Drop everything and prisencolinensinainciusol

A friend recently told me about an Italian hit song from 1972, called “Prisencolinensinainciusol”, and I am obsessed. In the 1970s Italy was fascinated by all things American and Italian entertainer Adriano Celentano created a song that sounds phonetically like American English but is complete nonsense. He performs it below with his wife Claudia Mori. It is so effective that when John, Sebastian, and I watched the video we all had the same response — that it sounded so like English that our heads hurt because we were straining so hard to understand lyrics that were just out of reach. That if we just listened a little bit harder it would all become intelligible. It’s that good, and the video version is oh so fabulously 1970s entertaining. I think you should do yourself a favor and watch it. NOW.

The song not only reached #1 in Italy, but also in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I’ve cornered several village friends to listen to it now and in my small sample of Italians and a Belgian all remember it fondly. The Italians could sing it from memory. Although “Prisencolinensinainciusol” is complete nonsense clever Italian teens came up with a phrase in Italian that closely matched the sounds: presi in culo un etto di acciughe or “I took a pound of anchovies in my ass”. The eyes of the two Italians I was talking with lit up with amusement and recalled teen naughtiness at the memory.

There is a good article about the song and its history in Atlas Obscura. The song was not a isolated feat but part of a long tradition dating at least to the middle ages. Dante has a passage in The Divine Comedy that means nothing but sounds like Hebrew.  And there is “grammelot, a system of languages popularized by Commedia dell’arte, a theatrical form that started in Italy in the 16th century and later spread around Europe. Grammelot was used by itinerant performers to “sound” like they were performing in a local language by a using macaronic and onomatopoeic elements together with mimicry and mime.” (From the Atlas Obscura article.)

Adriano Celentano, who is now 82, is one of the Italian greats. In addition to being a singer-songwriter and performer with over 40 albums he is also an actor and director starring in numerous comedies on the big screen and TV. He started a record label which is still active. Claudia Mori is a prolific musical performer, actor, and producer who often collaborated with her husband. They are still together.