Don Backy

Aldo Caponi (born 21 August 1939), known professionally as Don Backy, is an Italian singer-songwriter and actor. Born in Santa Croce sull'Arno, Caponi spent his early years in Castellammare di Stabia before returning to his hometown in 1955. In the late 1950s, particularly after watching the film Rock Around the Clock, he became passionate of rock and roll and decided to pursue a musical career, founding the rock band Kiss. After self-producing several singles, mainly consisting of cover versions of American rock songs, in 1961 he started a professional career with the stage name Agaton. Thanks to the song "La storia di Frankie Ballan", inspired by American folk singers, Caponi attracted the interest of Adriano Celentano's record label Clan Celentano, that put him under contract. Adopted the stage name Don Backy, he soon became a prominent figure in the label, achieving several hits between 1962 and 1967, notably "Amico", "L'amore", "Serenata", "L'immensità" and "Poesia". In 1968, Don Backy accused and sued Celentano and his label for having allegedly altered the accounting of his record sales; this clash led to Celentano, being his producer, preventing him from taking part in the Sanremo Music Festival with his compositions "Casa bianca" and "Canzone", and to Don Backy leaving the label to found his own record label Amico. In the same period, Don Backy also started a parallel acting career following his breakout in Gianni Puccini's The Seven Cervi Brothers. In 1971, he left Amico to join Compagnia Generale del Disco, with whom he got two major hits, Sanremo Music Festival 1971 entry "Bianchi cristalli sereni" and "Fantasia", and after working for other labels in the late 1970s he founded his label Ciliegia Bianca. In 1976, he composed Mina's hit "Nuda". In 1978, he wrote a musical comedy, Sognando, and in 1981 his song "Importa niente" became opening theme of Domenica in. Starting from the second half of the 1980s, he focused his musical career on concerts and live performances. Starting from the 1990s, he frequently returned to the spotlight thanks to nostalgia-themed events and television programs. His variegated career also include novels, essays, comics, and painting. Studio albums 1965 - L'amore 1968 - Casa bianca 1968 - Le quattro stagioni di Don Backy 1971 - Fantasia 1973 - Io più te 1978 - Sognando 1979 - Vivendo cantando 1981 - Difetti e virtù 1981 - Teomedio (Uccello di Rapina) 1984 - Spring, Summer, Autunm & Winter 1988 - Rock and Roll / Otto belle signore 1990 - Finalmente... 1992 - Sulla strada 1994 - X amore e X rabbia 1995 - Carnevalando 2003 - Signori si nasce e io lo nacqui 2006 - Ieri e oggi 2010 - Il mestiere delle canzoni 2015 - A noi piacevano gli Everly Brothers 2017 - Pianeta donna The Monk of Monza by Sergio Corbucci (1963) Super rapina a Milano by Adriano Celentano (1964) Bandits in Milan (aka The Violent Four) by Carlo Lizzani (1968) The Seven Cervi Brothers by Gianni Puccini (1968) The Tough and the Mighty by Carlo Lizzani (1969) Satyricon by Gian Luigi Polidoro (1969) The Fourth Wall by Adriano Bolzoni (1969) Mafia Connection by Camillo Bazzoni (1970) Una cavalla tutta nuda by Franco Rossetti (1972) When Women Were Called Virgins by Aldo Grimaldi (1972) Poppea: A Prostitute in Service of the Emperor by Alfonso Brescia (1972) Rabid Dogs by Mario Bava (1974) Loves, Beds and Betrayals by Alfonso Brescia (1977) Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man by Bernardo Bertolucci (1981) Bread and Tulips by Silvio Soldini (2000) Impotenti esistenziali by Giuseppe Cirillo (2009) Bassignano, Ernesto; Lipari Felice (1990). "Don Backy". Castaldo, Gino (edited by). Dizionario della canzone italiana. Curcio Editore. pp.575-6. Deregibus, Enrico (2006). "Don Backy". Dizionario completo della canzone italiana. Giunti. p. 168. ISBN 978-88-09-04602-3. Anselmi, Eddy (2009). Festival di Sanremo: almanacco illustrato della canzone italiana. Panini. pp. 188–91, 689. ISBN 978-8863462296. Lancia, Enrico (2003). Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli artisti : Vol. 3, Gli attori dal 1930 ai giorni nostri. A - L. Gremese Editore. pp. 35–6. ISBN 978-88-8440-213-4. Cerchiari, Luca (25 August 2020). Mina (in Italian). Mondadori. ISBN 978-88-357-0096-8. Official site Don Backy discography at Discogs Don Backy at IMDb