Come prima

"Come prima" (English: As Before) is an Italian song, with lyrics by Mario Panzeri and music by Vincenzo Di Paola and Sandro Taccani.

The first and most popular version in Italy was by Tony Dallara (Antonio Lardera) in 1957. A recording by the Marino Marini Quartet made the United Kingdom charts in 1958. That same year, the song was also recorded by Domenico Modugno, Nicola Arigliano and Armando Trovajoli's orchestra with singer Miranda Martino.

"Come prima" was Tony Dallara's first and breakthrough single. Although it was rejected for admission to the Sanremo Festival, it was an instant success and sold 300,000 copies, becoming the biggest selling single in Italy up to that point.[1]

The melody was used for a French language song entitled "Tu me donnes", a hit for Dalida in 1959. It was also used for an English language song, "More Than Ever" (lyrics by Mary Bond), recorded in the United Kingdom by Malcolm Vaughan with the Michael Sammes Singers (HMV catalogue number POP 538) (14 weeks on the UK chart, peaking at #5[2]), Robert Earl (4 weeks on the UK chart, peaking at #26[3]), Eve Boswell, and others. Another English language lyric by Buck Ram, under the title "For the First Time", was recorded in the United States by Polly Bergen in 1958 (Columbia Records catalog number 41275). This version was also performed by Mario Lanza in his last film, For the First Time (1959).

Other performers were The Platters (1958), Willy Alberti (1958), Dean Martin, Muslim Magomayev (1961), Tony Reno & the Sherwoods (1965), and Golpes Bajos (1985). Cliff Richard sang it in Italian on his album When In Rome (1965).

This song was also cover-versioned in Japanese in 1991, sung by Hong Kong actress Gloria Yip.

This song was also cover-versioned in Dutch in 2012, sung by Belgian singer Frank Galan entitled Valentina and included in the album Mooier dan woorden.

Brazilian superstar Caetano Veloso sang "Come prima" on his recorded concert Omaggio a Federico e Giulietta (a tribute to Fellini and Giulietta Masina) in 1997, performed it live at the Italian Sanremo Festival in 2013, and included the song in his world tour with Gilberto Gil in 2015 (live album in 2016).

Dallara's recording was used in a 2017 UK Coca-Cola commercial.[4] It was also used in a Fiat 500 commercial in 2017.

References
  1. Eddy Anselmi. Festival di Sanremo: almanacco illustrato della canzone italiana. Panini Comics, 2009. ISBN 8863462291.
  2. UK chart listing for Malcolm Vaughan's version
  3. UK chart listing for Robert Earl's version
  4. "Coca-Cola – Poolboy". TV Ad Music. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
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