Song Of The Day 8/9/2013: Adriano Celentano - "Prisencolinensinainciusol"

There's a short film called Skwerl by a couple of filmmakers named Brian & Karl. The sole premise of the movie is to portray how the English language sounds to people who don't speak it. Kind of sounds like Geordie or Welsh dialects. Or certain pockets of Louisiana. Or anybody who tries to talk to me about religion. It's a clever idea that Gawker compared to Adriano Celentano's 1972 song "Prisencolinensinainciusol," one of the very first big internet memes a few years ago. Celentano is an Italian musician who was very taken with American music, but nonetheless thought it was daft that so many of his counterparts in European pop felt the need to Americanize their music to make it sell. In response he wrote -- well, more like improvised -- a tune whose lyrics were strictly nonsense, sung in as close to an American accent as Celentano could produce. The result was a hit that, naturally, made it to #1 in several European countries. It's devilishly entertaining, and kind of a precursor to Sigur Rós' entire career. Everybody sing along!