Nico Fidenco

Singer and composer Nico Fidenco was born Domenico Colarossi in Rome, Italy on January 24, 1933. He was best known as a film composer although he first came to prominence as a pop singer. A self-taught musician, he began his musical career in 1960 when he worked as a composer for the RCA Italiana label. Eventually, he began singing and released the 1961 hit “What a Sky” (originally from the film Silver Spoon Set aka The Dauphins). He then began recording tracks from other films including "Moon River," “Il Mondo di Suzie Wong,” and “Exodus”. Nico Fidenco also began recording versions of popular songs and several pop albums before he branched into composing music for films. His work was diverse as he tackled soundtracks for spaghetti westerns, detective films, and even softcore erotic films. He began a prolific career as a film composer with titles such as All'Ombra di un Colt (1965), Supercolpo di 7 Milliardi (1966), La Voglio Morto (1968), El ‘Che’ Guevara (1968), Commando di Spie (1970), and La Ragazzina (1974). In 1975, he began collaborating with director Joe D’Amato by composing for his Emmanuelle series as well as other films including Sasso Nero (1978), Imagini di Un Convento (1979) and Porno Holocaust (1981). While his career as a film composer was successful, Nico Fidenco returned to his roots and released the occasional album as a singer including La Mia Mania (1981), Direzione Vietata (1989), and Canzone d’Italia (1998). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he also performed music from Japanese animated films including songs such as "Fantasupermega", "Microsuperman", "Hela Supergirl,” and “Cyborg i Nove Supermagifici”. In 1984, he joined the Italian pop group I Super 4 with Riccardo Del Turco, Jimmy Fontana and Gianni Meccia and recorded several albums. Nico Fidenco officially retired in 2014 and died on November 19, 2022, in the age of 89.