Mina is Italy’s most successful female recording artist of all time, with chart-topping albums in the 1960's and every decade since. A vocalist of great versatility, power, sophistication and drama, but not without a playful side – think Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey and Barbra Streisand all rolled into one quintessentially Italian singing sensation – Mina’s first recordings were issued in 1958. Since then, she has released over 70 singles and as many albums, the most recent of which reached #1 in 2019: a total of more than 1,500 songs, with worldwide sales in excess of 150 million.
Her recordings for the Ri-Fi label – featuring spectacular singing, superb songs and stunning orchestrations – are among the finest to come out of Italy in the mid-60s. Following her initial Italian hits, she enjoyed tremendous success all around the world, but never in English-speaking countries, where very few of her recordings were made available and she remains unknown to all but a small number of hardcore aficionados. This cherry-picked selection of highlights from her matchless Ri-Fi catalogue is designed to remedy that situation.
Standouts include ‘Se Telefonando…’, a sophisticated opus composed and orchestrated by the great maestro Ennio Morricone; ‘È L’Uomo Per Me’, Mina’s chart-topping cover of Jodie Miller’s ‘He Walks Like A Man’; the intense and dramatic ‘L’Immensità’ with its breathtaking long notes; the super-fast and playful ‘Brava’, a song custom-written to show off her great vocal technique; and her gorgeous rendition of Jobim’s ‘Insensatez’.
Compilation and notes by Mick Patrick.
