Customer Reviews

The Italian Wedding

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This CD literally saved our son's wedding. When he announced he was marrying an American girl, our family let out a communal sigh (yes, just like in the Big Fat Greek Wedding movie!) Tradition had it that we were to organize and pay for the wedding, but how could we mix American tastes (her side) with the traditional Italian wedding songs and dances we grew up with (our side). One of our cousins found The Italian Wedding CD on www.amazon.com, and this CD saved our family from all sorts of stress. We handed our future daughter-in-law the booklet, which outlined step-by-step what happens in a traditional Italian American wedding. She handed off the booklet to her wedding coordinator and the CD to her DJ, and, believe it or not, at the wedding the crowd (half American, half Italian) actually danced more to the CD than the other top 40 stuff the DJ was playing. IT SAVED US! I really don't know this group, but I want to send them a big fat Italian kiss for instant Italian party music that gave so much joy to our wedding.

PS I'm teaching my daughter-in-law to make REAL tomatoe sauce!

Sara, North End, Boston

My grandson wanted a traditional Italian wedding to honor his heritage (my parents are from Molise). We live in a small town in California and there are no Italian bands in the area, so we had to rely on a DJ. I looked in the stores for some Italian wedding music but didn't find anything we could use.My daughter recently gave me a computer and I am learning to research Italian traditions on the Internet. Well, you can imagine how delighted I was when I typed in "Italian Wedding Music" and found this CD. The booklet was worth as much as the music. It told us, step-by-step, how to recreate the wedding.

When they played "That's Amore" and "Angelina" the crowd went crazy dancing. It was so beautiful, the people danced all night, we celebrated the Italian tradition we love so much. Thank you for this CD!

I bought this CD at an Italian festival and gave it to my best friend (who is Italian and was also engaged to one!) as a wedding shower present. Well, her wedding was held last week and the whole place went crazy when the DJ put on the music. It was an instant Italian party--we did everything from the chicken dance to the tarantella. Someone said it was like a "Big Fat Italian Wedding" scene. Anyway, I'd recommend this to any bride looking for happy Italian music for her reception.

We bought them all when our granddaughter got married last August. We threw them out, except for this one, that made the wedding. I thought I would do my duty and write to give our opinion as to which was the BEST ITALIAN WEDDING CD out there. The Italian Wedding CD by Roman Holiday not only is filled with traditional wedding music, but they give you a booklet that describes how to plan a traditional Italian American wedding.

Save your money and just buy this one. Did want to mention we waited for months to try to order it through amazon. com. We finally just went on the internet and ordered it direct. Seems it is out of stock continuously on amazon.

I ordered this CD from amazon.com and it was the best 20 bucks I ever spent. . .My family is full-blooded Italian, my husband is Portugese. I really needed something to give the DJ to pull our families together. The music was as lively as in any Portugese wedding and all the family from both sides got up and danced like crazy.

We really enjoyed this CD because it is authentic Italian with orginal recordings and not some quickly thrown together CD from other artists. We loved the crowd sounds and the beat. We even danced the CHICKEN DANCE,which I think is German but the Italians and Portugese did it anyway.

Thanks to the band for this wonderful CD. . .it was great.

GRAZIE A DIO for this CD! We are an Italian American family with roots in Southern Italy and Sicily. The songs are beautifully performed and are lively and moving at the same time.

The booklet was an added bonus that helped us with the reception. The author wrote about all the old traditions we remembered as kids growing up in the Italian community. All we had to do is hand the book to the wedding planner, and she knew what we wanted.

We bought all sorts of "Italian Wedding" CDs before we found this one, and this one was by far the WINNER. Okay, it was not the cheapest out there, but you really get what you pay for! Wish we could have saved the money we wasted on all the inferior ones, but we found out about this one only because a DJ friend recommended it.

Can highly recommend to anyone planning an Italian wedding, or any other Italian themed event. It would work for so many happy occasions.

