Innocenti was an Italian machinery works originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920.

After World War II, the company was famous for many years for Lambretta scooters models such as LI125, LI150, TV175, TV200, SX125, SX150, SX200, GP125, GP150 and GP200.

From 1961 to 1976 Innocenti built under licence the BMC (later the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC)) Mini, with 998 cc and 1275 cc engines, following with other models, including the Regent (Allegro), with engines up to 1485 cc. The company of this era is commonly called Leyland Innocenti. The Innocenti Spyder (1961–1970) was a rebodied version of the Austin-Healey MKII Sprite (styling by Ghia). The car was produced by OSI (near Milan). In 1972 BLMC took over control of the company.

In 1972 the company's land, buildings and equipment were purchased by British Leyland in a deal involving approximately £3 Million. The British company had high hopes for its newly acquired subsidiary at a time when, they reported to the UK press, Italian Innocenti sales were second only to those of Fiat, and ahead of Volkswagen and Renault: there was talk of further increasing annual production from 56,452 in 1971 to 100,000. Demonstrating their ambitions, the British company installed as Managing Director one of their youngest UK based senior executives, "32 year old" former Financial Controller Geoffrey Robinson. Three years later BLMC ran out of money and was nationalised by the UK government.

In 1975, the company passed to Alejandro de Tomaso and was reorganised by the De Tomaso Group under the name Nuova Innocenti. The first model had Bertone-designed five-seater bodywork and was available with 998 cc and 1275 cc engines. Later models from modelyear 1983 used 993 cc engines made by Daihatsu of Japan.

This company made cars until 1992. In the late 1980s, when Fiat took over, Innocenti sold Brazilian-imported versions of the Fiat Uno (Elba station wagon and Uno Mille) for the Italian market. The marque ended in 1996.

List of Innocenti vehicles

1947-1971 Lambretta (motorscooter)

1960-1967 A40/A40S Berlina/Combinata - hatchback Austin A40 Farina

1961-1968 950/1100 Spider - roadster based on Austin-Healey Sprite with original body designed by Ghia

1963-1974 IM3/IM3S/Austin I4/I5 - rebadged sedan BMC ADO16 (Austin/Morris 1100)

1963 Innocenti 186 GT - prototype of the coupé with a 1.8-Litre V6 Ferrari (Dino) engine

1965-1975 Mini - rebadged fastback sedans and station wagons BMC ADO15 (Mini)

1973-1976 Regent - sedan Austin Allegro

1974-1982 Innocenti Mini 90L and 120L - Bertone rebodied Mini

1976-1987 Innocenti Mini de Tomaso - sport version of Innocenti Mini developed by de Tomaso, initially equipped with BLMC 1275 engine, since 1982 with 1.0-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged Daihatsu engine

1982-1992 3-Cilindri/Minitre/650/500 - further development of Innocenti Mini with Daihatsu 3-cylinder and 2-cylinder engines

1986-1992 Mini 990 - longer version of Innocenti Mini with 1.0-litre 3-cylinder Daihatsu engine

1991-1993 Koral - Yugo Koral rebadged for the Italian market

1991-1996 Innocenti Elba - European version of the Brazilian Fiat Elba

1994-1997 Mille - Brazilian Fiat Uno for Italian market (not to be confused with Innocenti Mini version under the same name manufactured between 1980–1982)

References

External links

http://vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/innocenti.htm

http://gerardsgarage.com/GarageContent/UniqueSprites/innocenti/Innocenti.htm

http://ideahobby.it/DB-Auto/innocenti.html

http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/index.htm?inniminif.htm

Photo of large Innocenti boring mill during installation in the United states

Innocenti models with detailed specifications in automobile-catalog.com

Category:Companies established in 1920 Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Italy Category:Innocenti Category:Motorcycle manufacturers of Italy Category:Scooter manufacturers

de:Innocenti fr:Innocenti he:אינוצ'נטי it:Innocenti nl:Innocenti pl:Innocenti pt:Innocenti fi:Innocenti sv:Innocenti

name	Lucio Battisti
background	solo_singer
birth date	March 05, 1943
death date	September 09, 1998
origin	Poggio Bustone, Italy
instrument	voice, guitar, piano
genre	Pop musicPop rockProgressive rockSynth pop
occupation	Singer, songwriter, arranger and guitarist
years active	1966–1994
label	Dischi Ricordi, Numero Uno, CBS, Sony BMG
associated acts	Mina, Mogol }}

Lucio Battisti (5 March 1943 – 9 September 1998) was an Italian singer-songwriter (cantautore). He is considered to be one of the best-known and most influential musicians and authors in Italian pop/rock music history.

