Balla Linda

"Balla Linda" is a song by Italian musician Lucio Battisti released on 20 April 1968[1] With this song Battisti participated in the Cantagiro 1968 where he obtained a good success.

"Balla Linda"
Single by Lucio Battisti
Released20 April 1968
Recorded1968
GenreBaroque pop
Length3:08
LabelDischi Ricordi
Songwriter(s)Lucio Battisti and Mogol
Audio sample
The end of last verse and beginning of chorus
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Writing

Music and lyrics to the song were written by Italian songwriter Mogol and Battisti. The track is a pop song with lyrics and atmosphere recalling the lightheartedness of Summer. The text speaks of a girl named Linda. She is neither beautiful, intelligent nor bewitching, but her carelessness, sincerity and fidelity manage to make the protagonist forget his former companion, who had taken advantage of him and then left him.[2]

The text is structured on a climax: the words of the first strophes of the song are melancholic[3] and list some negatives sides of Linda, contrasted with the positive sides of the previous companion. In the following verses, the defects of the latter surface.

Finally in the refrain, the protagonist, who is obviously happy with her choice, dedicates the whole scene to Linda and invites her to dance with enthusiasm.

Reaction

According to music critic Renzo Stefanel, Linda «is so pure that her dance seems almost [...] the metaphor of the lightness of life coined by Nietzsche».[4][5]

Track listing
  • "Prigioniero del mondo/Balla Linda" – 45 rpm single (Dischi Ricordi (SRL 10495)) – 1968
  1. "Prigioniero del mondo" (Battisti, Carlo Donida) – 3:28
  2. "Balla Linda" (Lucio Battisti, Mogol) – 3:08

Grass Roots's cover

In the autumn of 1968, a few months after Battisti's release, the song was noted by the American producer Steve Barri, who decided to make a version in English and to have it interpreted by the Californian group The Grass Roots. The English version took the title of "Bella Linda"; the text was translated by Barri together with Barry Gross, while the arrangement and orchestra direction were edited by Jimmie Haskell.[6] Bella Linda was released in the United States in November 1968 as the A side of the single Bella Linda / Hot Bright Blues. It was included in the album Golden Grass. In January 1969, the single was released in Great Britain, Canada and Australia.

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References
  1. read on line on Discografia Nazionale della Canzone Italiana
  2. Gianfranco Salvatore, L'arcobaleno. Storia vera di Lucio Battisti vissuta da Mogol e dagli altri che c'erano, Giunti, 2000, p. 103 ISBN 8809018052
  3. G. Salvatore, cit., p. 101
  4. In the theory of the eternal return proposed in his essay The Gay Science, first published in 1882
  5. Renzo Stefanel, Ma c'è qualcosa che non scordo. Lucio Battisti - gli anni con Mogol, 2007, ISBN 978-88-7966-370-0
  6. Michele Neri, Lucio Battisti - Discografia mondiale. Tutte le canzoni, le produzioni, le collaborazioni, Coniglio Editore, marzo 2010, ISBN 978-88-6063-099-5.
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