# Totally impossible music id help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 4, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987 "2009-04-04T17:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/1 "2009-04-04T17:36:06Z")
So I’m at a restaurant with my girlfriend sharing a very good bottle of Chardonnay… There was a song playing and she mentioned how much she loved it and would love to find out the name… The song was Italian, opera-ish. Perhaps it was the wine, or the sparkle in her lovely eyes, but I said I’d find that song! I’ve been listening to tracks from random searches of iTunes for a good part of the morning today and have to admit, my mind is filled with mud. That ‘hook’ to the song that I felt certain I could track it by (through listening to hours of songs if need be), was now muddled together with whatever rubbish iTunes threw at me. And so I come here, to the people who once identified a Sarah and Tegan song with my remembered lyrics that were nothing at all like the actual lyrics (ha!). So, where would one begin to listen to gain insight? It was a nice restaurant, though not Italian. I know I have heard the song before, and would know it again if I heard it. The song is beautiful and representative of what one would expect to find in an Italian setting (in America). The sound was Pavarotti… (I’ve truely enjoyed listening to him during my search). Unfortunately, that’s all I’ve got (not much - sorry). Help!? ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/2 "2009-04-04T17:38:38Z")
Have you tried calling the restaurant and asking if they’d be willing to tell you what their playlist was that night? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/3 "2009-04-04T17:48:27Z")
_Scenes From an Italian Restaurant_? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/4 "2009-04-04T17:51:18Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Have you tried calling the restaurant and asking if they’d be willing to tell you what their playlist was that night? Now that is just way too logical and easy! I hope to find the song, but would love to do so through recommendations from Dopers. It truely seems near improbably that I’ll find it, but I kinda think the search may be fun (still have fingers crossed for an easy pay day). Hmm… now that I think about it, perhaps I should ask that my OP be revised asking to request certain songs to meet what the reader envisioned… which means I need to fill the description in better… hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/5 "2009-04-04T20:37:34Z")
Can you describe the tempo? How about the emotional level (e.g. did it start quiet and then get passionate) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/6 "2009-04-04T21:23:35Z")
> [@K364](#): > > How about the emotional level (e.g. did it start quiet and then get passionate) That doesn’t really eliminate much Italian opera, tbf. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/7 "2009-04-04T22:42:44Z")
Do you have a SoundClick account? If you can hum a few bars of it, record it and post it, it might save a lot of time and guess work. Not that I mind guessing, but I’d say the complete recordings of Pavarotti would take more than a couple of CDs to compile… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/8 "2009-04-05T01:09:32Z")
If you can reproduce the tune, you could try over at [www.musipedia.com](http://www.musipedia.com) . They have a contour search, which means you just have to know if a note is higher or lower than, or a repeat of, the previous note. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/9 "2009-04-05T08:33:00Z")
A totally WAG: [_Torna a Surriento._](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Hr_1zhjkM) One of the most gorgeous melodies ever written. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/10 "2009-04-05T08:41:04Z")
This is probably way too obvious, but _Con Te Partiro_? I’ve heard it several times as background music in public places—at Downtown Disney, at the dancing fountain thing in front of the Venetian on the Vegas Strip, etc. ETA: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo) ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/11 "2009-04-05T12:11:55Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > This is probably way too obvious, but _Con Te Partiro_? I’ve heard it several times as background music in public places—at Downtown Disney, at the dancing fountain thing in front of the Venetian on the Vegas Strip, etc. > > ETA: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrfvP11Hbo) Wow! You sir, have won Sparky’s ‘Totally Impossible Music Id Help’ quiz! 😃 Thank You! ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/totally-impossible-music-id-help/491987/12 "2009-04-05T18:33:50Z")
You’re welcome, and that will teach you to never use the word ‘impossible’ amongst the Master’s minions. 😃 The first time I heard the song was on my wedding night, performed by the [Fountains of Bellagio](http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fountains-of-bellagio.aspx). (I know I said the Venetian; it was late and I just said the first Italian-sounding name that popped into my head.) Some time later I heard it again as an instrumental while walking through Downtown Disney. That insidious ‘hook’ got me too, so I spent a couple of hours Googling it trying to figure out what the damn song is before I got the bright idea to go to the Bellagio’s web site and look at the fountain’s play list. Knowing as much about opera as I do about loop quantum gravity, it came as a surprise to learn that it’s an insanely popular Italian pop song written in the 90’s, and not some timeless classical piece.