My Love Of Italian Giallo And 1960s Female Soul/ R&B Groups

Hi everyone, welcome back to Big Blog Theory, I hope you’re all doing well.

Today I thought I would write another music post because I really love writing these sorts of posts, I love talking about music which I love dearly and is a huge part of my life. Music has always been in my blood considering it’s always been a prevalent thing in my life and my family’s life. We started doing this thing now where every evening after we have our dinner, we sit and listen to a record of some kind and we just sit, listen, share our thoughts and let the music take us to where it wants to go, my Dad’s got a wonderful selection of Vinyl which he’s been building up over the years and I just love doing this so much, I feel like it’s really good for my mental health and for my family’s mental health and it’s just a lovely way to spend some quality time together as a family, very therapeutic, I love Vinyl and records. Overall, music brings people together. I sure do hope at some point in my life that I will have a wonderful vinyl collection like my Dad. There’s just something about discovering a new record or album that you’ve never heard of before and it suddenly becomes a new favourite, it’s a wonderful thing that I think everyone must have experienced a couple times in their lives, it has certainly happened to me many times, that’s how I discover new music, I’m always very open minded about listening to new music that I don’t normally listen to because quite often I will turn around and say that I love it.

One of our favourite things to listen to at the moment is Italian music, mostly taken out of old Italian Giallo films, I love this kind of music so much We’ve always loved it. Music by Ennio Morricone we really love, he’s one of mine and my Dad’s favourite Italian music composers who composed a lot of the music for various Italian Giallo films. The thing about Italian films especially Giallos is that the plot lines are always so strange, confusing and a little bit bonkers at times but the music is out of this world. One of my favourite Italian Giallo films is Hatchet For The Honeymoon which came out in 1970, it was also my first Giallo film that I ever watched by myself and I really liked it, I have also recommended this film to my Dad. I discovered it early one morning when I couldn’t sleep and ended up really loving it. It’s a very bonkers film in terms of storyline but the soundtrack including the opening titles is wonderful, it’s what drew me to the film in the first place. If a film has a great opening title song, you know you’re going to be in for a treat. I’m looking forward to discovering more Italian films especially Giallos.

I’ve also recently started learning Italian so I’m hoping that one day I can watch Italian films and understand the dialect without reading the subtitles, that’s my goal. The one really difficult thing though is that they talk so fast in the Italian films, it’s so difficult to understand the dialogue, but I’m loving it so far, I do really love the Italian language, it’s a beautiful language. It’s very similar to Greek in a way, I think Greeks and Italians are very much the same, take it from me, a fellow Greek. The Italians really knew how to compose film soundtracks. That kind of music always takes you away and it’s just the most wonderful thing. So, we really love that and we’re still discovering soundtracks we’ve never even heard of before. Once you find yourself down that rabbit hole, there’s no way out and I’m loving it, we all are, we love this music. Our lives would be very different without it.

For today’s post, I thought I would also talk about my 1960s female soul/ R&B groups and my love for them. Very recently I’ve been listening to groups like The Shirelles, The Supremes, The Ronettes, The Toys, Martha Reeves And The Vandellas, The Crystals and more and oh my goodness, I love these ladies so much. This kind of music always keeps me uplifted and I’m so happy whenever I listen to it. It’s just wonderful music and these girls all had wonderful singing voices. Their songs always seem to find me and when they eventually do, I’m filled with so much happiness. This music is like a warm hug and it warms my bones in this cold Autumn, it is very much needed. Old is gold, where would we be without old music? I love old music so much.

I’ve always liked this kind of music but very recently I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. They were all so beautiful and had singing voices like angels, always wore the most beautiful outfits, dresses and had the most wonderful hairstyles and they paved the way for many black female artists in the music industry. These songs always bring me so much joy and they always put a smile on my face. We were all so lucky to have all these wonderful talented ladies and hear their marvellous voices. My favourite song I’ve discovered lately is a song by The Supremes it’s called A Lover’s Concerto which is a cover of a song by The Toys which is another 1960s soul/ R&B female group. I love that song so much, I often find myself dancing around my room whenever it starts playing.

I also really love Dionne Warwick, she’s a wonderful singer with a beautiful singing voice, I love her album Windows Of The World. One of my favourite songs on that album is I Say A Little Prayer which is her cover of Aretha Franklin’s song, I thought it was a really wonderful cover, probably one of the best covers I’ve ever heard anyone do,  she just took it and made it her own song in her own beautiful way.

Also, I love The Shirelles. Some of my favourite songs of theirs are Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Mama Said, Tonight You’re Gonna Fall In Love With Me and 31 Flavors, I love those songs so much. These girls will always be amazing to me, I’ll always love all these girls groups. If you haven’t heard any of their songs, please check them out, I totally recommend it. I would like you guys to share my happiness, joy and love for this music too.

That’s all for this post, I hope you all have a lovely Friday and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend wherever you are right now. Love you all, stay tuned for more work here on Big Blog Theory