The rock ‘n roll singer known as Little Tony, widely regarded as the Italian equivalent of Elvis Presley, passed away yesterday.
Born in 1941, Little Tony had a few hits in the UK in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the lead singer of Little Tony & His Brothers. He then returned to Italy where he pursued a successful career as a singer and actor.
Technically, Little Tony, whose real name was Antonio Ciacci, was not actually Italian because he was born in the independent republic of San Marino. San Marino sits majestically on a hill near not far off Italy’s Adriatic coast on the borders of the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Le Marche.
Anyway, despite not being a 100% Italian, Little Tony did very well on the Italian music scene in the 60s and later.
Though the tracks you are about to hear were sung in Italian, as you will hear, his sound is very much Elvis Presley style rock and roll.
This was Little Tony’s first number 1 in Italy:
Il ragazzo col ciuffo – The Guy with a Quiff – 1962
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCyq3HyQAWQ[/youtube]
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
You can see Italy’s teddy boys and girls bopping on down to this track now!
Here’s another Little Tony and His Brothers track from 1960:
Che tipo rock
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTQtyvLzifk[/youtube]
This was another big Little Tony hit in Italy:
Bada Bambina,1969
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Va29OspSc[/youtube]
In 1975, Little Tony made an Elvis Presley tribute album called Tony canta Elvis – Tony sings Elvis.
Although he suffered a heart attack in 2006, Little Tony more or less rocked and rolled away until he succumbed to lung cancer yesterday at the age of 72.
Ciao Little Tony! RIP – Rock ‘n Roll In Peace!
