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November 27, 2020 7:23 PM   Subscribe

Italian singer Adriano Celentano released a song in the 70s with nonsense lyrics meant to sound like American English, apparently to prove Italians would like any English song. It was a hit, and resulted in this: THE GREATEST VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN.
posted by Ahmad Khani (79 comments total) 78 users marked this as a favorite
 
This song and video (is the full version available anywhere online at the moment?) were brought to my attention about ten years ago, and it's always nice to see it pop up and be discovered by new audiences, to whom it can bring nothing but joy because holy shit what a song and what a video. Imagine the logistics of filming that, what with all the dancers and mirrors and precise movements, cuts, etc.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:35 PM on November 27, 2020 [15 favorites]


Prisencolinensinainciusol!
full production number
different production in color
posted by Miss Cellania at 7:45 PM on November 27, 2020 [11 favorites]


Hi-res full version on Vimeo.

Alternate video in color from Italian TV.

On preview- beaten to the punch!
posted by q*ben at 7:45 PM on November 27, 2020 [5 favorites]


Jinx! have a Coke.
posted by Miss Cellania at 7:47 PM on November 27, 2020




I've always had trouble understanding song lyrics, so this is what about 73% of all songs sound like to me.
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:50 PM on November 27, 2020 [32 favorites]




The video is a glimpse of a post-apocalyptic 22nd century world trying to reenact the rituals of the Before Times from the only surviving artifact with music: a badly corrupted VHS cassette of the halftime show of a mid-90s Super Bowl.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:06 PM on November 27, 2020 [28 favorites]


I love Prisencolinensinainciusol so much that I can spell it without having to look it up or anything.
posted by aubilenon at 8:15 PM on November 27, 2020 [31 favorites]


ALRIGHT.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:27 PM on November 27, 2020 [7 favorites]


*OLL RAIGTH
posted by Rhaomi at 8:34 PM on November 27, 2020 [34 favorites]


This is really neat. Double talk was a specialty of Sid Caesar, but I've never heard it done for English. And Celentano does a great job.

For a linguist, this is a nice demonstration of phonotactics-- the sounds, intonation, and syllable structures of a language. Plus, it's got a great beat and you can dance to it.
posted by zompist at 8:41 PM on November 27, 2020 [25 favorites]


I still say "oll raigth" sometimes.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:08 PM on November 27, 2020 [5 favorites]


Now I will too.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:09 PM on November 27, 2020 [5 favorites]


Also one of my favorite details about this is how the group of voices in the refrain aren't as skilled at mimicking [American] English sounds as Celentano is. Some of them even slip into the Italian pronunciation of the ci in "-ciusol".
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:13 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


perfect
posted by kliuless at 9:14 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I heard Satanic references and if you play it in reverse there's a recipe for a really ripping lentil soup. I think Congress needs to investigate.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:23 PM on November 27, 2020 [15 favorites]


As featured in Fargo's third season premiere
posted by enjoymoreradio at 9:40 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I saw this was going around online, and was at once
- gratified that a new generation discovering it
- a bit sad that I have not yet seen anyone mention the homage to? ripoff of? the b&w version that was made in 2012: Willy Moon - Yeah Yeah
posted by bartleby at 9:47 PM on November 27, 2020 [3 favorites]


EYES
posted by tclark at 9:49 PM on November 27, 2020 [4 favorites]


I've been playing a lot of Just Dance lately and the choreography here would be at home in the game. Also, the lyrics.
posted by latkes at 9:57 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


Omnibus did an excellent episode on this, because of course.

I always thought of this song as what Bo Diddley might sound like to foreign ears.
posted by panama joe at 10:07 PM on November 27, 2020 [5 favorites]


To me, it makes "Supercalafragalisticexpialadocious" sound like "Ramalangadingdong".
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:17 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'll have to dig back into the previouslies, as I heard this on MF originally, and someone there did a subtitle video of it which rendered it mostly audible as English, on hearing it again, a lot of that has stuck and I can't unhear it.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:22 PM on November 27, 2020 [1 favorite]


I came here to post this and was happy to see it already here.

