This song, along with another song of mine that I composed back in 1977 with Paola Blandi called "SE IL MIO CANTO SEI TU" and recorded a year later by Italian icon Mina, is a very important song in my career for a very simple reason: it was my first song to be recorded by another Artist (in this case, Ornella Vanoni), rather than myself and/or one of my bands when I was a teenager; bands like the Flashmen and the Quid.
Through publisher Marco Gaido at Blue Team/Warner Brothers Publishing in Milan, Italy, I had met his then wife, lyricist/DJ Paola Blandi, with whom I then started writing several songs (I wrote the music and then Paola would come in and write the Italian lyrics) such as "VOLO VIA (I Fly Away)," "SE IL MIO CANTO SEI TU (If My Canto Is You)" and later on, during the recording of Mina's Album "Attila," other songs such as "NON TORNERO' (I Won't Come Back)" and "SEI META' (You're My Half)." Even though we wrote first "SE IL MIO CANTO SEI TU (If My Canto Is You)" for Mina, the first song of ours to be recorded and released in October 1977 was "VOLO VIA (I Fly Away)" with a wonderful rendition by Ornella Vanoni, one of the Italian "classic" female voices for the last 40 years & still counting!!! along with Iva Zanicchi, Orietta Berti, Anna Oxa, Fiorella Mannoia, Loredana Bertè, Caterina Valente, Marcella Bella and Mina (top Italian Artists with whom also I had the honor to work). So Paola and I can arguably say that this was our first cut & "got our feet wet" as songwriters!!!!
I still remember Marco Gaido calling me all excited and telling me that Sergio Bardotti, the then producer of Ornella Vanoni for Fonit Cetra (the recording & distribution company of the Italian Government Television Network RAI), had chosen our song "VOLO VIA (I Fly Away)" as one of the selections of Mrs. Vanoni's new upcoming Album.
I also remember the very first time that I heard the rough mix at Blue Team/Warner Brothers' offices located back then in the historic Galleria del Corso 4, in Milan. Marco Gaido, his wife Paola and I must've blasted the tape that Mr. Bardotti gave us at least 30 or 40 times in a row!!!! Several secretaries and executives from the nearby offices had to come over at certain point and politely ask us to play a new song, just for the "sake of variety"!!!!
I have to say that I was very pleasantly impressed with Ornella Vanoni's performance as well as Sergio Bardotti's production of my "first-given-away-for-adoption-baby"!!!...and I think that that was partially responsible for us playing the tape over and over when we first got the rough mix!!!
When I saw the Artist though performing "VOLO VIA (I Fly Away)" on a live show on RAI Television a few month later, I had the impression that she over produced the vocal tracks, like if she was singing the song almost with too much energies & gusto. I remember Marco Gaido & Paola Blandi having the same impression (don't forget that we knew the vocal tracks from the recorded version all too well by then!!!) and when we shared our feedback with Sergio Bardotti, I still remember his answer: "Ornella always does that when she really loves a song. She kind of over-sing it because she gets emotional about the music & the lyrics, and she has a tendency to exaggerate the emphasis on words and melodic lines. When she's in a recording studio, I can contain her...but when she sings live, she's on her own and as a producer there's nothing else that I can do but tell her later on!!!"
I never had the chance to meet Ornella Vanoni but I would like to use this page on my website (created with so much love & scrupulousness by my dear friend & production manager for B&BC Productions, Ms. Elena Gavazzi) in order to thank her, even though it is 25 years later, for recognizing me the honor & the pleasure of singing one of my compositions, and if I may say so, for been so "courageous" back in 1977 to record a song written by an unknown songwriter/composer with literally "no-proven-track-record" and who never had any songs sang and/or recorded by any other major Artist before.
Love & music,
Beppe Cantarelli
Los Angeles, August 15, 2003
Beppe Cantarelli
Los Angeles, August 15, 2003