Lucio Dalla

Lucio Dalla OMRI
Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla
Born	(1943-03-04)4 March 1943 Bologna, Italy
Died	1 March 2012(2012-03-01) (aged 68) Montreux, Switzerland
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Bologna, Italy
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	1966–2012 (death)
Notable work	Caruso, Attenti al Lupo, Balla Balla Ballerino, Il Parco Della Luna, Lunedi, L'Ultima Luna
Style	Jazz, opera
Website	luciodalla.it

Lucio Dalla, OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈluːtʃo ˈdalla]; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was a popular Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.

Dalla was the composer of "Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to emblematic Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso.

Dalla was born in Bologna, Italy. He began to play the clarinet at an early age, in a jazz band in Bologna, and became a member of a local jazz band called Rheno Dixieland Band, together with future film director Pupi Avati. Avati said that he decided to leave the band after feeling overwhelmed by Dalla's talent. He also acknowledged that his film, Ma quando arrivano le ragazze? (2005), was inspired by his friendship with Dalla.

In the 1960s the band participated in the first Jazz Festival at Antibes, France. The Rheno Dixieland Band won the first prize in the traditional jazz band category and was noticed by a Roman band called Second Roman New Orleans Jazz Band, with whom Dalla recorded his first record in 1961 and had the first contacts with RCA records, his future music publisher.

Singer-songwriter Gino Paoli hearing Dalla's vocal qualities, suggested that he attempt a soloist career as a soul singer. However, Dalla's debut at the Cantagiro music festival in 1965 was not successful probably due to both his physical appearance as well as his music, which was considered too experimental for the time. His first single, a rendition in Italian of the American traditional standard Careless Love was a failure, as it was his first album, 1999, that was released the following year. His next album, Terra di Gaibola (from the name of a suburb of Bologna), was released in 1970 and contained some early Dalla classics. His first hit was "4 Marzo 1943", which achieved some success due to the Sanremo Festival. The original title of the song was supposed to be "Gesù bambino", however in those years there was still stiff censorial control over the content of songs, and the title was changed to Dalla's birth date.