Mark Pentleton

Today is a special day on 365songs as my dad celebrates his 70th birthday! When asked if he had any special requests he asked for ‘O Sole Mio, so I hope he enjoys this performance! ‘O Sole Mio is a Neapolitan song dating from 1898. It has been recorded by hundreds of artists worldwide, from Luciano Pavarotti to Bryan Adams, and Elvis Presley had a hit with the song rewritten as It’s Now or Never. It’s actually a lovely song written in the Neapolitan dialect: Ma n’atu sole, cchiù bello, oje ne’, ‘o sole mio sta ‘nfronte a te! “But another sun that’s brighter still, it’s my own sun that’s on your face”.

I hope you enjoy this song today, Dad, and that you have a fantastic birthday!

I was sent a video last week filmed by one of the students who was taking part in a visit to Strasbourg which I organised earlier this year. We had a ’soirée musicale’ one evening and along with the Italian bus driver who accompanied our visit, I sang (or rather tried to sing!) ‘O Sole Mio. I thought I’d post the video here for a laugh – apologies for the bad singing, particularly towards the end! I should also perhaps explain that Nino was holding my iPhone on which the lyrics were written in very small text! Next time I’ll take the iPad – and start playing the song a few tones lower to avoid the high G!

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