The Word & Music

In Assisi one day last June, Don Giovanni Rossi knelt in chapel before the Blessed Sacrament. Outside, a man pounded down the steep, cobbled street loudly singing a popular tune. Don Giovanni's prayer faltered, and he thought ruefully: "If only that fellow were singing of Jesus, my mind wouldn't wander so."

Promptly Don Giovanni drew up a list of popular songwriters and singers, sent them each a letter: "I enclose a copy of the Gospels for you . . . Please find in it somewhere an inspiration for a song."*

Last week 14 brand-new recordings began spinning on Italy's phonographs. Made by such top performers as the two Fasanos, a blonde-brunette sister team, and Singer Carla Boni and the Angelini Orchestra, the tunes were the kind that might be danced to in any cantina, whistled by any office boy. But the lyrics were different. Sang the Fasano sisters to a one-step that sounded something like The Donkey Serenade:

Three camels are leaving Bethlehem

to protect the Saviour.

They keep clear of Jerusalem, where

Herod is raging.

Every creature sooner or later will serve,

As we are doing, the Infant Jesus.

* Not a new idea in the U.S., where "religiosos" are among the jukebox hits, e.g., Give Us This Day, Somebody Up There Likes Me, I Believe.

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