"Dolce Vita" is a song by Italian musician Ryan Paris, released as a single in 1983. The song was composed by Pierluigi Giombini, the same composer, producer, arranger and keyboard player of "I Like Chopin" and "Masterpiece". It reached the top 10 in many countries. The music video was filmed on-location in Paris.[3]
Interviewed for the book Europe's Stars of '80s Dance Pop Vol. 2, composer Pierluigi Giombini explained the evolution of the song:
It was Gazebo who suggested I should write a song inspired by the title of the famous film. I am a fan of Federico Fellini and like him I admire shapely women. So I began to work on it right away, starting with the baseline on the Minimoog, and then I wrote the melody on top of that. Later, Gazebo wrote the lyrics. It was right about that time I met the future Ryan Paris. Everything came together very quickly. The track was done at Titania Studios in Rome, which is where the entire first Gazebo album was recorded. I got along well with the sound engineer there, Giampaolo Bresciani. I did the arrangement in a couple of days and did the vocals and mix-down in another three days. The synths were basically the same - Minimoog, OB-8, ARP Odyssey and the DMX drum machine. We also used our real hands over the snare.[4]
Interviewed in 2007, Paris described the background to the recording of the song:
Well, I was preparing songs in Italian to participate to the first Rock Italian Festival in 1982 and my keyboard player had to go for one year army service. So I was looking for a new keyboard player and I met Pierluigi Giombini, composer, player and artistic producer of Dolce Vita. The funny thing was that I brought to him to listen songs from me, but singing in Italian by me and he said: "I am doing only English" and he let me hear "Masterpiece" and also "You Are A Danger", number two and five in the Italian chart at that moment. I remained folgorated by the sounds and the melodies of Giombini and I said to him: "I will bring you one of my English songs". That night I composed a new song and three days later I presented it to Giombini who loved the song. We worked on my song two times and one day Giombini told me: "I wrote a song for you but it is not a rock song". When I heard the song I really made a big jump because it was very nice.[5]
There have been least 49 separate releases, in different countries, across different formats, between 1983 and 2009. Countries of release have included Italy, Mexico, UK, Germany, Canada, Portugal, Spain, France, Brazil, Peru, US, Netherlands, Benelux and Sweden.[6] Among the notable versions are:
1983, 12", Extended Disco Mix, UK, Carrere, Clever: CART 289
1983, 12", Maxi, Original Version, Germany, Carrere: 815 396-1
1984, 12", Promo, USA, Carrere: 4Z9 04236
A new version, produced by Emanuele Luzi, and mixed and mastered by Ben Liebrand, was released in 1990, in Germany, Netherlands and Europe, on ZYX Records and Bounce Records.[7]
