The "Tarantella Napoletana", also known as the "Italian riff", is a tarantella song that concludes the 1852 opera La festa di Piedigrotta by Luigi Ricci, associated with Naples. It is familiar to North American viewers of popular media as a quintessentially Italian musical riff or melody.
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The tarantella was adapted into the 1950 song "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me", written by Buddy Arnold and Milton Berle, and performed by Evelyn Knight and the Ray Charles Band.[1]
See also
- Arabian riff, "The Streets of Cairo", "The Poor Little Country Maid", "the snake charmer song"
- "Funiculì, Funiculà", another Italian song often used in media as a leitmotif to represent Italy
- Jarabe Tapatío, the "Mexican hat dance"
- Oriental riff, stereotypical pentatonic riff
References
- "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me". Secondhand Songs.