Righeira is the debut studio album by the Italian Italo disco duo Righeira. Produced by La Bionda, it was released on the CGD label on 28 September 1983 in Italy,[nb 1] following the success of the band's first two singles "Vamos a la playa" which reached number 53 on the UK Singles Chart, and "No tengo dinero", which reached number 10 on the Dutch Top 40 chart.
| Righeira | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 28 September 1983 | |||
| Recorded | August – September 1983 | |||
| Studio | Weryton (Munich) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 33:44 | |||
| Label | CGD | |||
| Producer | La Bionda | |||
| Righeira chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Righeira | ||||
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Aside from their already released singles, including the debut single "Tanzen mit Righeira", Righeira recorded the majority of Righeira during studio sessions in Munich, West Germany between August and September 1983. Of the album's 8 songs, six were written by Johnson Righeira.
Recording and production
editIn August 1983, Righeira convened at Weryton Studios in Munich, with engineers Berthold Weindorf and Ben Fenner. By September 1983, eight songs had been recorded and mixed.[2] Righeira were introduced to La Bionda in 1982 and they signed a contract which lasted to 1987.[3][4] As Michelangelo and Carmelo La Bionda had moved their productions to Munich in the mid-1970s, and Righeira was signed to them, they decided they would record their debut album there. La Bionda gave Righeira a chance to experiment with their own sound. Many of the album's songs featured a futuristic and modern sound, including "Vamos a la playa" whose lyrics talks about the explosion of an atomic bomb.[5]
Packaging
editAtipiqa designed and art-directed the album cover for Righeira.[6]
The front of the LP includes a colourful picture featuring Righeira in costumes, standing square in an imaginary museum. The left side of the cover depicts a woman standing on a pedestal.[7] Writing for Rolling Stone in 2018, Eric Pfeil jokingly compared the cover of the album to "Nik Kershaw's hairspray collection", referring to the 1980s style.[7]
Release
editRigheira was released on the CGD label in Italy on 28 September 1983.[8] Initially, the album was planned to be released just before Christmas.[1] The album spawned the hit singles "Vamos a la playa" and "No tengo dinero" which helped Righeira with establishing a reputation as a modern dance duo.[9] "Vamos a la playa" had already became a fan favourite as it was released several months before the debut album. The song managed to reach number 53 on the UK Singles Chart and ultimately made Stefano Righi and Stefano Rota famous in continental Europe. "No tengo dinero" achieved high popularity in the Netherlands and West Germany, peaking at number 10 and 12, respectively.[10][11]
Critical reception
editIn his 2018 review of the album, author Diego Olivas of Fond/Sound wrote:
On Righeira, gone were the themes of love, sex, or stuff of that nature ... Stefano Righi singing about nuclear annihilation, government surveillance, and crippling hypermodernism. "Vamos a la playa" gives the perfect example of what they tried to subterfuge through. Sung completely in Spanish and featuring lyrics about running from a beach to avoid a nuclear bomb’s blast, it was quite possibly one of the bleakest hits to ever soundtrack a summer. On tracks like "Jazz Musik", "Gli parlerò di te", and "Kon Tiki" you get the sense that all the crew involved really took umbrage to decadent Italy, there outré culture was selling, and they themselves didn’t feel privy to. From the album cover to the stilted music, which forced you to contort yourselves to a different kind of groove, everything on Righeira sounded "off" in the most unpretentious, yet surgically designed way they could. Using newfound Fairlight CMI samplers and the laconic motorik of post-disco Europe, Righeira cycled between vibrant structures full of multi-surface meanings and morose structures with vibrant meanings.[12]
Track listing
editAll tracks written by Righeira, except "Jazz Musik" by Hermann Weindorf.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Tanzen mit Righeira" | Stefano Righi | Righi with Rota | 5:31 |
| 2. | "Luciano Serra pilota" | Righi | Righi with Rota | 3:27 |
| 3. | "Gli parlerò di te" | Righi | Righi | 4:19 |
| 4. | "No tengo dinero" |
| Righi with Rota | 3:38 |
| Total length: | 16:55 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Lead vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Disco volante" | Righi | Righi | 4:50 |
| 2. | "Jazz Musik" | Hermann Weindorf | Righi | 3:48 |
| 3. | "Kon Tiki" |
| Righi | 4:32 |
| 4. | "Vamos a la playa" |
| Righi with Rota | 3:39 |
| Total length: | 16:49 | |||
Notes
- Some cassette tape versions in Italy and Germany had "No tengo dinero" and "Vamos a la playa" swapped to be sequenced as the first track on both sides.
Personnel
editCredits adapted from the album's liner notes.[13]
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Righeira
Additional musicians
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Production
Artwork
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Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Arena 2017, p. 114.
- ^ "Righeira – Righeira (1983, Vinyl) - Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
- ^ "Righeira". www.cianciodj.it. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- ^ "Stefano Righi: "L'estate sta finendo e sono diventato grande"". www.quotidiano.net. 6 September 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
- ^ Conze, Eckart; Klimke, Martin; Varon, Jeremy, eds. (2017). Nuclear Threats, Nuclear Fear and the Cold War of the 1980s. Cambridge University Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-107-13628-1.
- ^ "Righeira". asso-articho.blogspot.com. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ a b Pfeil, Eric (28 June 2018). "Eric Pfeils Pop-Tagebuch: Erinnerungen an "Vamos a la playa"". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ "Righeira - Righeira Lyrics and Tracklist | Genius". Genius. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- ^ Roberts 2006, p. 463.
- ^ "Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 1983" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
- ^ "Righeira - No tengo dinero". Offiziellecharts.de. GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
- ^ "Righeira: Righeira (1983)". www.fondsound.com. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
- ^ Righeira (LP liner notes). Righeira. Italy: CGD. 1983. INT 20385.
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Bibliography
edit- Arena, James (2017). Europe's Stars of '80s Dance Pop: 32 International Music Legends Discuss Their Careers. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9781476630144.
- Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 463. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
External links
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