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"" () is a Neapolitan song written in 1898. Its Neapolitan-language lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurro and the music was composed by Eduardo di Capua (1865–1917) and Alfredo Mazzucchi (1878–1972). The title translates literally as "my sun" or "my sunshine". The lyrics have been translated to other languages.

For nearly 75 years after its publication, the music of O sole mio was generally attributed to Eduardo di Capua alone. According to the traditional account, he had composed it in April 1898 in Odessa, while touring with his father's band. It turned out, however, that the melody was an elaboration of one of 23 he had bought from Alfredo Mazzucchi in the preceding year.

In November 1972, shortly after her father's death, Mazzucchi's daughter lodged a declaration with Italy's Office of Literary, Artistic and Scientific Property, which sought to have her father recognised as a co-composer of 18 of di Capua's songs, including O sole mio. In October 2002, Maria Alvau, a judge in Turin, upheld the declaration, ruling that Mazzucchi had indeed been a legitimate co-composer of the 18 songs, because they included melodies he had composed and then sold to di Capua in June 1897, with a written authorisation for the latter to make free use of them. At the time of the decision, therefore, O sole mio had not yet entered into the public domain in any country that was a party to the Berne Convention during the relevant period, which it would have done in Italy if Di Capua had been the sole composer of the music.

Lyrics

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Refrain:

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|style="vertical-align: top;"|<poem style="margin-left:-1em; width:30em;">What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!

The air is serene after a storm,

The air is so fresh that it already feels like a celebration.

What a beautiful thing is a sunny day!

But another sun, even more beauteous, oh my sweetheart, Beniamino Gigli, Richard Tucker, Jan Peerce and Mario Lanza. Sergio Franchi recorded this song on his 1962 RCA Victor Red Seal debut album Romantic Italian Songs. Luciano Pavarotti won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance for his rendition of O sole mio.

Legacy

At the opening ceremony of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, O sole mio was played in place of the Italian national anthem, whose sheet music had not been delivered to the band.

A series of television commercials for Cornetto ice cream, broadcast regularly in Britain during the 1980s, used a jingle ("Just One Cornetto ...") set to the melody of O sole mio. The jingle was widely reported as having been performed by Renato Pagliari, but after Pagliari's death in 2009, his son denied this.

In January 2025 Mark Steyn profiled the song, including its origins, in his Song of the Week series.

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Sheet music for O sole mio"