"Prisencolinensinainciusol" is a song composed by the Italian singer Adriano Celentano, and performed by Celentano and his wife Claudia Mori. It was released as a single in 1972. Both the name of the song and its lyrics are gibberish but are intended to sound like English in an American accent.
Background
By the 1960s, Celentano was already one of the most popular rock musicians in Italy, in large part due to his appearance at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1960 and the subsequent success of his song "24.000 baci".[1] Martina Tanga writes that his artistic persona was characterised by "loud lyrics and inelegant body movements", which differentiated him from other singers of the time.[2] Paolo Prato describes his style as "a bit of Elvis, a bit of Jerry Lewis, a bit of folk singer".[3] "Prisencolinensinainciusol" was released in 1972 and remained popular throughout the 1970s.[2]
Song
Style
"Prisencolinensinainciusol" has been described as varying music genres including Europop, house music, disco, hip hop and funk.[4][5] Celentano, however, did not have these styles in mind when writing the song.[4] He composed "Prisencolinensinainciusol" by creating a loop of four drumbeats and improvising lyrics over the top of the loop in his recording studio.[6] The song is characterised by an E flatgroove in the drum and bass guitar and riff in the horn section.[7] Between the drum loop, the looped horns, and the conversational improvisational "freestyle" flow of the lyrics and the chanting chorus, the song has many elements that predate hip hop, elements later found in hip hop in the mid 1980s and 1990s, respectively.
Lyrics and language
The song is intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent, however the lyrics are deliberately unintelligible gibberish with the exception of the words "all right".[8][9] Andrew Khan, writing in The Guardian, later described the sound as reminiscent of Bob Dylan's output from the 1980s.[9]
Celentano's intention with the song was not to create a humorous novelty song but to explore communication barriers. The intent was to demonstrate how English sounds to people who do not understand the language proficiently. "Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, because I like American slang—which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than Italian—I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything."[6]
Releases and versions
The original version of the track was released as a single on 3 November 1972, and appeared on Celentano's album Nostalrock the following year. For its UK release, the single was given the simpler title of "The Language of Love (Prisencol…)". The song appeared on the 2008 dance compilation albumPoplife Presents: Poplife Sucks.[10] Celentano later recorded a version with real Italian lyrics; this version, released on his 1994 album Quel Punto, was named "Il Seme del Rap" and served as a hip hop parody. In 2016, Celentano released a new recording of the song (with the original lyrics); this version featured the music of Benny Benassi and vocals from Mina.[citation needed]
Celentano performed the song at least twice on Italian television. In the fourth episode of the 1974 variety series Milleluci, he dances with Raffaella Carrà, who lip-syncs to Mori's vocals. In an episode of Formula Due, a TV show hosted by Loretta Goggi, the song appears in a comedy sketch in which he portrays a teacher. Video clips of both performances, both separate and edited together, began to appear on YouTube in the late 2000s. It became something of an Internet meme,[11] and in 2009 it was posted to Boing Boing,[12] and subsequently saw renewed interest in the Italian media.[13] It was the subject of a 2012 All Things Considered (NPR) segment, for which Celentano was interviewed.[14]
In 2017, a version by Tub Ring appeared in Season 3, Episode 1 of the FX television series Fargo.[15][16]
In 2018, the song was included in the soundtrack of "Lone Star", the second episode of the FX television series Trust.[17] The song was incorporated into Rush Limbaugh's radio show as one of the revolving bumper music intros, where Limbaugh asserts learning about it from his memory of details that match the TV show.[18][17]
In 2023, the song appeared in Season 3, Episode 3 of the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso over a montage of football games involving the character Zava, AFC Richmond's newest player acquisition.[19]
^Kroes, Rob (1993). Cultural Transmissions and Receptions: American Mass Culture in Europe. Austin Tex.: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. p. 147. ISBN978-90-5383-207-3.
^ abLimbaugh, Rush (7 February 2019). "Who Made Prisencolinensinainciusol Popular?". The Rush Limbaugh Show. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020. I first became aware of the song, it was a TV show, I forget the network, on the kidnapping of J. Paul Getty's grandson. And Hilary Swank is playing the mother of the kidnapped kid...
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