That's Amore (song)
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"That's Amore" is a 1952 song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Jack Brooks. It became a major hit for Dean Martin in 1953. Amore means "love" in Italian.
The song first appeared in the soundtrack of the Martin and Lewis comedy film The Caddy, released by Paramount Pictures on August 10, 1953.
The track that was used for the single released by Capitol Records was recorded on August 13, 1953 (Session 3098; Master 11694-6), with the orchestra conducted by Dick Stabile, at Capitol Records' studios at 5505 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. On November 7, 1953, Martin's record of the song, with "You're The Right One" (which was recorded at the same session as "That's Amore") on the flip side, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts. The song was kept from the #1 spot when Les Paul and Mary Ford's Capitol Records single "Vaya Con Dios" returned to the #1 spot after being knocked out by Stan Freberg's Capitol Records single "St. George And The Dragonet", which had been #1 for the past four weeks, after "Vaya Con Dios" had been #1 for the nine previous weeks.
The song remains closely identified with Dean Martin; That's Amore was used as the title for a 2001 video retrospective of Martin's career, and his son Ricci Martin entitled his 2002 biography That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin. As an iconic song, "That's Amore" remains a secondary signature song[1] for Dean Martin (second only to "Everybody Loves Somebody" of 1964).[1]
The arrangement of the 1953 hit was scored primarily for mandolins. The lyrics affectionately ridicule the Italian-American ethnic stereotype, with lines like "When the moon hits your eye/Like a big-a pizza pie/That's amore", "When the world seems to shine/Like you've had too much wine/That's amore", and "When the stars make you drool/Just like pasta fazool'/That's amore." Martin did not attempt to deliver the lyrics in an authentic Italian accent, but used the accent of an American trying to mimic Italian pronunciation.
Since the verse starts "In Napoli/where love is king," the setting of the song is Naples, Italy. That is evident in the lyrics (cited, above) that contain what may be called jocularly either the best or the worst rhyme in the history of popular music--that is, the bilingual rhyme of "drool" and "fazool," the Neapolitan dialect word, fasule, for the Italian fagioli--beans.
[edit] In popular culture
The song's popularity may have influenced the rise of pizza from an obscure Italian specialty food to an American staple.
The song is quite popular even in Naples and the rest of Italy, in general.
The song was introduced to a new generation when Martin's 1953 version was played as the opening theme song for the award-winning 1987 movie, Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicholas Cage, Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia.
Spider Robinson's 1993 book The Callahan Touch featured many bad puns on the lyrics, such as "When you swim in the sea/And an eel bites your knee/That's a moray", and "A New Zealander man/With a permanent tan/That's a Māori". The popularity of the book led to the creation of such puns becoming a recognized joke form in some circles. An example from the prepress industry: "When a screen hits your eye/With a strange DPI/That's a Moiré".
On the TV show Strangers with Candy, the structure of the song was mimicked in a poem entitled Packing a Musket ("When they're beggin' you please/To get down on your knees/Near their 'groinage'/'Scusa me,/But you see,/Don't you touch where they pee/Without 'coinage'.")
Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West also frequently cover the song in concert, with drummer Vince Ditrich taking the lead vocal.
The song usually plays as the opening theme music for Pizza, the Australian comedy series on SBS.
On The Simpsons, Krusty mentioned that he used to fly with Dean Martin in his private plane. He then says that one time, the "moon hit his eye like a big pizza pie". They wrote a song about it which ended up infringing on "on one he recorded years before".
In the 2007 film Walk Hard, Dewey Cox performs this song in a studio recording session, much to the displeasure of those around him. It was included in the iTunes exclusive version of the soundtrack.
In one episode of Muppets Tonight a parody is sung by Clueless, shortly after which he's hit by a huge pizza.
In another episode of the Simpsons (The Italian Bob) a gondolier sings a parody of the song about Homer and Marge (the refrain is "that's immoral").
This song also appeared in the 1987 TV-movie Frog, which was sung by the frog prince, Gus.
This song also appears in an episode of Friends when Monica Geller goes on a date with Pete, the rich business man. He takes her out for a meal and says he knows a great little pizza place, which in fact is in Italy.
The song is sung by James Marsden in another Disney movie, Enchanted, when Giselle and Robert Philip go to the Bella Notte Restaurant and is featured on the soundtrack.
On an episode of WWF Smackdown! where Stone Cold Steve Austin is beating on Booker T in the frozen food aisle, Austin grabs a frozen pizza and a large sausage roll and sings the first verse of the song before striking Booker T in the head with the pizza.
On the ACI drama companys performance of "Romeo and Juliet" this song was played as the sets were being changed for this scene.
"That's Amore" was a reality television show and spin-off of the MTV reality show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Domenico Nesci, a contestant from A Shot at Love, will be trying to win over a women's heart, Italian style. The show will also feature Ashley, another contestant from A Shot at Love, helping Dominico find his true love.
In Mario Teaches Typing 2, Mario asks if the player minds if he sings a song. Mario then starts singing "That's Amore". He also adds a joke in the end.
The comic strip "Pearls before swine" used the "That's a moray" pun on 13 May 2008, when pig sings in an aquarium. In the last panel, the rat suggests to Pastis, the strips creator, that he should retire early.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b "THE CINEMA LASER DVD REVIEW-- DEAN MARTIN & JERRY LEWIS..", Cinema Laser, 2006, webpage: TheCinemaLaser-DMjlc.