We feel we needed to add our comments, as we enjoyed it so much and wanted to spread the word among our cumpahs. We like the fact this musical group took the old songs and gave them new life.

Viva la musica italiana!

My husband and I are both Italian Americans. While we usually don't write reviews on websites, we both felt compelled to tell future couples who want to add authentic Italian music to their weddings to only go for this CD. I think we bought at least three CDs with Italian Wedding in their names, thinking they might work for our wedding. All of them were useless, including an expensive one produced by Pavarotti that definitely was NOT what we had in mind for our wedding reception After an exhaustive on-line search, we found The Italian Wedding CD by Roman Holiday. We used the wedding reception guide to orchestrate our wedding. . ..our wedding coordinator loved us. The DJ used this CD and told us he had never had such a great CD for Italian Weddings.. . .Anyway, hope we don't bore you with our comments, but since we spent so much time looking for this CD (and finally finding it), we thought we would spread the word to other couples looking to have Italian themed music for their reception or party. BTW, we are celebrating our six month anniversary tomorrow. . . Amore Lovers from Tampa

I come from an Italian American family and wanted so badly to honor my heritage (and especially our grandparents who very badly wanted to see us marry "Italian" style) at our wedding but it was amazing how hard it was for me to find a band that knew the songs and customs. I thought I was destined for the run of the mill wedding band playing rock n roll or choosing a DJ who definitely wouldn't know anything about Italian songs or dances. My husband suggested the Internet - didn't think I'd find anything when to my surprise I found this CD by Roman Holiday. My prayers had been answered. All the songs that I could possibly have wanted were there and they even supply you with a handbook about the various customs at American Italian weddings and how to do the Tarantella (a must at an Italian wedding!) etc. My guests (even non-Italian ones) had such a BLAST - we had almost everyone on the dancefloor the entire night. Wine helped of course too but I have to give credit where credit is due ......thanks to the lively music of Roman Holiday we were able to have the wedding we always imagined. This is perfect for any Bride and Groom (of ANY heritage!) that wants a wedding that will be fun, lively and different from the "normal" (usually boring) American wedding. We give our two thumbs up for this CD for sure!!

Hopefully the members of this group have day jobs!!! The people who gave great reviews to this cd do not know what real Italian music should sound like, there is no traditional sounds within these recordings, being italian american or a true italian recording this is not even close to what the sounds of italian music are. Being an Italian Canadian and a huge fan of Italian music I DO NOT recommend this CD under any circumstances. It would at least help if these singers would sing in key!!!!!! Where is the Calabrese Tarantella, Sicilian Tarantella, or Saltarello abruzzese ???????????????????


EXPLAINATION OF CRITICAL REVIEW AND OTHER SUGGESTIONS AS ASKED BY CLNV66


I'm glad you asked for other alternatives!! First, however, I would like to clarify why I gave such a negative review to The Italian Wedding CD, by Roman Holiday Ensemble. As I was searching to see what was available for Italian Wedding Music, to my surprise there was very little available on Amazon and I was disappointed at what such great reviews this Cd was given. It seems that a new world was discovered. Since this CD was specifically recorded for Italian-American Weddings, the producer should have done more research on the songs selected, not just to serve "spaghetti and meatballs"! They just selected the most popular Italian-American songs and reproduced them. I believe that Italian-Americans and Italian-Canadians deserve a lot more than just "spaghetti and meatballs" they could have at least served a "slice of pizza" by adding 5 more tracks to the CD! One of the tracks on the CD "Lauretta", which has its popularity of been a father and daughter dance song at weddings, since they reproduced the recording they should have adjusted the lyrics to be appropriate for father and daughter. This song is meant to be a serenade to the daughter the night before her wedding. Lyrics explain that TOMORROW he will take her to the alter to get married, and there will be a great festa and so on all regarding a future tense. They could have changed the "Lauretta Mia" part to "Angelo Mio" or "Bambina Mia" not every brides name is Lauretta!!! There track "Mamma" again is not appropriate for a mother and son wedding dance, because the son is singing to his mother that he is happy that he has RETURNED to her and so on!!! Well that is somewhat of a short explanation of my criticism towards this CD.......THIS TRIGGERED ME TO PRODUCE A DOUBLE CD OF 40 SONGS (SO THE CONSUMER CAN CHOSE WHAT IS APPROPRIATE FOR THEIR EVENT) THE BEST POSSIBLE MATERIAL FOR AN ITALIAN-AMERICAN WEDDING/EVENT THAT WILL HOPEFULLY BE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. Unfortunately, it will be in a few months, because of other projects in process.

