"Prisencolinensinainciusol" is a song composed by Italian singer Adriano Celentano, and performed by Celentano and his wife, singer/actress-turned-record producer Claudia Mori. It was released as a single in 1972, and a popular performance of the song was broadcast on RAI.
Language
The song is intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent, vaguely reminiscent of Bob Dylan; however, the lyrics are deliberately unintelligible gibberish with the exception of the words "all right". Celentano's intention with the song was not to create a humorous novelty song but to explore communication barriers. "Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did. So at a certain point, because I like American slang—which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than Italian—I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything." In this case, Celentano exemplifies the linguistic concept of glossolalia. This is the phenomenon where someone uses a foreign language which they normally cannot speak. He uses sounds borrowed from American English, which form no words at all, and therefore have no discernible meaning.
Releases and versions
The original version of the track was released as a single on 3 November 1972, and appeared on Celentano's album Nostalrock the following year. For its UK release, the single was given the simpler title of "The Language of Love ". The song appeared on the 2008 dance compilation album . Celentano later recorded a version with real Italian lyrics; this version, released on his 1994 album Quel Punto, was named "Il Seme del Rap" and served as a hip hop parody. In 2016, Celentano released a new recording of the song ; this version featured the music of Benny Benassi and vocals from Mina. Celentano performed the song at least twice on Italian television. In the fourth episode of the 1974 variety seriesMilleluci, he dances with Raffaella Carrà, who lip-syncs to Mori's vocals. In an episode of Formula Due, the song appears in a comedy sketch in which he portrays a teacher. Video clips of both performances, both separate and edited together, began to appear on YouTube in the late 2000s. It became something of an Internet meme, and in 2009 it was posted to Boing Boing, and subsequently saw renewed interest in the Italian media. In 1992, remixes of the song by Molella and Fargetta were released on CD Single, along with the original version, to promote the compilation Superbest. An interpretation of part of the song by French actor José Garcia appeared in the 2002 filmQuelqu'un de bien; a full version of this interpretation was released as a single with the title "Prisencoli". In 2008, Italian singer Bugo covered the song, which he played on tour around Italy. A remix by the Spanish DJ duo Los Massieras was released in 2010 under the title "Allrighty". In September 2017, the Americanrock groupTub Ring released an album called "A Choice of Catastrophes", which includes a cover of "Prisencolinensinainciusol". In 2017, the song was included in the soundtrack of "The Law of Vacant Places", the first episode of the third season of the FXtelevision seriesFargo, over Ray Stussy and Nikki Swango participating in a bridge tournament. In 2018, the song was included in the soundtrack of "Lone Star", the second episode of the FX television series Trust. In 2018, the song discussed in the podcast Omnibus. This song is also used as one of the revolving bumper music intros into the Rush Limbaugh radio show. In 2019 comedian James Adomian covered the song on his podcast The Underculture, using his impression of psychoanalyst and philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
