"" ("The boy from Gluck Street") is an Italian pop song by Adriano Celentano, covered by artists from many other countries.
The music of the song is by Adriano Celentano and the lyrics by Luciano Beretta and Miki Del Prete. It was released in 1966 as a double A-side single by Celentano, with "" on the flipside, composed by Paolo Conte with lyrics by Mogol and Miki Del Prete. Both tracks were arranged by Detto Mariano. The tracks' duration was 4:17 for "" and 2:49 for "".
The song originally appeared in March 1966 in Celentano's album and in his follow-up album, , released in November 1966.
The song debuted at the Sanremo Festival in 1966 where it achieved little success. It was eliminated from competition after the first night. But eventually it gained great favour with fans, making it the best-known and most representative of Celentano's songs, and contained many autobiographical references. Via Gluck was the street in Milan where Celentano lived as a boy with his family, and "eight years" ("" meaning "...the years go by, but 8 they are long...") is a reference to the peak of Celentano's recording career, from 1958 to 1966.
Although the song tells a personal story about the loss of a childhood home, it is on a more general level also a wistful lament about the rapid urbanisation during the PostâÂÂWorld War II economic expansion in Europe and the loss of known environment and arable land ("" / ""). Being a prominently discussed phenomenon at the time and a widely felt sentiment, this may have contributed to the song's large success and to its many cover versions and translations into other languages.
In the same year of its original release, Giorgio Gaber recorded a cover version, that was published twice as an attachment to the Italian music magazine Pop. The first time, in March 1966, as a single containing ""/"" ("God, I love you so"), and the second, in June 1966, containing ""/"" ("A house on top of the world"). Giorgio Gaber also released a response to the song named "" ("The response to the boy from Gluck Street").
In 2004, Adriano Celentano recorded the track with new lyrics and released it as "Quel Casinha" ("That Little House") in his album (There's always a reason). The new text was sung in Creole with Cesária ÃÂvora.
In February 2013, the Italian group Almamegretta, together with James Senese, Marcello Coleman and Clementino, performed the song on the fourth evening of the 2013 Sanremo Music Festival.
Belgian band The Cousins covered the song in English as "Story of a Country Boy" on the B-side of their 1966 single "You Will Find Another Baby". The song was the lead track on the 1966 French EP "The new sound of The Cousins", a compilation of both their 1966 singles. It was the final release by the original band, which parted ways a few months after its release.
The song enjoyed very similar popularity in Sweden, when the singer Anna-Lena Löfgren sang it with Swedish language lyrics as "". The song's Swedish lyrics were written by Britt Lindeborg, who based the content on the contemporary gentrification of the Stockholm suburb Hagalund, where she had been raised as a child. It was released in 1967 and was certified gold in Sweden and platinum and diamond in Norway. It used the melody of the Italian song, with completely different lyrics that nonetheless convey the message and moral of the song.
By February 1968, "" had sold 140,000 copies in Sweden, and 100,000 copies in Norway.