Main Index > Songs By Date > 1996 > 'Disco' La Passione > Soundtrack Album
 
La Passione
Soundtrack Album 1996: WEA Time Warner, EastWest Records,
CD: 0630-16695-2 and 0630-16696-2, Cassette: 0630-16695-4


A film by Chris Rea, La Passione was Shirley Bassey's film debut. Filming began in February 1996 and the soundtrack album was first released in November 1996. The Soundtrack was subsequently re-released in May 1997 as Cinemas began to show the film. Further information about Chris Rea and the film can be found below.
 
Chart Positions

 

Official British Chart   La Passione Soundtrack Album
Entered: Nov 16 1996  Highest: Albums: #41

 

Cover Images


 
Track Listing

01. 4:55 - La Passione (Film Theme)
02. 6:04 - Dov'é Il Signore?
03. 4:42 - Shirley Do You Own A Ferrari? (Shirley Bassey & Chris Rea)
04. 5:16 - Girl In A Sportscar
05. 3:42 - When The Grey Skies Turn To Blue
06. 3:04 - Horses
07. 4:26 - Olive Oil
08. 5:43 - Only To Fly
09. 5:29 - You Must Follow
10. 4:57 - 'Disco' La Passione (Vocals by Shirley Bassey)
11. 2:30 - Dov'é Il Signore? Part Two
12. 3:59 - Le Mans
 
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Background

Chris ReaIn this film Shirley Bassey made her screen debut, not really as an actor, but she appears twice singing. The first occasion is in John's dream singing "Shirley Do You Own A Ferrari?" and dancing with him. Later there is what appears to be a video advertisement for John's vanilla after shave called "La Passione" and Shirley Bassey singing the song La Passione is the background music for it. But Shirley is visible in the beginning and the end of the ad only.

Chris Rea describes his film as "various fantasies of Italy and Ferraris, set to music", so it's a mix of his own real passions: music, cars and Italy. If You're a fan of historical Formula One races or if You're dreaming of driving a Ferrari, this will be the right movie for You. It is mainly about John's dreams about Ferrari's. But for anyone else the movie may be boring. The music is great of course.

Chris Rea began to work on the movie "La Passione" in the winter of 1993/94 but after some interruptions it was finally released in 1996. This soundtrack album reached chart position No. 43 in the UK and the 1997 re-release reached No. 130.
 
Shirley's Comments
About Chris Rea and La Passione

I always said that I never meet anybody interesting on an aeroplane. And one day I was flying from Nice to London and up comes this ..., and I look up and there's my idol - Chris Rea. So, hmm ha nice. We sat all the way to London, chatting. He was telling me about this fantasy musical he had written. And I thought no more, we exchanged phone numbers and addresses.

And then, about three / four week later, I received a package with a song in: "La Passione". So I listened to, and I liked, I loved it, and I called to him, and said: "I love this song." He said: "I think you to sing it in my film.", I said: "You mean over the credits.", and he said: "No, IN the film!", "In the film?" So I said to him: "Does that make me a film star?", and he said: "No, not really."

Well, it's a start. And I'll never say that never meet anybody interesting on aeroplane again. Thanks Chris!
 
Photos
Shirley Bassey in La Passione


 
Chris Rea
Short Biography

This movie is semi-autobiographical for Chris Rea because in his youth he was working in his family's ice cream parlour in Middlesbrough.  He was born 1951 to an Italian father and an Irish mother as Christopher Anton Rea. He had a passion for motor racing and Ferrari. His favourite pastime is to "cook Italian style and a fresh draught beer".

In 1970 he bought his first guitar after being inspired by Joe Walsh and Ry Cooder. Chris Rea said he visited a friend and "He put on a record. It was Joe Walsh. Suddenly the sky lit up. I remember looking out of the window at the sunset and thinking 'this is it'. I went out and bought a guitar and a slide. Instant cure for depression. I was like a child with his first paint box and a blank piece of paper."

In 1973 he joined a local professional band "Magdalene" where he began to develop his song writing skills. In May 1974 Chris Rea's first song "So Much Love" had been recorded and released, but to little notice. In 1977 Rea began to work as soloist and 1978 he had his first chart positioning and the first gold-disc. Many successes followed and he's still very active, releasing records and touring.

