Gino Paoli

Biography

"The son of a naval engineer and a housewife, Gino Paoli was born in Monfalcone (province of Gorizia) in 1934. While still a child, he moved to Genoa, where after working as a porter, advertising graphic designer and painter he made his debut as a dance hall singer. He then went on to form a musical group together with his friends Luigi Tenco and Bruno Lauzi.
He came to the attention of the Ricordi record company and was signed up. In 1960, after recording several songs written by other artists, he produced La gatta. Although the piece was not initially well received by the public, sales gradually improved and in the end it turned out to be a great success.
This marked the beginning of Paoli's finest and most prolific period. In the space of just five years, he recorded pieces of the calibre of Il cielo in una stanza, Senza fine, Sassi, Me in tutto il mondo, Anche se, Sapore di sale, Che cosa c'è and Vivere ancora, all of which were destined to become classics and to be translated into numerous languages (Senza fine has been recorded worldwide in about 300 different versions). After achieving superstar status, Paoli devoted himself to discovering and launching other young artists. He produced the young Lucio Dalla's first album and urged a reluctant Fabrizio De André to perform with him at the Circolo della Stampa in Genoa.
After a long period of depression following the death of Luigi Tenco, he returned to the music world in 1971 with the album Le due facce dell'amore. But his most important LP of the period was I semafori rossi non sono Dio (1974), a tribute to the Spanish singer-songwriter Manuel Serrat containing translations of some of his finest songs.
In 1980 Paoli paid tribute to his friend Piero Ciampi, who had died a few months earlier, with an album entirely of his own compositions entitled Ha tutte le carte in regola (1980). Five years later, he released the live double album Insieme following a triumphant tour together with his former companion Ornella Vanoni.
Some of his most memorable albums of the past fifteen years are Cosa farò da grande (1986), L'ufficio delle cose perdute (1988) and Matto come un gatto (1991) which contains the now enormously famous track Quattro amici.
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