With “Tombe la neige”, Salvatore Adamo conquered Japan in 1969, embodying a romantic thrill in Japanese culture of the 60s.
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Reading time: 5 min
In partnership with the exhibition It’s a song that resembles us – Worldwide hits of French-language popular music At the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, these chronicles look in detail at each of the stories presented there.
In 1963, the music industry is in the midst of a commercial, aesthetic, even spiritual revolution. But it still has principles. Salvatore Adamo has written, composed, and recorded a song that talks about winter. And it would be reasonable, he is told, to wait until winter for the release. Adamo insists, and he is right, The snow is falling is a summer hit. But it is also the time, when there is no season, when Adamo has no success. He releases hits at a frequency that, even at the time, has few equivalents.
And yet, I have not mentioned You allow me sir, The girls of the seaside, The Bearded Man Without a Beard. No, I only mentioned slow dances. Slow dances are important. Today, there are telephones for all teenagers, there are social networks, dating sites and above all a freedom for young girls that is not what it was in 1963. At the time, dancing was often the only legal way, in the eyes of parents, for a boy to approach a girl. If you listen to me as a family, let the baby boomers tell young people about the importance of slow dances for a few years. And so The snow is falling is a beautiful slow song. And beautiful songs sometimes reach the ears of people you don’t expect.
In this episode of It’s a song that resembles usyou hear excerpts from:
Salvatore Adamo, The snow is falling, 1964
Salvatore Adamo, When the roses, 1964
Salvatore Adamo, The Night, 1965
Salvatore Adamo, Leave my hands on your hips, 1965
Fubuki Koshiji, Yuki ga furu, 1973
Salvatore Adamo, Yuki ga furu, 1969
Salvatore Adamo, Leave my hands on your hips, 1965
Salvatore Adamo, The snow is falling (in public), 1992
You can also extend this column with the book It’s a song that resembles us published by Heritage Publishing.
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