Mario Panzeri

Life and career

Born in Milan, Panzeri started his career as a revue actor and singer. He began composing songs in the second half of the 1930s, getting large success with a two songs, "Maramao perché sei morto?" and "Pippo non lo sa", which also raised some controversities as they were accused to mock some important Fascist personalities (Costanzo Ciano and Achille Starace, respectively). In 1951 a song he composed, "Grazie dei fior", won the first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival. In 1959 his song "Lettera a Pinocchio" was presented at the first edition of the Zecchino d'Oro and later became a hit thanks to the version by Johnny Dorelli.

In the 1960s Panzeri started a successful collaboration with Daniele Pace and his songs contributed to launch the careers of notable singers such as Gigliola Cinquetti, for whom he composed the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 and Sanremo Music Festival 1964 winning song "Non ho l'età", Caterina Caselli, for whom he wrote the hit "Nessuno mi può giudicare", and Orietta Berti, for whom he composed most of her 1960s-1970s repertoire.