Battisti started his career in 1966 and from 1969 to 1994 he released 18 albums in his home country. A significant part of his production was translated into Spanish (various albums) and English (one album). He was renowned to be an extremely reserved artist: during his successful career he performed only a small number of live concerts, and in the early 1980s he announced he would communicate only through his studio albums, completely disappearing from the Italian public scene.

Biography

Musician and composer

Battisti was born in Poggio Bustone, a town in the province of Rieti (northern Lazio), and moved with his family to Rome in 1950. A self-taught guitarist, Battisti made his debut as musician in the 1960s, performing in local bands in Rome, Naples and later in Milan where he joined I Campioni (The Champions), the support band of then famous singer Tony Dallara. He also travelled abroad as a working musician, in Germany and England, where he absorbed the music of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, blues and soul - among others - which he later introduced into Italian Pop music.

In Milan he found the support of the French talent scout, Christine Leroux, who worked for the Ricordi music label. Under Leroux's wing Battisti penned three sizeable hits in 1966 for other artists ("Per una lira" for Ribelli, "Dolce di giorno" for Dik Dik, and "Uno in più" for Riki Maiocchi). Leroux also introduced Battisti to lyricist Giulio Rapetti, better known as Mogol: though not impressed at first by Battisti's music, Mogol later declared to have started the collaboration after recognizing Battisti's humble, though determined, desire to improve his work. Mogol also pushed Ricordi to allow Battisti to sing his own songs: Battisti's voice became the focal point of his strength and originality. As a singer, he made his debut with the song "Per una lira" in 1966: despite the song's poor success (only 520 copies sold throughout Italy!), it allowed him to begin building his career as a singer.

Battisti continued to write for others, in the late 1960s: the US rock group The Grass Roots scored a hit stateside with one of Battisti's compositions, "Balla Linda", translated as "Bella Linda". With the same song, Battisti classified fourth in the Cantagiro, a then popular Italian Pop music competition. 1969 saw another one of Battisti's compositions, "Il Paradiso", become a hit in the UK when it was covered by the group Amen Corner as "(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice", hitting the number one spot on the singles chart. In the same period another English band, The Hollies - featuring Graham Nash - recorded a Battisti song in Italian, "Non prego per me".

Success as a solo singer in 1970s – The Mogol-Battisti duo

In the same year Battisti took part in the Festival of Sanremo, with the song "Un'avventura", and his popularity began to increase. His first great hit was "Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara", which won the Festivalbar. The same year, Ricordi issued Battisti's self-titled debut album. During this successful year he met Grazia Letizia Veronese, who later married and lived with Battisti until his death.

Forming a strong and highly successful duo with lyricist Mogol, Battisti continued to issue solo albums on a regular basis throughout the 1970s: in almost every case they reached the highest places in his country's charts, and are regarded as classics of Italian Pop Music ("musica leggera"). He also became a popular TV presence.

In 1970 Battisti won Festivalbar for the second time in a row, with the song "Fiori rosa, fiori di pesco", and started to collaborate with Mina, who sang some of Mogol-Battisti's finest tunes. In December, Ricordi issued Battisti's second LP, "Emozioni", which was a compilation of previously released singles. Battisti was really angry about this, as he had composed a concept album called Amore e non amore, but his label chose to release the compilation rather than the album, which was considered to be too experimental and advanced for the Italian audience.

Amore e non amore was eventually released in July 1971, but in order to preserve their creative freedom, Battisti and Mogol moved over to Numero Uno, one of Italy's first independent record labels, founded by them in the fall of 1969.

The new label released Umanamente uomo: il sogno (1972) followed by the even more successful Il mio canto libero (1972). The latter topped the Italian charts for 8 weeks: one of its songs - "Io vorrei, non vorrei, ma se vuoi" - was later recorded by Mick Ronson with lyrics translated by David Bowie, as "Music Is Lethal" (on the album Slaughter on 10th Avenue). The song "Il Mio Canto Libero" has remained one of the most popular songs ever among Italians. Another successful album was Il nostro caro angelo (1973).

Anima Latina (1974) is considered Battisti's most complex and multi-layered work, a new personal approach to Prog Rock music with an increased attention to rhythms and increasingly cryptic lyrics by Mogol; nonetheless, their work enjoyed a good success, remaining for 13 weeks at number one in Italian charts.

La batteria, il contrabbasso, ecc., released in 1976 and including the hit "Ancora tu" was an even bigger success; many of the songs clearly showing the artist's interest in the then-emerging Disco sounds and production values that would have a large influence on his three subsequent albums.

