Rita Pavone

In 1962 she participated in the first Festival degli Sconosciuti ("Festival of the Unknown"), a song competition for amateur artists, winning the contest. Her self-titled 1963 album, led by the hit single "La partita di pallone" ("The Soccer Game") made her a national star at 17, and international attention soon followed. "La partita di pallone" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Her recording of "Cuore" ("Heart") also sold a million copies in 1963, spending nine weeks at number one in Italy.

In the summer of 1964 she had chart success in North America with a single sung in English titled "Remember Me", backed with "Just Once More". The song reached #26 in the United States and #16 in Canada.

In 1965, Pavone participated as a musician guest on The Ed Sullivan Show, becoming a frequent guest there until 1970. Meanwhile, she scored a string of hits, both with ballads and rock songs, in Spain, where she became a teen idol. Pavone enjoyed so much fame in Spain that it was commented, during a 2005 television documentary from that country, that such success for a foreign singer there is rare.

In the United States she sang alongside Diana Ross and The Supremes, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Jones, Duke Ellington, Paul Anka and a number of singers of the era. It is said that Elvis Presley made a painting of her after she went to Memphis and he met her at a recording studio. Barbra Streisand recorded a duet with her. Pavone sang at Carnegie Hall in New York city during this era.

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