album rating: ★★★★☆
a) Genre
Italian pop / Canzone italiana / Interpretive pop. Cinquemilaquarantatre is a wide-ranging Italian pop album characteristic of Mina's approach during her peak PDU years: an eclectic selection of originals and cover versions drawn from Italian, American, and international popular music, interpreted with Mina's extraordinary three-octave soprano voice. The album includes Italian-language covers of Carole King's 'You've Got a Friend', an Italian adaptation of Astor Piazzolla's 'Balada para mi muerte' (performed in the tango-nuevo idiom), an English-language cover of Joe Cocker's 'Delta Lady', and an Italian version of Brazilian singer Paulinho Nogueira's 'Menina'. Original songs also appear alongside the covers.
b) Release
Original release: PDU (Produzione Dischi Ultrafonici / Platten Durcharbeitung Unternehmungen), Mina's own independent label (29 May 1972; catalogue PLD 5043 vinyl LP). The album's title, meaning 'Five Thousand and Forty Three', is a direct reference to its catalogue number. The original vinyl was issued in five different cover colours (green, red, blue, purple, and brown), each consisting of three separate die-cut inserts that combined to form the full cover image — a striking and elaborate packaging concept. Manufactured and distributed by EMI Italiana S.p.A. A Spanish edition was released on Odean (catalogue J 064-93.937) with a different cover. Cassette (PMA 543) and stereo editions (P8A 300843) were also issued. A 2001 remastered CD reissue was part of the comprehensive PDU catalogue reissue of 59 Mina albums by EMI. Cover die-cut graphics were designed by Gianni Ronco and Luciano Tallarini; photography by G.P. Barbieri.
c) Production
The album was produced under Mina's own PDU label, which she had founded in 1967 precisely to ensure full artistic independence. The musical arrangements and orchestrations were by Pino Presti (the majority of tracks), Astor Piazzolla (the tango-nuevo track 'Suoneranno le sei / Balada para mi muerte'), and Gianni Ferrio (the closing track). Sound technicians were Antonio Manzi and Nuccio Rinaldis. Mina's son Massimiliano Pani, who would later become PDU's head of production from 1987, was nine years old at the time and would visit the studio on Saturdays during this period, observing the sessions from a corner.
d) Recording
Recorded in May 1972 at Studio 'La Basilica' PDU, Corso Italia, Milan, Lombardy, Italy. La Basilica was a deconsecrated church on Corso Italia in Milan that had been converted into a professional recording facility by EMI in 1960 and subsequently acquired by Mina's PDU label in 1968, equipped with advanced multitrack technology including Ampex 16-track tape machines.
e) Reception
Cinquemilaquarantatre was a major commercial success in Italy. It debuted at number 6 on the Italian albums chart (Mina's previous album was simultaneously still at number 3) and eventually reached number 1, where it remained for an extended run — the album, like its predecessors, lasted more than 25 weeks in the Italian Top 10. Two singles from the recording period became major hits: 'Parole parole', a spoken-word/singing duet with actor Alberto Lupo released ahead of the album in April 1972, topped the Italian singles chart and was later covered by Dalida and Alain Delon (as 'Paroles, paroles'), becoming an international standard; and 'Grande grande grande', which was the second biggest-selling single of the year in Italy. The album has since been included in retrospective compilations of Mina's finest work. All of Mina's PDU albums reached the Italian Top 100. Louis Armstrong famously described Mina as 'the greatest white singer in the world'; jazz pianist Kenny Barron called her 'the greatest Standard Jazz singer today'.
Mina
Mina Anna Mazzini (born 25 March 1940, Busto Arsizio, Lombardy, Italy), known mononymously as Mina, is one of the most successful and celebrated Italian singers of all time, with an estimated 150 million records sold worldwide. She grew up in Cremona — earning the popular nickname 'La Tigre di Cremona' (The Tiger of Cremona) — and began her career in the late 1950s as part of the Italian rock and roll scene. Her debut album Tintarella di luna was released in 1960. She quickly established herself as Italy's foremost pop and television performer of the 1960s, hosting popular RAI variety programmes including Studio Uno (1961–1968) and Teatro 10 (1972). Her relationship with already-married actor Corrado Pani, with whom she had a son, Massimiliano Pani (born 1963), led to a temporary ban from Italian state television in the early 1960s. In 1967 she founded PDU, her own independent record label, giving her complete artistic and commercial autonomy. She gave her final public stage performance on 16 September 1972 at the La Bussola Club in Marina di Pietrasanta, Tuscany, after which she retired from live performance permanently, continuing to record and release studio albums from her studios in Switzerland and Milan. She retired from television appearances in 1978. Her son Massimiliano Pani became PDU's director of production in 1987. Despite her complete absence from the public eye since 1978, she has continued to release albums on a near-annual basis, all of which have reached the Italian Top 100. She has a vocal range of three octaves and has been praised by Ella Fitzgerald, Liza Minnelli, Tony Bennett, and Sting, among others.
This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic). It may contain errors or inaccuracies