Various Artists - All The Best From Italy: 40 Italian Favorites [2-CD SET]

Kicking off this highly unusual collection of Italian music is "L'Italiano," whose contemporary arrangement veers dangerously close to Jamaican reggae. And if "Gloria" doesn't set sail on a sea of disco lights, then the Pope doesn't live in Rome. But the emphasis on pop settings over pizza parlor fare isn't too much of a departure from the "favorites" tag considering the influence of Neapolitan ballads and operatic arias on the early days of Tin Pan Alley. Fans of Italian music will still find plenty of traditional themes and melodies here and enough soaring emotion to satisfy the soul of Verdi. For lovely Italian songs more grounded in tradition, also look to the Putumayo label's Italian Music Odyssey anthology. For gritty street-corner folk music, check out the four titles released so far in Rounder Records' Italian Treasury series. --Bob Tarte Amazon.com

nice music overall

For those who have grown up on some of these italian hits, it will be a great moment of joy to hear them. No tricks, just plain old recordings are found on the cd, i.e. no re-interpretation, or new arrangement.
February 25, 2008

Simply... All the Best From Italy!

This compilation is a list of popular music that are indeed, the best from Italy. You have to realize that these songs/pieces are not Italian-American songs that many may assume; i.e. this is not a Ratpack CD. Instead, it is a CD compiled with numerous Italian folk songs in which I grew up listening. My Nonna (Grandma) is from Italy (Tuscany)and when I burned her a copy, she melted! She knew all of the tracks and loved how it took her back to her days in Lucca. She played the CD whenever she had free time up until her death.

A lot of the ratings on this page bash the CD because it has a relatively new recording style and was scored with modern day synthesizers and beat samplers. However, folk music is meant to be the sound from a particular region or culture. This CD encapsulates this sound in a modern form. Simply put, many folk songs from yesteryear were never ever recorded due to the given limitations. Furthermore, when searching the titles that are on the CD, I have only come up with this CD, which means that nobody else out there has really taken the time to capture the sound of Italy and record it. This is as good as it gets in the interim; and if people from Italy even know the tunes, what more can you ask for?

For those that criticized Canada and said "Where does it get off publishing Euro-Italian compilations, Canada actually has a strong Italian presence in Quebec and in Toronto (rightfully so since it is right above New York)!

Johnny Toscani
Chicago July 7, 2007

Canned, overprocessed "music"

I bought this CD because I liked the cover and I am getting married next year and thought I could use it for my wedding. The romantic photo sucked me in, but this is one of the worst CD collections of Italian music I have ever heard. I can imagine it was produced in a garage on a midi, with canned tracks. There is nothing original or real about this CD. I do not recommend. April 13, 2007

Italian Music made in Canada?

Italian music from St. Laurent, Quebec Canada? I guess that is what one would expect. Sounds like a bunch of French-Canadian college students trying to audition in a faux-Italian bar. It is pretty bad. I don't know how they get "Gloria" as an Italian favorite. If you want Italian cafe music, don't buy this one. A waste of money March 18, 2007

Buy it only if you like nasely Pop Italian sounds

My husband and I buy alot of Italian music, our favorite. This CD, as one of the reviewers said, is a series of canned pop music from Italy. We fell for the romantic cover of Venice, I guess. We thought we were getting more romantic sounds, but there was the same "pop" sound all the way through the album. And the male vocals with his nasel sounds really annoyed us. The cover and description leads you to believe you get something you don't. The best word I can use to describe it is cheesy. February 25, 2007

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