In 1977 he released Io tu noi tutti. He also relocated to Los Angeles, and issued an album, Images, that featured some of his biggest hits re-recorded in English. However, the attempt to equal his European success in the United States failed. In 1978 Battisti released Una donna per amico: recorded in London and produced by Geoff Westley, it was his best-selling LP ever. This was followed in 1980 by Una giornata uggiosa, produced by the same team. It contained Battisti's last great success, "Con il nastro rosa". Considered one of the duo's best compositions ever, it featured a very fine (and long) guitar solo by Phil Palmer. Battisti's songs written with Mogol continue to be covered by artists with an international reputation; a more recent example is Tanita Tikaram's And I Think Of You (E Penso A Te).

Battisti, a rather shy person, had always been reluctant to talk about himself and his work. In early 80s he declared he would no longer make public appearances nor release any interviews: in his words "[he was going to] speak no more, since an artist must communicate with the public only through his work". In some very rare occasions, though, he appeared as a TV guest in other countries such as France, Switzerland and Germany, and only after 1982 his vow can be considered completely fulfilled, with a perseverance similar to that of J. D. Salinger and other famous recluses.

The "Second period"

In 1981 Battisti broke the partnership with Mogol, switching to a more experimental, sometimes weird inspiration, based often on electronic instruments. The LPs of his "second period", starting from E già of 1982 (with lyrics by his wife), received a mixed reception from both critics and audiences. Mogol started to work with Riccardo Cocciante; in 1990, he declared he had not listened to Battisti's LPs for many years.

From 1986, starting with Don Giovanni, to 1994, the lyrics on Battisti's albums were written by the poet Pasquale Panella. Don Giovanni combined a return to classic "Battistian" melodies with lyrics which some felt were weird and often meaningless. Others, however, understood the lyrics to be cryptic: an intellectual mind game of sorts. Don Giovanni had a reasonable success in Italy.

The following L'apparenza (1988), however, again contained rather impervious lyrics; its success was worse than the one had by Don Giovanni, in chart position as well as in sales volumes. La sposa occidentale (1990) was released for CBS, and marked another fall in sales and success. The declining sales were hardly a concern for Battisti: it was rumoured that in the 1990s he was earning 4-5 billion lire a year (approximately 3 million Euro in 2006) solely from author rights of his 1970s songs.

Battisti's last albums were Cosa succederà alla ragazza (1992) and Hegel (1994).

On 9 September 1998, Battisti died in a Milan hospital. The New York Times said the cause was cancer. The news was immediately reported by the media and spread quickly throughout the country, generating an unprecedented wave of emotion for the singer-songwriter. He was later buried in the cemetery of Molteno, the town where he had spent his last years with his family, far from the show business circus.

Several compilations of his best tracks have surfaced after Battisti's death, including 2000's Battisti and 2001's Canzoni d'amore. His catalogue is published by BMG Music Publishing.

Influence and praise

Through the years, Battisti consolidated his status as one of the most well-known Italian singers. His songs remain immensely popular in Italy, and are often performed live by other notable musicians.

Discography

Albums

rowspan="4" 1970 1970 rowspan="2" align="center" rowspan="2" align="center" 1973 1974 1976 rowspan="2"RCA 1978 1980 1982 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994

Name	! Year	! Released by	! Position in Italianyear Hit Parade	! Peak in Italianweekly Hit Parade
Lucio Battisti (album)	Lucio Battisti	1969	Ricordi ||	3	1
Lucio Battisti Vol. 2)	|		0
Emozioni	|	4 (1971)	1 (1971)
Amore e non amore	1971 ||	10	1
Lucio Battisti vol. 4	19 (1972) || align="center"|3 (1972)
Umanamente uomo: il sogno	1972 ||	Numero Uno	2	1
Il mio canto libero	1 (1973) || align="center"|1 (1973)
Il nostro caro angelo	|		2	1
Anima latina	|		8 (1975)	1 (1975)
La batteria, il contrabbasso, eccetera	|		3	1
Io tu noi tutti	1977 ||		2	1
Images (Lucio Battisti album)	Images	|	59	11
Una donna per amico	|	Numero Uno	4	1
Una giornata uggiosa	|		5	1
E già	|		14	1
Don Giovanni (album)	Don Giovanni		|	3	1
L'apparenza	|		17	2
La sposa occidentale	|	CBS	34	3
Cosa succederà alla ragazza	|	Sony / Columbia Records	57	5
Hegel (album)	Hegel	|	Numero Uno	68	5

Singles

align="center" rowspan="12" 1967 align="center" rowspan="2" align="center" align="center" rowspan="3" align="center" align="center" rowspan="2" align="center" rowspan="4" align="center" align="center" align="center" rowspan="3" align="center" align="center" 1973 1974 align="center" 1976 1977 1978 1980 1982

