Patty Pravo

Charismatic and charming, Patty Pravo has passed through forty years of Italian pop music, changing her image -- first beat queenie, then elegant and provoking chanteuse -- but never compromising an unique personality. Born in Venice 9 April, 1948, Nicoletta Strambelli was bred in an extremely intellectual environment, she had the chance -- the acquaitances of her family including the poet Ezra Pound and cardinal Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII. At the age of 17 she escaped to Rome, where she soon became a dancer in the famous Piper Club. Its owner, Alberigo Crocetta, introduced her to RCA, who in 1967 released her first single, "Ragazzo Triste". The song became immediately a huge success, and Nicoletta, who now presented herself with the nom de plume Patty Pravo, immediately became the feminine symbol of the Italian beat scene, thanks to her particular voice and, even more, because of her androgynous charm. A status confirmed in 1968 by another single, "La Bambola", one of the most successful songs of the decade. Patty Pravo was released in the same year, followed in 1969 by Concerto per Patty and the Lucio Battisti-penned single "Il Paradiso". In 1970 Pravo debuted at the Sanremo Music Festival dueting with Little Tony on "La Spada nel Cuore". Although her popularity didn't seem to be decreasing, Pravo soon started to feel trapped by her own character of "la ragazza del Piper" (the girl from the Piper Club), and decided to tread on new paths. After 1970's Patty Pravo and 1971's Bravo Pravo, she started releasing more rich and complex albums such as 1971's Di Vero in Fondo and Per Aver Visto un Uomo Piangere e Soffrire Dio Si Trasformò in Musica e Poesia and 1972's Sì… Incoerenza. A partial return to more accessible arrangements lead to one of her most...