JUKEBOX: “Bella Notte (This Is the Night)” from Lady and the Tramp

The classic spaghetti scene from The Lady and the Tramp

Hi everybody! It’s Kimberly here for my twenty-fourth post for the genre “Children’s Music.”

Even if you’ve never watched Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, I would guess that you’re familiar with that famous scene in Lady and the Tramp where the two dogs share spaghetti and end up meeting at the middle. I had the pleasure of watching Lady and the Tramp for the first time just a few weeks ago. On this first day of August, I will be reviewing “Bella Notte” which is the song that plays both during the spaghetti scene and during the opening credits of Lady and the Tramp.

Next year on June 22^nd it will be the 60^th anniversary of Lady and the Tramp. I think it goes without saying that music has changed tremendously over the past 60 years. If you happen to be like me, you probably haven’t even heard of Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee before reading this post. Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee were both famous for their work in the jazz scene. Sonny Burke was a “renowned big band arranger” and Peggy Lee was a pop singer who is ranked along with renowned artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Together Burke and Lee were the masterminds behind most of the music in Lady and the Tramp.

For those who haven’t actually seen Lady and the Tramp before, I would tell you that it’s sort of (but not really) like the dog version of The Princess Bride. I say this in the sense that both movies involve a regal lady falling in love with a lower class man (except Lady and Tramp are dogs and do not use swords at any point in the movie). Anyways, Lady is a dog with high standards. A couple raises Lady ever since she is a puppy and pampers her with things like human food and eventually a pretty collar. I’m not going to get into the details of how Tramp meets Lady, but it’s clear that a simple stray like Tramp has to give everything he has to try to impress Lady. Tramp attempts to do this by taking Lady out to dinner at an Italian restaurant where a chef named Tony is always kind enough to give food to Tramp. Tony, voiced by George Givot, is the one who sings “Bella Notte” for the two dogs. Givot’s voice adds to the nice, Italian night feel of the song. The lyrics are simple, but memorable, such as the repeated line, “This is the night/What a beautiful night/And they called it, ‘Bella Notte.’” The melody makes the listener want to sway gracefully at night and hum in the morning. The melody can stand alone and is perfect for Disney themed weddings. Disney even released instrumental versions of songs for that exact purpose and you can listen to the instrumental of “Bella Notte” here. I’m giving “Bella Notte” 4 ½ records because its melody is impeccable, but I wouldn’t give it a perfect rating because not all of the lyrics have as great an impact as its melody.

Thank you for checking out this review and I hope you have a good night tonight. J

Below is a video of the “Bella Notte” scene