Single	! Year	! WeeklyHit Parade	! Weekson the top	! Released by	! YearHit Parade
"Per una lira" / "Dolce di giorno"	1966	||		Ricordi || align="center"
"Luisa Rossi" / "Era"	|
"Prigioniero del mondo" / "Balla Linda"	1968 ||	17		87
"La mia canzone per Maria" / "Io vivrò (senza te)"	||
"Un'avventura" / "Non è Francesca"	1969 ||		15	70
"Dieci ragazze" / "Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara"	3||		19
"Mi ritorni in mente" / "7 e 40"	1||	2	11
"Fiori rosa, fiori di pesco" / "Il tempo di morire"	1970||	2		10
"Anna" / "Emozioni"	1||	7	6
"Pensieri e parole" / "Insieme a te sto bene"	1971||	1	14	1
"Dio mio no" / "Era"	5||		38
"Le tre verità" / "Supermarket"	9||		69
"La canzone del Sole" / "Anche per te"	1||	1	Numero Uno	7
"Elena no" / "Una"	1972||	21		Ricordi	91
"I giardini di Marzo" / "Comunque bella"	1||	7	Numero Uno	4
"Il mio canto libero" / "Confusione"	1||	9		3
"La collina dei ciliegi" / "Il nostro caro angelo"	|	1		12	6
"Due mondi" / "Abbracciala, abbracciali, abbracciati"	|
"Ancora tu" / "Dove arriva quel cespuglio"	|	1		12	1
"Amarsi un po'" / "Sì, viaggiare"	|	1		8	1
"Una donna per amico" / "Nessun dolore"	|	1		11	2
"Una giornata uggiosa" / "Con il nastro rosa"	|	2			17
"E già" / "Straniero"	|	6		52

English language recordings

A few of his songs were translated into the English language. The album Images was the only official worldwide release, however in Britain a single was published with two other translations: "Baby It's You"("Ancora tu") and "Lady" ("Donna selvaggia donna"). A full translation of the album Una donna per amico, to be called Friends, which had the above songs, was recorded but never published. The two songs and the album were translated and produced by Frank Musker. (, , )

Full list of Battisti's English recordings, according to : ;Released :* Images :* "Baby It's You" ("Ancora tu") :* "Lady" ("Donna selvaggia donna") ;Unreleased :* "My Father Told Me" - instrumental of "Nel sole, nel vento, nel sorriso, e nel pianto" :* "Wake Me I'm Dreaming - "Mi ritorni in mente" :* "You and Your Tomorrow" - "Acqua azzurra, acqua chiara" :* The following were considered for Images, translated not by Peter Powell but by Marva Jan Marrow: ::* "Star in a Film" - "L'interprete di un film" ::* "Since I Have Forgotten About You" - "Eppur mi son scordato di te" with different accompaniment melody and an acoustic guitar ::* "Our Dear Angel" - "Il nostro caro angelo" ::* "Freedom Song" - An alternate translation of "Il mio canto libero", sung solo and with guitar ::* "The Sun Song" - An alternate translation of "La canzone del sole", set to the original Italian version's melody ::* "To Love a Bit" - "Amarsi un po'", the words were changed into "To feel in love" for the album :* Friends - A translation of the album Una donna per amico, replacing the song "Maledetto gatto" with translations of two of his other hits. All the songs were translated by Frank Musker. ::# "Baby it's You" - shorter version ::# "I Think of You" - previous hit "E penso a te", different from the tribute by Tanita Tikaram ::# "Take it as it Comes" - "Prendila così" ::# "Lady" - slightly different from released version ::# "Day to Day" - "Perché no" ::# "Afraid of Falling" - "Aver paura di innamorarsi troppo" ::# "Pain is Gone" - "Nessun dolore" ::# "A Woman as a Friend" - "Una donna per amico" ::# "Goin' to the Movies" - "Al cinema" :* "Pain is Gone" and "A woman as a Friend" were recorded twice. The first version of "Pain is Gone" places an emphasis on bongos and the chorus sings "Nessun dolore" in the background; the second version has an English repetition in the background. The only major difference between the two "A Woman as a Friend" versions is the second verse.

References

External links

www.luciobattisti.info - Discography and others information about the singer Full discography

Category:1943 births Category:1998 deaths Category:People from the Province of Rieti Category:Italian male singers Category:Italian musicians Category:Italian singer-songwriters

ar:لوتشو باتيستي cs:Lucio Battisti de:Lucio Battisti es:Lucio Battisti eu:Lucio Battisti fr:Lucio Battisti it:Lucio Battisti la:Lucius Battisti lmo:Lucio Battisti hu:Lucio Battisti pl:Lucio Battisti pt:Lucio Battisti