It could be a beautiful day

... if the storm clouds weren't currently rolling in.

But that's not the point.

The point is I had put some Il Volo on my MP3 player and A Beautiful Day showed up while I was at the gym. Yes, it's an Italian operatic pop trio covering an Irish band's famous song. They do a pretty interesting job on it it, I have to admit, but there's a Norwegian by the name of Kurt Nilsen, who covers the song better. I could only find Youtube videos, as it seems like the song isn't on any of Kurt's albums. I would suggest that if you're interested, do some digging to find it.

I found out about Il Volo when I saw their Live From Pompeii concert on the local PBS station a couple weeks ago. They were performing Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare), a song made famous by the likes of Dean Martin and Domenico Modugno (how I first heard of it. Thanks, Dante... for all the Italian lessons. Where are you now????). An interesting cover was recorded by the Gypsy Kings, and it's more on the salsa / samba side of the song (I don't know what else to categorize it as). I own the Bobby Rydell version, as it's on the All The Hits album, but it's also on the Best of Bobby Rydell album (BTW: Thanks Barry; I still have those albums you gave me. They traveled some more).

The Italian's are a cool trio, as I honestly wouldn't have expected them to be set in the opera genre of music, as they look like they belong in the pop world. Maybe that's why it's so hard to classify them under a specific place; my library had them under Classical, Foreign, Pop and some other categories; yet, the power of the Internet says they're "popera" - pop opera. Which explains the variety of music they sing, as most of their songs are pop songs, but their range is in an opera style. It's hard to explain how they fit into so many areas of music. Maybe if you do some listening, you can come to your own conclusion? Kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book?

Until next check in....

Cheers;