La canzone di Orlando

The song La canzone di Orlando, with a duration of just 1 minute and 38 seconds, is found on Lucio Dalla's fourth studio album, titled Il giorno aveva cinque teste. This work, released in April 1973 by RCA Italiana, marked a turning point in the artist's career. It was at this time that Dalla decided to change his usual lyricists, leaving behind Sergio Bardotti and Gianfranco Baldazzi, who had been the authors of almost all his songs until then. Instead, he turned to the poet Roberto Roversi, a collaborator who would mark a period of four years and three albums.

Lucio Dalla, born in Bologna on March 4, 1943, and passed away in Montreux on March 1, 2012, was a singer-songwriter and actor with a musical career spanning almost 50 years. With an initial background in jazz, where he played the clarinet and saxophone, he explored various musical facets. He began his journey very young as a clarinetist in a jazz group in Rome, sharing the stage with figures like the future music critic Fabrizio Zampa and the future comedian Massimo Catalano, under the patronage of maestro Carlo Loffredo. In his performances, he used to improvise vocalizations in the *scat* style, a technique also practiced by Adriano Celentano at that time. Dalla also studied the vocal style of James Brown, a pioneer of *funk* and *rhythm and blues*, characterized by a deliberately dissonant and rough vocal use, and a tendency towards vocal improvisation that challenged the musical conventions of his time. It was Gino Paoli who discovered him and encouraged him to pursue a solo career. The album Il giorno aveva cinque teste, along with Anidride solforosa and Automobili, is considered a cornerstone in Dalla's discography and in the history of Italian song.