mina (the italian songbird): search and destroy

i've got one of her albums. nice voice but the production's a bit dreary. she does a streisand-esque italian-language cover of "somewhere" (from west side story).

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"Se Telefonando" is among my favourite pop songs of the 60's - it is available on "Studio Uno 66", which I think is quite easy to find.

http://vocecamuna.it/sito/contentimage/minavelenoposter.jpg http://www.drudgereport.com/cs.jpg

check her 60's output, the "Se telefonando"-era has many good moments.
the best collection is called _Mina Gold_, it contains all her key tracks from the early years. don't know about availability in the states.
she started singing a kind of bizarre Italian pop peppered with foreign trends (shake, twist etc): surreal lyrics, some interesting pop hooks and a couple of classics ("Tintarella di Luna" was even covered by OS Mutantes in their second album).
Later songs became more complex and literary, more similar in tone to some existentialist French pop: "Un anno d'amore" is a another total classic.
then, someone told her she could be the italian barbra...