Trivia

A songwriter and an unconventional singer. His songs, probably inspired by the "tough men" of Mickey Spillane's novels, were humorous imitations of mob slang.

He had a love affair with actress Scilla Gabel.

During his teen years, he performed at nightclubs in Turin singing jazz and playing double bass and violin.

By the end of the 1950s, Buscaglione was one of Italy's most wanted entertainers. He appeared in advertising campaigns, on television, and in movies.

Alongside his legacy, in songs and movies, Buscaglione deserves mention for having encouraged musicians and singers from the newer generation (the one influenced by the earliest forms of rock and roll) to stand up against the conservative producers and discographers of the time, demanding recognition for their art and their style. In this role, he proved instrumental in the rise of the "yellers" scene which from the early 60s started to revolutionize the Italian popular music panorama.

During World War II, he was incarcerated in an American internment camp in Sardinia. His musical talent was apparent and he was allowed to join the orchestra of the allied radio station of Cagliari. This permitted Buscaglione to continue to make music and to experiment with new sounds and rhythms coming from the U.S. (Most foreign music had been officially forbidden by the Italian Fascist regime.).

At 38 years of age, he was killed in a car accident when his lilac Ford Thunderbird collided with a truck Lancia Esatau in the early hours before dawn in Rome. Immediately brought to the hospital in a bus flagged down by the truck driver, he arrived there too late.

His public persona - the character he played both in his songs and his movies - was of a humorous mobster with a penchant for whisky and women.

When he was 11, his parents enrolled him at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin.

After perfecting his routine in night clubs and theatres he started recording his songs in 1955; the first single (a shellac 78rpm record containing 'Che bambola' and 'Giacomino') sold 1,000,000 copies with close to no promotion, propelling him to a degree of fame he never considered possible.