1968 Panini Cantanti Non-Sport Forum

Having inputted this 1968 Panini Cantanti set and having prepared the checklist for the 1972 Panini Cantanti set (waiting for an expert to identify how many different backs there were) I've got to say: Holy mother of god, the vast majority of these people are complete unknowns to me. Laughably unknown, as in, they seem like people that Panini randomly pulled off the street and dressed up in fancy clothes and gave halfway-plausible musical act names to. I know that anyone with old school Italian family members (like my music-loving Sicilian uncles) would object and explain that many of these people were well-respected stars known all over the world, or all over Europe at least. But they're total mysteries to the average American, nay, to the average American music fan, nay, to the average American music junkie.

I did a head count of how many of these names would ring the slightest of bells in America (excluding any households with old school music-loving Italians) and the tally was 65. That means 280 out of 345 names would draw an absolute blank. Why is this important, besides the comic relief of imagining crowds going crazy for random Italians?

Well, I sense that there's a perception in the collecting world that entertainer/music cards are loaded with stars. Some small sets are, yes, half or more of a set is star, star, star, star, star, etc. To some, that may devalue the star cards, because there are no commons to provide context for the stars, no risk in opening a pack because you're guaranteed to get some stars. Hahaha, that is NOT a problem with the '68 and '72 Panini sets. 81 percent of this set = commons. If you buy a sealed pack, you'd be extraordinarily lucky to get a couple of real stars. Good luck finding such a pack.

But so, why is it important that these two sets are 4/5ths commons? (Even more in the case of 1972.) Because they're two of the most important sets in music card history. They're the equivalent of, say, the 1969 Topps basketball set and the 1975 Topps baseball set, something like that, maybe even more important than those two, and definitely rarer.

Thanks for adding the checklist!  I scored a 73.

I got a 58. I liked 'The Cream' myself. I guess what I've learned is that I know very little of the worldly landscape of music from 1968, which Panini may have been trying to aim for here in regards to what was popular in each country and not just the U.S. and England.

By the way, I appreciate the candid analysis of a 1968 non-sport set that maybe most of us didn't know existed. Now I want to know what Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich sound like.

"in each country"

The vast majority of the 280 commons are Italian. Even the ones with anglicized/germanicized names. "Bobby Solo"? Italian. "Lara St. Paul"? Italian. "Wilma Goich"? Italian. "Don Backy", "Betty Curtis", "John Foster"? Italians. "Patrick Samson"? Lebanese originally, but he had moved to Italy, so, Italian. There are a handful of French acts, at least one Argentinian act, and a bunch of American and British acts, of course, but this set was definitely all about what Italians were listening to in 1968. Based on what they liked from France, America, and Britain: They had great taste! I have no idea what any of the Italian artists sound like, but now I'm curious about the bands who obviously had psychedelic pretensions, maybe there's an Italian version of Os Mutantes in there. (The Beatles of Brazil.)

It's funny, when I first compiled the checklists, I literally chuckled at every new Italian no-name. "HAHAHA, you've gotta be ****ting me" x 250. But now? I'd actually be pretty excited to open a pack and see them. "Hey look, a Pino Donaggio! I know him!" Familiarity breeds affection, this time.

We need to remember that set was produced in Italy in 1968 and even the name is Italian (Cantanti, not Singers). North America doesn't seem to be the main target and more of an imported product here.

Last week, I had some 1991 Pro Set Yo! MTV Raps cards in my hands. It is way more recent and made in USA, but not all the names are memorable.

Back to the Panini set, I am not Italian and many names (other than the well-known US/Canadian/Brit stars, such as Dionne Warwick or Paul Anka or Tom Jones) evoke something to me: Milva, Nino Ferrer, Antoine, Johnny Dorelli, Charles Aznavour, Francoise Hardy, Gilbert Becaud, Johnny Halladay, Dalida, Richard Anthony, Salvadore Adamo, Michel Polnareff, Sylvie Vartan, Mireille Mathieu, Herve Villard, Christophe... Most of the name I listed in this paragraph are 60's French or Italian pop singers. 

Based on what I see, the line-up is simply made of what you would hear on the Italian radio and on 45 in that time. I am sure that set was produced in North America, the line-up would be very different for sure.

   I nailed an 81 but I am an old timer.

I netted a 51 which kinda was better than I thought.

I'm sure every one of them was a guest on The Joe Franklin Show at some point in time.  Well, except the famous ones like The Beatles.

You've put in a lot of hard work there, wigglestrue. Well done!

There are some nice-looking cards in the set, like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and The Supremes. There are also some strange ones.

Card #17 and Card #61: Taken from the "Accountant in the Wilderness" series.

Card #53: Is Elvis Presley an alien?

Card #232: Now I know where Dr. Evil got his look.

Card #276: The band "I Gufi" consists of a guy with a megaphone, a wizard playing the drums, another guy wearing some sort of striped leotard and holding a brass pipe, and a comparatively normal-looking acoustic guitar player.

All in all though, a pretty impressive set of cards!

"You've put in a lot of hard work there, wigglestrue. Well done!"

Thank you. Simultaneously grueling and fun, like a lot of completist projects. I must confess, though, that most of the individual pages and bios for the commons were inputted by another mystery completist, to whom I genuflect, because I was going to put that off for quite a while, and then I noticed more and more of the card names actively linked, and I was like, wow, these obscure people must have cards in other sets being inputted by somebody else right now, they're not so obscure after all, but nope, it was just somebody dutifully looking them up and PID-ing them one-by-one, I presume.