Author: Laura Rizzo. Publisher: GM Press. Moderated by: Corrado Minervini.
June 1960. A twenty-six-year-old Gino Paoli, not yet registered with the SIAE, submitted a song to Ricordi publishing house, devoid of a hook, constructed around the culmination of an act of love and set in a brothel in Genoa. Already rejected by Alfredo Rossi of Ariston Music Publishing, who had urged Paoli to change careers, “Il cielo in una stanza” found its way into the arms of Mina. She recorded the song and it topped the charts for twenty-seven consecutive weeks. Gino Paoli recorded his version a few months later. The volume dedicated to “Il cielo in una stanza” reveals many anecdotes related to the song’s genesis—the Mogol-Toang title, the rejections, Mina’s first recording, the personal experiences of Paoli and the performer herself, the birth of songwriting at Ricordi in Milan—and forcefully reaffirms the song’s revolutionary stance.