External Links: The Official Chris Rea Website and Miro's Chris Rea Page
 
Chris Rea
Biography From Encyclopaedia of Popular Music

Born 4 March 1951, in Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England. Rea is a songwriter, singer and guitarist with a wide following throughout Europe. Of Irish/Italian parentage, he grew up in the north-east of England where his family owned an ice cream parlour. Rea's first group was Magdalene, a local band in which he replaced David Coverdale, who had joined Deep Purple. As Beautiful Losers, the band won a national talent contest in 1975 but remained unsuccessful. Rea went solo, signing to Magnet Records where Gus Dudgeon produced his first album. With a title referring to a suggested stage-name for Rea, it included the impassioned "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" which reached the Top 20 in the US and was later covered successfully in Britain by Elkie Brooks. With the UK in the grip of punk and new wave, Rea's earliest supporters were in Germany, and throughout the first part of the 80s he steadily gained in popularity across the Continent through his gruff, bluesy singing and rock guitar solos, notably the instrumental track, "Deltics". His backing group was led by experienced keyboards player Max Middleton. Rea's most successful record at this time was "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" from Water Sign. In Britain, the breakthrough album proved to be Shamrock Diaries. Both it and "Stainsby Girls" (a slice of nostalgia for the northern England of his adolescence) reached the Top 30 in 1985.

Two years later, Dancing With Strangers briefly went to number 2 in the UK charts although the gritty "Joys Of Christmas" was commercially unsuccessful. In 1988, WEA acquired Rea's contract through buying Magnet, and issued a compilation album which sold well throughout Europe. The album reached the Top 5 in the UK and suddenly Rea was fashionable, something that this unpretentious artist has been trying to live down ever since. This was followed by his first UK number 1, The Road To Hell, one of the most successful albums of 1989/90. The powerful title track told of an encounter with the ghost of the singer's mother and a warning that he had betrayed his roots. Like its predecessor, Auberge topped the UK chart while its title track reached the UK Top 20. "Julia' a track from Espresso Logic became his twenty-seventh UK hit in November 1993. Rea has remained loyal to his roots, refusing to join the rock cognoscenti, but seriously overreached himself with 1996"s misguided film project, La Passione. He sensibly returned to easily accessible, crafted MOR on The Blue Cafe. The following year he took the lead role in Michael Winner's black comedy Parting Shots, and released the disappointing The Road To Hell Part 2. In summer 2000, Rea enjoyed an unlikely club hit in Ibiza with José Padilla's remix of "All Summer Long", taken from his new album King Of The Beach.
 
Short Film Synopsis
From the CD Booklet

Set in 1961, 'La Passione' tells the story of a young boy whose Italian immigrant father struggles to earn a living in England making ice-cream.

His father and uncles tell him of the homeland he comes from, where the 'grey skies turn to blue'. They sit, in April of 1961, and watch the Monaco Grand Prix on their new black and white television. The boy is fascinated by what his uncles are telling him and by what he sees; distant visions of the shark nosed Ferraris and a racing driver by the name of Wolfgang Von Trips, a German count who lived in a castle.

The boy compares this wonderful scenario with his black and grey life in England. He becomes filled with awe and wonder of Italy and the red cars.

Sent to church after the Grand Prix, the boy has his first 'musical fantasy'. The basis of most of his fantasies is old news footage of 1961 collages, mixed with surreal images of Italy, Wolfgang Von Trips and the shark nose cars of the period.

The boy steals the family vanilla recipe (which has been handed down from their grandfather), an ingredient of the ice-cream his family makes. He has noticed that girls love the smell of it. He turns it into a best-selling aftershave, and with his success, he is able to chase his dream of owning and driving a Ferrari and moving back to Italy.

With his success becomes the realisation that it is best to enjoy passions and not let them become obsessions. Now a prosperous businessman, he returns to England to re-unite with his father and rekindle their relationship.
 
Cover Images
From the Video Releases


 

La Passione
 By Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Those fond of the music of Chris Rea will find this movie very satisfying as his music is the backbone of this film. Rea himself does not appear in it, though he wrote the screenplay. The story concerns Jo, a young Italian immigrant to England who steals an ice-cream recipe from his father, runs away from home, makes a best-selling perfume from the recipe, becomes rich and powerful, and then realizes that his family was more important than everything else. One of the film's notable highlights is auto racing footage from the 1960s. Singer Shirley Bassey appears as herself.

Review text © All Movie Guide
 
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