Some of the other stuff Adriano Celentano and Claudia Mori did in other languages with varying amounts of intentional weirdness are also alright: 1, 2, 3, 4.
posted by eotvos at 10:49 PM on November 27, 2020 [2 favorites]




I love this so very much.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:45 PM on November 27, 2020


One day this will open the soundtrack of the movie of the first decades of the World Wide Web. (The closer, naturally, will be Eduard Khil.)
posted by rory at 12:58 AM on November 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


I went to go check on this track in my library, because I sometimes make myself oddly specific playlists.
To my shame, I had misfiled Prisencolinensinainciusol in with my Westworld resort area soundtracks, in with the Cortina '66 Après-Ski lounge stuff.
I suppose I'm going to have to re-tag it for Cinecittá '71 Wrap Party.
posted by bartleby at 1:51 AM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


This is glorious! All the remakes just make it even more clear how good he was at it.
posted by mumimor at 1:57 AM on November 28, 2020


This is what I imagine Alice's Restaurant sounds like on LSD.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 1:59 AM on November 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


Raffaella Carrá steals the show, as she does.
posted by valdesm at 2:20 AM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Tangentially, if you like the linguistic aspect of this then you might also like this tour de force: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu579CHnQ00
posted by merlynkline at 3:05 AM on November 28, 2020 [25 favorites]


I owe my knowledge and love of this song to one of the MeFi threads listed above. It is amazing to look at the Vimeo full hi res version and note that this was all done live - with the two main singers segueing straight into what looks like it will be an interview at the end.
posted by rongorongo at 3:14 AM on November 28, 2020


I'm another one who has trouble making out song lyrics, so it didn't sound that odd.

Perhaps it just proves that everyone in Italy likes rockabilly, not that they all like English songs.

There's something wrong with the dancing in the sense that it doesn't look American. Too precise. Maybe everyone had ballet training.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 3:17 AM on November 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


Somebody needs to redo this with Minions
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 4:20 AM on November 28, 2020 [7 favorites]


Just for the heck of it I googled the lyrics; even though they are meant to sound like American English, this native speaker of American English kept trying to say them with an accent. A different accent for every word. I’m sure that means something, I’m just not sure what. Google offered to translate the lyrics for me so I took them up on it. They ended up mostly the same, with a couple of English words popping up here and there, and the line “Iu bicos tue men cold” became “Some kiss your cold men”. It really is an interesting exploration of how language works. Looking forward to exploring some of the other links here.
posted by TedW at 4:28 AM on November 28, 2020


I feel like the original success of this song is a funhouse-mirror equivalent to English language-speaking opera fans who insist that songs are objectively better when sung in Italian even though they do not speak a word of the language, and yes that is totally a thing.
posted by kyrademon at 4:57 AM on November 28, 2020 [5 favorites]


Prisencolinensinainciusol has to be the very best thing I ever accidentally discovered on the WWW(other than The Jehova Bible Alien Show). It's where I go when I just have to cheer up in a hurry. Works every time.

Thanks!
posted by james33 at 5:03 AM on November 28, 2020


It's possible that opera is better sung in its native language because some vowels (eee) are naturally higher than others (ooo). You have the choice of optimizing for musicality *or* following the story.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:16 AM on November 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


The great thing about this song is that it's like an r&b song (those horns!) crossed with a Bob Dylan song crossed with a Can song (that drone all the way through!) crossed with a disco song (that beat!) crossed with the sort of arty band that would attempt something like this with linguistics crossed with a genre of Italian pop music I'm not even aware of.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:20 AM on November 28, 2020 [10 favorites]


I've heard the claim that Prisencolinensinainciusol was an influence on Janet Jackson's “Rhythm Nation”. I don't dispute this.
posted by acb at 5:39 AM on November 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


That horn line still doesn't sound like it's in the right place.
posted by emelenjr at 5:49 AM on November 28, 2020


He also seems to have invented Jamiroquai
posted by chavenet at 5:52 AM on November 28, 2020 [10 favorites]


That cover version reminds me of Sarah Ferri. Maybe it won't for you, but I will plug Sarah Ferri any chance I get.
posted by BWA at 6:41 AM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


If you want to do this with Hungarian, use primarily short vowel sounds, especially short E sounds, maximize use of the letter K, the SH sound, T, P, and Z.

I know this works because with two glasses of wine in me I can speak fake Hungarian until our kid (who speaks magyarul) is in tears laughing and my spouse (native magyarul speaker) is threatening to make me sleep in the basement (but also laughing).
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:32 AM on November 28, 2020 [9 favorites]


(Do not actually do this.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:40 AM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


Somebody needs to redo this with Minions

Prisencolinensinainciusol+Supercalafragalisticexpialadocious+Gossipo Perpetuo+Minions mashup.
posted by sexyrobot at 7:53 AM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Oh man, that butchered remix I made has not aged well.
posted by loquacious at 8:01 AM on November 28, 2020


The song was used in the commercial for a 2014 XBox game (Forza Horizon 2), and it's really really fun.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:36 AM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


It is amazing to look at the Vimeo full hi res version and note that this was all done live - with the two main singers segueing straight into what looks like it will be an interview at the end.

