{"id":752,"date":"2015-01-25T01:32:19","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T09:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=752"},"modified":"2025-05-30T12:22:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T19:22:56","slug":"we-no-speak-americano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=752","title":{"rendered":"We No Speak Americano"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Renato Carosone -  Tu Vu\u00f2 Fa&#039; L&#039;Americano\" width=\"474\" height=\"356\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BqlJwMFtMCs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You may have heard the international dance hit &#8220;We No Speak Americano,&#8221; which was recorded in 2010 by <span class=\"st\">Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool and producer DCUP. But did you know that the Italian song it&#8217;s based on, &#8220;Tu Vu\u00f2 F\u00e0 l&#8217;Americano&#8221; (&#8220;You Want to Be American&#8221;), goes back to the 1950s? Variations on the song in Italian and English have been performed by scores of stars as diverse as Sophia Loren, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AVXj0n0xNv4\">Brian Setzer Orchestra<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9O72RLP5fF4\">Pitbull<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4mbCpjDWLzI\">Matt Damon and Jude Law<\/a>, and even <a href=\"https:\/\/video.search.yahoo.com\/video\/play;_ylt=A2KIo9TCssRU3CUA1Kf7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByYXI3cnIwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNA--?p=You+no+speak+americano+chipmunk&amp;vid=028ed257336b91f74a0db136489af28e&amp;l=3%3A00&amp;turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608012398539704953%26pid%3D15.1&amp;rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6LPbbFQt8ag&amp;tit=Yolanda+Be+Cool+We+Speak+No+Americano+-+Chipmunk+version&amp;c=3&amp;sigr=11ad9t151&amp;sigt=11o64vook&amp;sigi=11rjidap4&amp;age%5B0%5D=1297640503&amp;fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&amp;&amp;tt=b\">Alvin and the Chipmunks<\/a> since then.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yolanda Be Cool&#8217;s song is based on (and features samples from) the 1956 Italian pop hit &#8220;Tu Vu\u00f2 F\u00e0 l&#8217;Americano,&#8221; which was written in the Neapolitan dialect by Italian singer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dnYX5yIJfdU\">Renato Carosone<\/a> in collaboration with Nicola &#8220;Nisa&#8221; Salerno. It was commissioned for a radio contest, and the song, which combines swing and jazz elements, became a huge hit almost immediately. It was featured in several Italian films by 1960s, including a sexy dance number performance by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UtXWBiI5o-M\">Sophia Loren<\/a> in <em>In Started in Naples<\/em>. It also features in the 1999 film<span class=\"st\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MUd-YP0Dt80\"><em>The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/em><\/a><\/span>. The song satirizes the Americanization that swept Southern Italy after World War II and tells a story of an Italian man who pretends to live like an American, enjoying whisky and soda, rock &#8216;n roll, baseball and Camel cigarettes, but who is still dependent on his parents for money. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_O7YRQGy3_M\">The Puppini Sisters<\/a> sing a spunky, sprightly version of the song in three-part harmony on their album <em>Betcha Bottom Dollar;<\/em> Pit Bull sings a version, &#8220;Bon Bon,&#8221; primarily in Spanish; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0gLaCnCFqWM\">Trio Manouche<\/a> does a Gypsy Jazz-inspired version; and French group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PZ_fSt6eNuM\">The Gypsy Queens<\/a> does a fun version with American jazz chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux in bouncy Neapolitan style. Every version of the song has its own very danceable quirks and charms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may have heard the international dance hit &#8220;We No Speak Americano,&#8221; which was recorded in 2010 by Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool and producer DCUP. But did you know that the Italian song it&#8217;s based on, &#8220;Tu Vu\u00f2 F\u00e0 l&#8217;Americano&#8221; (&#8220;You Want to Be American&#8221;), goes back to the 1950s? Variations on the song &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/?p=752\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">We No Speak Americano<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24],"tags":[491,490,495,484,482,483,492,487,485,481,493,486,480,488,489,494],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauragrey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}