Artist
GENCO PURO & CO.
Despite the name Genco Puro & Co. was not a group,
but a solo artist from Sicily, whose real name was Riccardo Pirolli.
Under the name Riccardo Rolli he released three
singles for Durium and Decca in the late 60's, then was in Cristalli Fragili
with Gianni Mocchetti and Gianfranco D'Adda
and along with them played on Fetus, the first album by Franco
Battiato, who, in return, helped him for the
release of the Area di servizio LP.
The album is mainly song based, built on keyboards and guitars, with Battiato singing in the best tracks Giorno d'estate and Nebbia, and seven of the 12 tracks on the LP composed by one Ed De Joy, who was, according to many sources, Franco Battiato himself.
After a later single taken from the LP, Pirolli has stayed in the musical world as arranger and sound engineer. He is not to be confused with the similarly named drummer Roberto Genco that released a jazz-rock LP in 1977.
| LP | |||
| Area di servizio | Bla Bla (BBL 11053) | 1972 | single cover |
| BTF/VinylMagic (VMLP 246) | 2022 | reissue of the above with red vinyl and poster - issued for Record Store Day 2022 | |
CD |
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| Area di servizio | Artis (ARCD 040) | 1992 | reissue of 1972 album with two bonus tracks from the first single - now deleted |
| BTF/VinylMagic (VM CD 119) | 2007 | as above - new reissue with mini-LP cover | |
SINGLES (with picture sleeves) |
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| La famiglia Beato te |
Bla Bla (BBR 1324) | 1972 | both unreleased tracks |
| Frontiere A San Francisco |
Bla Bla (BBR 1335) | 1973 | both tracks from Area di servizio |
PROMOTIONAL AND JUKEBOX SINGLES (with picture sleeves) |
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| Sahara Annamaria |
Bla Bla (BBR 1328) | 1972 | both unreleased tracks - only released as promo |
A very rare album, one of the very few on Bla
Bla to be housed in a rather poor single sleeve, Area di servizio was
reissued for the first time on vinyl in 2022.
Both CD reissues also included the tracks from the first single La
famiglia.
No counterfeit exists, nor foreign issues.
A very rare oddity, the Sahara single, only released as a promo, contains two tracks clearly sung by Franco Battiato!
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Area di servizio - LP |
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La famiglia - 7" single LP |
Frontiere - 7" single LP |
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| Sahara - promo-only 7" single | |
Thanks to Valerio D'Angelo for information and scans.
