The Genesis of Italian Disco (No, Not Italo Disco)

American influences, early synths, and Italy's own tradition created a unique sound

Within a mirror-clad, black-box-like set complete with neons, strobes, and flashlights, the spandex-clad American-born dancer-turned-soubrette Heather Parisi breezily performed a meta-poetic song about disco music, delivering some sort of manifesto.

“Disco disco dove io sono veramente io… Disco disco manda via, tutta la malinconia…,” [disco disco where I am my real self, disco disco chases all the sorrows away] she sang with helium-infused vocals, voicing both the liberating power of the four-on-the-floor beat and the ubiquity of the music genre.  These were the opening shots of the 1979 variety show Fantastico, then the prime showcase of music, comedy, and dance on national TV. It owes its title to the mix of reality and fancy, and to its over-the-top set designs.

Heather Parisi, the real Disco Bambina

By 1979, you could hardly escape the disco sound, and that was true even for those who eschewed clubs and nightlife. Both national network and private tv channels had become both a showcase and a talent farm for new starlets, and for established artists alike, who would enjoy an artistic renaissance thanks to disco music—blame the kinship Italy felt with Saturday Night Fever and its protagonist Tony Manero.

Let’s come clean on one thing, though: pinpointing what jump-started Italian disco productions is a fool’s errand, but the earliest examples certainly predate the post-1978 Saturday Night Fever craze.

In Europe, and more specifically in Italy, disco music was not monolithic: the Philadelphia sound coexisted alongside the synth-heavy German and French disco traditions, and Italy’s own heritage. The earliest disco-inflected productions stood out for their folksy and melodic components, as they were performed by divas who had already made their marks in the field of musica leggera. “I was the first, here, to perform disco tracks, combining song, rhythm, and dancing,” multi-hyphenate Raffaella Carrà declared in the summer of 1979. She was, of course, referring to her mid-tempo, anthemic 1974 track “Rumore,” and its 1976 follow-up “Male.” Can we confidently say she was the first, though?

With the exception of the experiments that soundtrack and library-music composers were undertaking in very niche productions, one of the earliest experiments with disco sounds within the pop music universe came from erstwhile folk-pop singer Marcella Bella. Bella had first made her mark as a performer of sappy and folksy ballads, such as her 1972 Sanremo hit “Montagne Verdi,” a reminiscence of a time gone by. In 1974, she released the proto-disco song “Nessuno Mai,” which, in 1976, became a Eurodisco hit with  Boney M’s “Take the Heat off Me.” Her 1975 LP “L’anima dei matti” contained the disco-funk-like song “Negro,” an ode to uninhibited sex, and closed with a disco-rock cover of “I’ve got the music in me” by Kiki Dee, while, in 1976, she gave Domenico Modugno’s “Resta cu’mme” the full disco treatment, complete with a 4/4 beat and soaring strings, which she regularly performed in full disco attire sequin-covered jumpsuit during public appearances. The following year, she sang “Non m’importa più,” an ode to female liberation as she sings about dancing the night away irrespective of the social mores. 

Mina, perhaps the most popular singer at the time, did not overlook disco either, and, in 1977, she released “Amante Amore,” written by Pino Presti and the provocateur wordsmith Cristiano Malgioglio. She cleverly placed it in the album Mina Con Bigné, interspersed with ballads, folk tunes, and brushes with rock. 

Former prog rocker Alan Sorrenti harnessed disco music to highlight his artistic metamorphosis: his 1977 hit Figli delle Stelle  and L.A. & N.Y. album catapulted him into disco stardom. Figli delle Stelle also spawned a film by the same name, whose quality is on a par with the late 1970s, early 1980s musical comedies that were trying to cash in on the popularity of a pop or disco star (I am looking at you, Xanadu and Village People’s own Can’t Stop the Music).

Also soon-to-be superstars, being young artists at the time, became the “guinea pigs” of many producers exploring the disco sounds. Some of these include Junie Russo “Cosa Mi Succede Adesso” (1977), Cristiano Malgioglio “San Francisco” (1979), The Goggi Sisters “Ballando” (1978); or already known acts in need of a refresh like Gigliola Cinquetti “Ma Chi L'Avrà Inventato Quest'Uomo” or even the Sandra Mondaini “Cerco Un Uomo” (1977).

In addition, Italy’s disco scene was the opposite of cohesive and cogent: given the strong cultural traditions of each of the 20 regions, each had its own scene in terms of performers, djs, and producers. The underbelly of independent, regional acts is just as noteworthy when it comes to mapping the unique reality of Italian disco. The Turin-born Grazia Vitale was the daughter of a sales assistant and a truck driver, and, while pursuing a higher-education diploma, she headlined the band Le Forma Aldeidi, with whom she published the single Flash, whose vocals and sounds bear a striking similarity of Donna Summer’s work. 

In Milan, the singer and lyricist Bruno Pallesi established the label Polaris in 1970s, rechristened as New Polaris in 1977 where, under the pseudonym Billy Woost, he produced such a quintessentially disco album that could easily have been mistaken for an international production: listen to the tracks “Body, Body Love” and “Vibration” to see what we’re talking about. 

In Tuscany, a local band named Ayx released the track “Ayx Teca” in 1978 for the movie Rock ’n’ Roll. The song is notable for the rock-inflected vocals of singer Gloria Nuti, which she layers to a blatantly disco rhythm and melody. 

These are but few examples of Italian disco music, which, much like its counterparts across the continent withstood the 1979 Disco Demolition Night and became instrumental in the creation of Italo Disco, Eurodance, and even Eurobeat. 

What stands out in Italian disco is the way its close ties with variety TV allowed the great majority of acts to become total works of art where the visuals stand out as much as the music. 

The two of us, Beppe Savoni and Angelica Frey, will take you on a never-ending journey across continents, subgeneres, and media, to document the leading role of Italian disco music.