That's Amore
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtmsIq0-T54& That's Amore
"That's Amore" is a 1952 song by composer Harry Warren and lyricist Jack Brooks. It became a major hit, signature song for Dean Martin in 1953. Amore means "love" in Italian, that's love.
The song first appeared in the soundtrack of the Martin and Lewis comedy film The Caddy, released by Paramount Pictures on August 10, 1953.
The track that was used for the single released by Capitol Records was recorded on August 13, 1953 (Session 3098; Master 11694-6), with the orchestra conducted by Dick Stabile, at Capitol Records' studios at 5505 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. On November 7, 1953, Martin's record of the song, with "You're The Right One" (which was recorded at the same session as "That's Amore") on the flip side, peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts. The song was kept from the #1 spot when Les Paul and Mary Ford's Capitol Records single "Vaya Con Dios" returned to the #1 spot after being knocked out by Stan Freberg's Capitol Records single "St. George And The Dragonet", which had been #1 for the past four weeks, after "Vaya Con Dios" had been #1 for the nine previous weeks.
The song remains closely identified with Dean Martin; That's Amore was used as the title for a 2001 video retrospective of Martin's career, and his son Ricci Martin entitled his 2002 biography That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin. As an iconic song, "That's Amore" remains a secondary signature song
In popular culture
The song was introduced to a new generation when Martin's 1953 version was played as the opening theme song for the award-winning 1987 movie, Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia.
Spider Robinson's 1993 book The Callahan Touch featured many bad puns on the lyrics, such as "When you swim in the sea/And an eel bites your knee/That's a moray", and "A New Zealander man/With a permanent tan/That's a Māori". The popularity of the book led to the creation of such puns becoming a recognized joke form in some circles. An example from the prepress industry: "When a screen hits your eye/With a strange DPI/That's a Moiré".
On the TV show Strangers with Candy, the structure of the song was mimicked in a poem entitled Packing a Musket ("When they're beggin' you please/To get down on your knees/Near their 'groinage'/'Scusa me,/But you see,/Don't you touch where they pee/Without 'coinage'.")
Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West also frequently cover the song in concert, with drummer Vince Ditrich taking the lead vocal.
The song usually plays as the opening theme music for Pizza, the Australian comedy series on SBS.
The song has also been used in episodes of The Simpsons.
In the beginning of the Frasier episode The Crucible, Dr. Frasier Crane sings the first line of this song when he has no callers at the start of his radio show.
In the 2007 film Walk Hard, Dewey Cox performs this song in a studio recording session, much to the displeasure of those around him. It was included in the iTunes-exclusive version of the soundtrack.
The song is sung by James Marsden in another Disney movie, Enchanted, when Giselle and Robert Philip go to the Bella Notte Restaurant and is featured on the soundtrack.
On an episode of WWF Smackdown! where Stone Cold Steve Austin is beating on Booker T in the frozen food aisle, Austin grabs a frozen pizza and a large sausage roll and sings the first verse of the song before striking Booker T in the head with the pizza.
"That's Amore" was a reality television show and spin-off of the MTV reality show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Domenico Nesci, a contestant from A Shot at Love, will be trying to win over a women's heart, Italian style. The show will also feature Ashley, another contestant from A Shot at Love, helping Dominico find his true love.
The song appears in the game Karaoke Revolution Party.
