Amore: The Story of Italian American Song [Hardcover]

Mark Rotella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2010

Amore  is Mark Rotella’s celebration of the “Italian decade”—the years after the war and before the Beatles when Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett, among others, won the hearts of the American public with a smooth, stylish, classy brand of pop. In Rotella’s vivid telling, the stories behind forty Italian American classics (from “O Sole Mio,” “Night and Day,” and “Mack the Knife” to “Volare” and “I Wonder Why”) show how a glorious musical tradition became the sound track of postwar America and the expression of a sense of style that we still cherish.

 

Rotella follows the music from the opera houses and piazzas of southern Italy, to the barrooms of the Bronx and Hoboken, to the Copacabana, the Paramount Theatre, and the Vegas Strip. He shows us the hardworking musicians whose voices were to become ubiquitous on jukeboxes and the radio and whose names—some anglicized, some not—have become bywords for Italian American success, even as they were dogged by stereotypes and prejudice.

Amore is the personal Top 40 of one proud son of Italy; it is also a love song to Italian American culture and an evocation of an age that belongs to us all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Rotella's revelatory follow-up to Stolen Figs is much more than the story of the years after the war and before the Beatles, when Italian-Americans ruled popular music--it's an astute examination of how the Italians integrated into America. With thorough research combined with a lyrical writing style (" voice glides like a bow over the strings"), Rotella transports readers into a vibrant, colorful world with tours of a museum devoted to the megaselling Enrico Caruso, complete with cans of Caruso Olive Oil ("100 percent olive oil for Italians; a blend of 75 percent peanut and 25 percent olive oils ÿfor 'mericans' ") and of onetime superstar Nick Lucas's old neighborhood in Belleville, N.J. Folk and popular songs from Italy are deftly woven into the larger story of how a once unwelcome ethnic group became a vital part of American culture. In documenting the progress of Italian integration into mainstream America, classic songs such as Frank Sinatra's "I've Got the World on a String," Frankie Lane's "That Lucky Old Sun," and Dean Martin's "That's Amore" create opportunities to expand on the story of the singer, the song, and the state of the union, resulting in a rich and reverential tapestry. Rotella's keen eye and enthusiast's ear make for sumptuous reading and will garner a renewed appreciation for these performers while those readers unfamiliar with the major works of Tony Bennett or Perry Como, let alone Russ Columbo and Julius La Rosa, will be inspired to load up their iPod.
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Review

“Like the singers and songs it celebrates, Amore gets a lot done in a tight, memorable, heartfelt way.  This isn't just a book about Italian-American crooners—it's an intimate account of immigrant life, a history of an enduring art form, a tribute to family, an evocation of the power of song, and a deeply personal reckoning with the music itself. It's a love song in its own right, and it's beautifully sung.” —Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

“What a beautiful thing is Amore! Rotella knows these singers like family, and he writes with a passion that turns each of their songs into a grace note about the uphill climb of Italians in America.” —Anthony DePalma, author of City of Dust

“Amore brings to mind nothing less than Martin Scorsese's documentaries on movie history. Rotella is an impassioned student of Italian-American culture whose personal journey through the music of his heritage is a work of art itself.” —David Hajdu, music critic for The New Republic

“In this lively anecdotal history, full of engaging profiles and nice autobiographical touches, Mark Rotella explores how a whole wave of hugely talented Italian-American singers dominated the pop charts in the 1940s and 1950s with sounds that have set a standard ever since.” —Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark

“This book is a box of candy for those who love American popular songs, as I do—and those interested in the fate of Italian culture on American soil. In Amore, Mark Rotella has looked through the kaleidoscope of his attractive prose at a major postwar phenomenon—the emergence of Italian American music for a mass audience. What he finds here will delight readers, who will demand a soundtrack for this highly entertaining volume.” —Jay Parini, author of The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year

“By seamlessly blending personal memoir and historical insights into Italian American singers—all against an ever-changing America—Mark Rotella has produced a book that is big-hearted and flat-out beautiful.” —Wil Haygood, author of In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.

“Rotella explains the magic of the music; the charisma of Caruso, the charm of Columbo, the nonchalance of Como, the presence that was Prima and the singularity that was Sinatra . . . This is a book for Italian Americans, music lovers, and anyone who enjoys a good read.” —Paul Paolicelli, author of Dances with Luigi

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (September 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865476985
• ISBN-13: 978-0865476981
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #716,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, September 30, 2010

By 

Michael J. Fiorito "Phaedrus" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Amore: The Story of Italian American Song (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Amore. I have to say that it's both an important and informative work - not to mention incredibly readable. While I was able to reminisce on the music my mother and father loved, I also learned a lot about the cultural conditions and influences that has continued to make Italian-American's great singers, musicians, and instrument makers. More than a book of nostalgia, it's a cultural study in the tradition of Greil Marcus and Peter Guralnick. Anyone interested in music is going to value this book.

I hope that Amore continues to stimulate further writing on an important subject that has certainly not received enough attention.

Russ Columbo has become a new favorite of mine!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Chianti in a wicker covered bottle, December 11, 2010

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An Appreciative Reader (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Amore: The Story of Italian American Song (Hardcover)

There is a line in "Amore" that really rang true for me: It doesn't matter what percentage Italian you may be, if you have any--you will inevitably identify yourself as Italian. The food, the family, and most of all--the music. If all the most popular vocalists from the 50s hadn't changed their names, you would have thought that the Italians had won the war and had occupied America and taken over popular music. Concetta Franconero (Connie Francis); Dino Paul Crocetti (Dean Martin); Anthony Benedetto (Tony Bennett); Walden Cassotto (Bobby Darin); Frank Sinatra; Perry Como; Francesco LoVecchio (Frankie Lane) . . .

Mark Rotella's book answers the question: Why? And he does it like someone who has taken you dinner in a small, intimate Italian restaurant where you share a cioppino and linguini with butter and cheese--with just enough red wine to see the world as the place of joy, kindness and love that we know it really is--but too easily forget.

The best part of the book is that it is the perfect accompaniment to so many songs that I grew up with that touched my parents, and then me. And now I know why. I couldn't help but download the songs that I didn't already have from iTunes--and discover them again with a fresh perspective and appreciation for the history that made this flowering of music possible. I may only be half Italian--but it is by far the part the eats, sings and loves the best.

Grazie mille Signor Rotta. Mangia!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joyful aria, November 6, 2010

By 

Ken Kardash (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Amore: The Story of Italian American Song (Hardcover)

Like so many others, I've always found the classic songs of the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Perry Como comforting. But for the author, they and their stories are not only comforting but also a touchstone to his heritage. Which is what makes this book so different and touching to read - it's more than either a collective biography or memoir. Each short chapter covers the heyday of a particular singer, some well known, others less so, but always connected to the larger theme of the influence of Italian culture on American popular music. Rotella's sheer joy in the music and enthusiasm for his theme can be almost giddy at times, and I found myself laughing out loud upon seeing chapters on Elvis and Sammy Davis Jr. But somehow he makes it work.
It was a discovery to see how the singers traced their musical heritage through one another to Italian opera, and how interconnected they were to the paths of their contemporaries, often coming from the same neighborhoods. The author's trips to these neighborhoods, and identification with the culture, add personal warmth to the telling. The sentiments can be bittersweet, though. The genesis of the book was an exploration of the music that gave courage to the author and his wife as they battled cancer. I was also shocked to read that Italian-American immigrants had been subjected to lynching and wartime civil internment camps. Rather than derailing the otherwise joyful tone of his story, this highlights the depth of the passion from which all the music and memories arise. It's a story told with amore.