V. 1

Fabrizio De André was in many ways already a seasoned veteran when he released his first album in 1967. He was 27 years old, he had a wife and child, and he had been writing and recording singles for the small Karim label since 1961. While recognition took a while, by late 1966 De André was hot news. His last singles had done well, Mina was about to record one of his songs, and Karim was quick to put out an LP compilation of his early songs, Tutto Fabrizio De André. In the meantime, De André broke with Karim and signed a record deal with renowned producer Antonio Casetta, who offered him much better production values, as well as proper national distribution. De André was even given his choice of musical producers, and he picked top Ricordi arranger Giampiero Reverberi. Casetta's gamble paid off, with V.1 reaching number two in the Italian charts, and winning the Italian Music Critics' Album of the Year award. Since most of his early material was being released almost simultaneously in the Karim compilation, De André was forced to write entirely new material for his debut album -- something that didn't always came easy for the hardly prolific Genovese songwriter. Indeed, V.1 included two Georges Brassens translations and a previously released song co-written with Paolo Villaggio to complement the seven brand new De André originals.... Read More...