Paris milonga

The definitive leap came with Via con me, one of his most recognizable songs, which he later reworked live and in the studio, replacing the vibraphone with a saxophone in the central solo. The track also marked his first international breakthrough: it was Conte’s first album to cross borders. Another highlight is Alle prese con una verde milonga, which gives the album its name and whose lyrics pay homage to the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui, the last great interpreter of the Pampean milonga. Also notable are Boogie —which Ivano Fossati would cover three years later— and L'ultima donna, a “modest” response, in his own words, to La première fille by Georges Brassens. Pretend, for its part, breaks the mold: it is the only English-language track on the album and is almost entirely sung by two backing vocalists.

The lineup included key musicians such as Jimmy Villotti, with whom Conte maintained a musical partnership for years (he even dedicated the song Jimmy, ballando to him), and drummer Bruno Astesana, born in Villafalletto and part of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale of RAI. The sound was engineered by Antonio Rampotti, except for Via con me and Pretend, where the engineers were Danilo Girardi and Danilo Pennone. The cover, featuring a shaved-headed model with an exposed chest in silhouette, was created by Gianni Volpi, and its image appears on both the front and back of the vinyl, in black and white and color respectively. All the songs, written and arranged by Conte, were released under the RCA Musica label.