Don Backy

Don Backy — Biography

Italian singer-songwriter Don Backy, born Aldo Caponi, had a run of hits in the 1960s and went on to work as an actor, novelist, essayist, comics author and painter. He is remembered for songs such as Amico, L'immensità and Poesia, and since the 1990s he has returned to the spotlight through nostalgia-themed events and television programmes.

Born in Santa Croce sull'Arno, he learned guitar as a child. After seeing Rock Around the Clock in 1956 he turned to rock and roll, performing in the evenings with a band of friends while working days at a tannery, and in 1960 he recorded his first 45 rpm single in Rome on his own. His professional career began under the stage name Agaton; he then signed with Adriano Celentano's label Clan Celentano, took the name Don Backy and scored hits between 1962 and 1967, performing L'immensità at the 1967 Sanremo Festival; the song was later adapted into Ukrainian for Sofia Rotaru. He contributed to Celentano's album Azzurro, and in 1968 he left the label to found his own, Amico. Later he composed Mina's 1976 hit Nuda, and in 1981 his song Importa niente became the opening theme of Domenica in.

In the same period he moved into film, breaking out in The Seven Cervi Brothers and then appearing in Satyricon (1969), Le calde notti del Decameron (1972), Poppea: A Prostitute in Service of the Emperor (1972) and Rabid Dogs (1974).