"Johnny Americano"

"Wey! Gianni Americano!"
   Experimental move of a post from The Book of Face ...
   Originally posted to FB on 17 May, 2014, 3:13am
   From the original MyLifeandTimes.Org blog, dated 1 Sep, 2004, 1:47am

   Then reposted *here* on 17 August, 2017, 21:07

   ... and now reposted *again* after being stolen in April of 2021 and recovered in Jan of 2023
 (now my head hurts ...)

Not long after I arrived and moved into my apartment, the neighbor kids dubbed me "Johnny Americano" or, more likely, "Gianni" Americano. They'd wave and yell "Wey! Gianni Americano!" as I came and went. I liked it. 

I was "Johnny Americano."

And I would often hear people singing a particular song all the time - or parts of it - (when I was around) that I called "Americano." It had a toe-tappy kinda catchy rhythm and tune but, all I could make out of the words -- since I didn't understand Italian -- was something about "I wanna be an Americano," and something about "Baseball, and Whiskey and Soda."

​*Then* ... when I found out that Sophia Loren, my 1st childhood "celebrity crush" (who am I kidding, I still love this woman and she's almost 80 as I write this) sang this song in one of her movies, I *really* liked the song. ​​

Then I found out that there was an original version by a guy named 'Renato Carosone' called "Tu vuò fà l'americano" or "You Want to Be American."

... but I still liked Sophia's version. This one was pretty good, though.

2012 UPDATE ... surfing around Youtube, I found a version done by one of my favorite musicians and his band at a concert of theirs recorded, of all places, in Japan.

** ANOTHER UPDATE! ** The annoying dance version which, for some reason the creators had requested to be locked up for quite a while and "for YouTube only" is now available to share! It's slightly annoying, but the video is kinda cool ... if you can stand it ...

As I said, most people find this rearranged pop-dance version, well ... annoying (ask my wife).  But my history with this song and my step-hometown of Casale di Principe kinda bound me to it.

And Sophia still reigned ... So there you have it ... a brief musical history of "Gianni Americano" ...