FOR RECOMMENDATIONS: I suggest you purchase the following CD's and make your own CD by selecting the songs that you and your family feel are appropriate for your reception. I suggest that you give your selection to your DJ in advance for them to properly balance levels since some of these recordings are not of the same quality. The following are my suggestions:

1. Patrizio Buanne
Listen to the CD "THE ITALIAN" but purchase the Italian Enhanced version and another CD "FOREVER BEGINS TONIGHT", great voice great arrangements.

2. If you want Neapolitan music for your wedding purchase a CD By Renzo Arbore titled "NAPOLI DUE PUNTI E A CAPO", listen to Aumma Aumma, Torna a Surriento, Passione and etc. excellent sound and excellent recordings.

3. For traditional and regional songs, purchase "CANZONI POPULARI VOL. 1 - 7" to get a good idea listen to Vol. 6 tracks 18 -24, quality of the recordings are ok. While selecting songs from this collection consult other family members that maybe more familiar with these songs, in order to appropriately select songs that are appropriate for your reception. Some of these songs are from different regions of Italy and not everyone is Calabrese (like me!), Sicilian or Napolitano! When serching for these Cd's Folclore Italiano: 35 Canzoni populari is also on the list do not buy this CD the songs are not complete.

4. For Italian super hits purchase 4 CD set titled "MEGA COLLEZIONE" which includes hits of the 60's, 70's and 80's. It also includes the song "Le Mamme" by Toto Cutugno and "Portami a Ballare" by Luca Barbarossa, these two songs ARE APPROPRIATE for the Mother and Son wedding dance. 98% of the songs are original recordings and original artists. Unfortunately for the father and daughter dance there is nothing appropriate on Amazon for this. I suggest that you use a good instrumental version of an Italian song or an appropriate English song.

5. If you are of Sicilian backround, purchase "Sicilia Cuore Mio" and "Terra di Sicilia: tarantella per fischietto il miglio Vol. 1" recordings are a little old but unfortunately there is nothing better that is available on Amazon at the moment.

6. Another suggestions is "CANZONI POPOLARI ITALIANE" listen to track 8, 11 & 12.

7. For Calabrese songs, unfortunately not much is available on Amazon, search "LE CANZONI DELLA MAFIA" listen to track 18 "Tarantella di li Tarantelli"

8. Search for "LA MUSICA DELLA MAFIA Vol. 2 OMERTA, ONURI E SANGU", Listen to track 11 "Tarantella Santissima" and track 21 "Tarantella Rose e Sciuri".

The rest of the songs on these 2 calabrese Cd's is up to you if you deem them appropriate enough.

9. For Italian Dance Music purchase "Italo Euro Hits".

Then if you would like to throw in some "Spaghetti and meatballs" from The Italian Wedding Cd by Roman Holiday you should have a pretty good menu!!!!!!!!! I hope that I have offered some good suggestions. I would like to hear comments regarding the suggestions I have made. Ciao!!!


P.S. Please read comments regarding my original review!!

I am a non-Italian trying to plan an Italian themed wedding. This CD was the BEST first step for me. I received the CD many months ago and have been referring to it ever since. Besides GREAT songs, they offer a description of what dance/tradition takes place during each song. My wedding is only two weeks away and I am still refering back to this CD. It has been a true inspiration!!
BELLISIMO MATRIMONIO