When I was Cruel No. 2 question

[TX_Fan]

Can someone please enlighten me (and the wife)....What are the background singers saying?.....Point? Boink?

[StrictTime]

Do you mean the Mina sample that's on a loop throughout the whole track? That's in Italian, I suppose...always sounded to me like 'un' but I don't speak Italian. It's from a song called Un Bacio È Troppo Poco (yay for cut and paste). What it means, I couldn't tell you, and I'm nodding off as I type, so if I'm incoherent that would be why. Goodnight, moon.

[Dr. Luther]

Costello was screwing around to use part of the backing track for aforementioned Mina song as a loop (sample).
I suspect that he found that the only way to have the beat flow properly included that "errant" syllable from the vocal.

It seems to be pure Costello luck -- cuz it sure is cool sounding...

[bronxapostle]

if my ITALIAN is nearly correct...it means "ONE KISS IS TOO LITTLE"

[TX_Fan]

Interesting...thank you

I found the Mina song on an EC site...
Down near the bottom of this page.

http://www.elvis-costello.net/audio.php

"Listen to the song that Elvis Costello sampled on 'When I was Cruel 2'
The song is sung by the great Italian 'pop diva' Mina who recorded the song in 1966/67"

The first word in the song has 2 syllables. EC track sounds like the first syllable of that word...it doesn't sound like "Un".

[Otis Westinghouse]

First word of the song is 'Un', as sampled by Elvis, non e vero?

I've never heard the original. Glorious! Thanks for the link!

[johnfoyle]

Nice performance of the sampled song here -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh3rlhwG_ ... re=related

Mina - Un bacio è troppo poco

[Otis Westinghouse]

Ain't that great? Fantastic sound to it, you can see straight off why he thought a sample would work well. Her soaring voice on 'amore' is killer. Awful miming, great video. Those 60s Italians!

[Mikeh]

The beginning of the Mina video is like the start of the New Lace Sleeves video!