I went back to the Vimeo and looked more carefully - it starts live but it seems like it cuts to some prerecorded parts in between. Watch how the set changes, especially the floor mirrors, and Celentano moves from floor to podium and back. It ends with the starting set so they can move to the live interview part.

Regardless - it's an incredibly slick production. Everyone in Europe was doing amazing stuff with live TV in the 60s-70s and we got the Brady Bunch Variety Hour instead.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:48 AM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


It feels like he says "cummerbund" a lot.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:40 AM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


Other than the nonsense lyrics, one of the things that makes it so otherworldly to my ear is that persistent droning in the background. Kind of sounds like a violin note, but it just keeps going and going the full length of the song. Weird.

(Also, that Twitter poster is a dang criminal for cutting off the headbanging and the sweet harmonica solo at the end.)
posted by Rhaomi at 10:00 AM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


> it starts live but it seems like it cuts to some prerecorded parts in between.

I never thought it was live because, like I said, the logistics (I really doubt anyone could get through all of that on live tv with no mistakes, no matter how much you rehearsed), but I would love to learn more about the filming of it because towards the end AC seems a bit winded and has one of those "damn, we pulled it off" smiles. Maybe that's part of the act, but if not I wonder if it they rehearsed the hell out of it and then tried to do it as "live" as possible when they filmed it? It's an amazing achievement by everyone involved no matter what.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:24 AM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]


In loosely related, there's also the Fellini film Ginger and Fred about making a kooky Italian television Variety show with weird music arrangements.

That funny classroom intro reminds me a little bit of 3 Stooges 'A is A', later a rude parody in 'The Forbidden Zone'.
posted by ovvl at 1:45 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


Dude also gave French the same treatment, and I would love to find a clip of that.
posted by ocschwar at 3:05 PM on November 28, 2020


This is not new on the interwebs. I could have sworn I was introduced to this on the blue! Maybe it was boingboing? At any rate, it's so fun and the music is so catchy and the stage production is astonishingly good. Those mirrors! Happy to see this wherever it appears
posted by treepour at 3:27 PM on November 28, 2020


Rhaomi: “Kind of sounds like a violin note”
I believe it to be a Farfisa organ.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:38 PM on November 28, 2020 [3 favorites]


Well known in our house as that song from Fargo.
posted by yhbc at 4:31 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


I can't help but think that Bruno Mars and Debbie Harry are the obvious pair to cover this.
posted by desuetude at 10:12 PM on November 28, 2020


I love this homage to Celentano by dancer Roberto Bolle in La Scala and then in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. We briefly see Celentano, stirring a late-night coffee at the Galleria - and he even sings a little. Nicely done.
posted by seawallrunner at 10:36 PM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]


I *adore* this song, in all its versions. It slaps!
posted by St. Hubbins at 12:12 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]


It is so easy to be captivated by this song as a foreigner - that we consider it a one off novelty and forget about the career of Adriano Celentano, who wrote it. Celentano is credited with introducing Rock and Roll to Italian audiences, he's appeared in more than 40 films and knocked out a similar number of albums during his 50 years of popularity - a level of fame and activity that would put him on a par with Ennio Morriconne were he better known internationally. Here he is singing La coppia piú bella del mondo which sold over a million copies.

His fierce cult following outside of Italy predates his internet fame by a long way, however. Ian Dury cited him as one of this Reasons To Be Cheerful - specifically "John Coltrane's soprano, Adi Celantano, Bonar Colleano (the song was written while Dury was touring in Italy).

Anyway - that level of fame and success helps explain why the apparent novelty of Prisencolinensinainciusol is arranged and performed so well -and then accompanied by a spectacularly choreographed performance with 20 dancers and filmed for prime time TV.
posted by rongorongo at 12:21 AM on November 29, 2020 [10 favorites]


That horn line still doesn't sound like it's in the right place.

Agreed, emelenjr. That lick, and the beat accenting 1 & 3, seem like fun-house mirror versions of some standard American R&B/soul song elements.

Like the "lyrics," they have sort of a familiar shape to them, but don't quite land in the place you'd expect (if you're an American who grew up listening to that sort of music).
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 6:44 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


it starts live but it seems like it cuts to some prerecorded parts in between

I don’t know how that is more plausible (or feasible!) than it being all live... The show it’s from was called "Milleluci", was a prime time "varietà" (variety show) on RAI, Italian national television, they had at their disposal their own studios, a lot of dancers and a super talented choreographer who became famous for the dance routines on those shows. Variety shows at the time were mainly done live, they were very theatrical. And Raffaella Carrà has especially been known throughout her career for elaborate dance routines with lots of dancers live on the tv stage. So I wouldn’t discard the idea that it was all live just because it’s an elaborate production. Elaborate production and elaborate dance routines (and elaborate camera work!) were pretty standard on those kinds of shows back then.
posted by bitteschoen at 7:30 AM on November 29, 2020 [5 favorites]


I totally hear you. But cuts like this (@ 0:37) make me think otherwise. Sorry.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:17 PM on November 29, 2020


Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner: That lick, and the beat accenting 1 & 3, seem like fun-house mirror versions of some standard American R&B/soul song elements.

