Mi sono innamorato di Marina, the song begins. It was composed by an Italian miner’s son called Rocco Granata who grew up in Genk in the 1950s.
Rocco had to raise the funds himself to produce the first 300 copies of his record and then try to sell them in local record shops.
His first customer was Betty Peeters who ran a record store and discobar at Vennestraat 199. She took 25 copies.
The simple love song Marina became an unexpected global hit way back in 1959. More than 50 years after its release, it still feels fresh and optimistic, a nostalgic memory from a vanished period.
But the song was never meant to be a hit. Rocco, aged 21, was recording a different song called Manuela with his band. He realised he needed a B-side to make a single, so he taped an improvised song called Marina while the other band members were out of the studio.
At first, the record stores weren’t interested in an Italian nobody who worked as a mechanic in a Vespa Garage. But Betty agreed to take 25 copies to sell in her shop near the Winterslag coal mine. It was the break Rocco needed.
The B-song rose in the charts. Suddenly, record companies were turning up on the doorstep of the Granata family home with contracts to sign. Marina went on to sell more than 100 million copies.
Rocco was invited to New York to perform in the Carnegie Hall. According to John F Kennedy’s private cook, the President liked to whistle Rocco’s catchy tune.
Sadly for music fans, Betty’s has gone. The record store has been replaced by a wine bar with a modern front. But the old brick façade has been preserved behind a glass wall. In memory of Betty.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
