella Voce Cabaret)