Like the "lyrics," they have sort of a familiar shape to them, but don't quite land in the place you'd expect (if you're an American who grew up listening to that sort of music).


Agreed! It's as if the drummer, the singers and the horn section all have different ideas about where the 1 is. Regardless, I've always loved this bonkers video ever since the first time it came up on the blue.
posted by emelenjr at 1:24 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


Having watched the video another 50 times or so since this post went up, I can’t believe I left the Velvet Underground out of my above list of this song’s influences.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:54 PM on November 29, 2020


This is peak civilization right here. It's all been downhill since.
posted by benzenedream at 7:18 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]


Agreed! It's as if the drummer, the singers and the horn section all have different ideas about where the 1 is.
The Omnibus podcast - has a part (in my link here) where they talk about the construction of the song - citing an interview with Celentano, I believe. Apparently he started out in a recording booth with the drum loop. He then scatted over an over to the loop until he had the lyrics. After that the horn blasts and fuzz guitar, seem to have been recorded and added as separate additional loops. Then finally his lyrics and the chorus added over the top of everything else. That technique is trivial and standard with today's recording technology - but back then each backing track would have been a manually spliced loop of tape running on its own tape machine. It would no doubt have been possible to align the loops perfectly - but Celentano no doubt observed that everything sounds more interesting when things are a bit jagged. I think that jaggedness then inspired the choreography.
posted by rongorongo at 10:34 PM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]


By the way - if you want to hear what the song would sound like reverse engineered to be performed and sung live with real horn and percussion - and with improvised scatting - then listen to Adriano Celentano and Manu Chao (together with an absolutely bonkers audience) do just that. - recording from 2012 that goes from song to interview and back to song several times.
posted by rongorongo at 10:56 PM on November 29, 2020 [4 favorites]


Regarding whether or not it was done live, I'd invite people to note that the black and white vimeo version is quite clearly recorded on film, not videotape. While the layout of the set certainly makes it possible to pull television cameras in and out quickly, they don't appear to have done this. The vocals are clearly a lip sync, and the acoustics of the applause at the end don't seem to fit the large film studio they're in, with all those mirrors.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 11:54 PM on November 29, 2020


Holy cow, it's really hard to do a good prank and it's also really hard to make a sick jam and this is both. Thank you so much for sharing this, I'm dying to show it to everyone I know.
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:25 AM on November 30, 2020


Adriano Celentano and Manu Chao (together with an absolutely bonkers audience)

Man, that audience!
posted by mumimor at 1:08 AM on November 30, 2020


Ok, upon further research, it’s clear it was not done live - the on-demand player for RAI has a full video of Celentano’s entire performance on that episode of the tv show; there’s a short sketch with actors at the start, then cut to orchestra with Celentano singing a song (in English, Frank Sinatra’s "I Will Drink The Wine" - he sings it while smoking a cigarette), at the end Carrà and other presenter (and singer) Mina join him and they all introduce the crazy Prisencolinensinainciusol performance, clearly offered as a recorded set (the camera cuts to the performance straight away after they introduce it and Carrà and Celentano are wearing different outfits and yeah, there’s no way that’d work live). It’s introduced as a special tribute by Celentano for the 20th anniversary of Italian tv (this was 1974), actually he jokes about it being for the 40th, from the future
posted by bitteschoen at 7:15 AM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]


I don’t know what is wrong with me but I 100% want to learn this dance number and have watched the video on repeat at least a dozen times.

I’m not much of a dancer, but some songs and dance hit me just right and I want badly to learn every step and join in.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 2:08 PM on November 30, 2020


Having watched the video another 50 times or so since this post went up, I can’t believe I left the Velvet Underground out of my above list of this song’s influences.

Also, Serge Gainsbourg.
posted by desuetude at 4:22 PM on November 30, 2020


"Jerry Lewis and Elliot Gould are proud to announce the birth of their laboratory-created child, who will be raised in a mirror-walled music bunker in Italy, because they can".
posted by Chitownfats at 6:00 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


For me, the video on first viewing actually invoked Michel Gondry's music video for the Chemical Brothers from 1999 - "Let Forever Be." I have to think Gondry was referencing the mirror/repetitive elements.
posted by SoundInhabitant at 8:52 AM on December 3, 2020


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