How many of you watched or will watch It’s a Wonderful Life this December?
Ever since I first saw this movie decades ago (remember when it was out of copyright and was on all the time?) I’ve wanted to know what was the name of the song was that is being sung in the background when George is praying in Mr. Martini’s restaurant. None of my gigging musician friends knew either.
So, let’s see. Directed by Italian American Frank Capra. The setting is a restaurant owned by the Italian stereotype Mr Martini. You can make out at least “una canzone d’amor”, if not the rest of the lyrics which goes by at warp 9, so the words are Italian. Must be an Italian folk song right? Or at least an Italian Holiday song since the scene takes place on Christmas Eve. Those are the collections I’ve searched through but no luck.
One of my Facebook friends from Italy, Patrizia De Lisa, (who may be my cousin!) commented on a photo of my kitty Giacomo that I posted, so I asked her if she knew the song. She didn’t, but kindly asked around. It turns out NOT to be an Italian song, but an American pop tune from the 1930s.
The “Italian” song was performed by that French Irish American, Rudy Vallee who was a popular crooner of that era!
Here are the lyrics
Vieni, vieni, vieni, vieni, vieni tu sei bella, bella, bella, bella, bella bella accanto a me.
Vieni, vieni, vieni, vieni, vieni tu sei bella, bella, bella, bella, bella bella accanto a me.
Paola, mia rondinella, sei la piu bella sei e nel mio core, a,
Paola voglio cantare una canzone d’amor.
Thank you for your wonderful research. I always sang or hummed this part. I was able to catch only the words…”Una canzone d’amor” whenever I watched the movie. Of course I watch the movie every year at Christmas and just today my research led to your research which really solves the mystery. I am an amateur musician and a Language Arts teacher. I teach English, ESL, Spanish, Armenian, and French. I understand Italian, Portuguese, some German, Dutch, and Danish, and know very little Russian. Thank you again for your effort and research. Incredible.
RD
Thank You, Gene, for this fabulous find. Very exciting!
We first heard it in “Wonderful Life,” of course, fleetingly, then a more complete version recently in “Summertime in Venice” with Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi
and then became obsessed. I was thrilled to find this gorgeous song on your website this morning, captured it, and played it to the delight of my Italian barber at noon. What fun! Again,thank you so much.
This is an old Southern Italian folk song from the 1800’s sung in Italian depicting a lover for his beautiful Paola, asking her to come back, referring to her as “rondinella”, which is a bird called “rondine” that can be seen coming and going, chirping bird songs throughout many parts of Italy. I heard my nonna (grandmother) sing this song many many times before she passed away. It was translated into other languages, English and French, and it was in fact, a popular tune back then, sung on the eve of Natale……Christmas Eve.