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Guido De Angelis
Oliver Onions, M&G Orchestra, Juniper, Fratelli De Angelis, Dilly Dilly, Barqueros, Andrew Barrymore, Crystal Bird
born: 22.12.1944 in Rocca di Papa, Italien
Biography

Guido De Angelis forms the duo "Oliver Onions" together with his three years younger brother Maurizio.
Early years as a musician at RCA
Both began at a young age in the orchestra of the RCA, where they were part of the so-called rhythm group. Maurizio played guitar, Guido percussions and flute. At that time, they were in the studio for up to 18 hours a day, contributing to many works by RCA stars such as Gianni Morandi, Patty Pravo, Nicola di Bari and Domenico Modugno. Maurizio also played the banjo in the recordings for the soundtrack of C'era una volta il West (US-title: Once Upon a Time in the West) in the orchestra of Ennio Morricone. With the rhythm group they ensured that traditional Italian music was influenced by contemporary music culture. They were inspired by Bob Dylon, Simon & Garfunkel or The Byrds. Maurizio also experimented a lot with instruments to increase the sound spectrum. Despite the high workload and rather low pay, both found working at RCA very instructive and formative and they were happy that they could make a living with their hobby.
First work as film composers
At the 1970 San Remo Festival, Maurizio de Angelis arranged the song "Tanto pe' cantà" for actor Nino Manfredi, which he was to sing at the event. Manfredi was very enthusiastic about the arrangement and, although the song was played out of competition, it became the best selling single of the event. A year later Nino Manfredi finally made his directorial debut with Per grazia ricevuta (US-Title: Between Miracles) and he asked the De Angelis brothers if they wanted to write the soundtrack for it. The film and the soundtrack became a great success, paving the way for the career of film composers Guido and Maurizio de Angelis.
The Birth of Oliver Onions
In 1972 the brothers wrote the soundtrack to ... Più forte ragazzi! (US-Title: All the way, boys!), which finally led to the birth of the singing duo Oliver Onions. At that time there was a requirement from RCA that the title song Flying through the air should have English lyrics. This lyrics came from the Irish RCA employee Susan Duncan Smith, who from then on contributed almost all English lyrics to the De Angelis songs. After the search for an English group to sing the song failed, the two brothers decided to try it themselves. They had sung English songs from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa and so on in a kind of cover band before. They were very satisfied with the result and so they needed a stage name. The name "Oliver Onions", which refers to an English writer of the same name, was also taken from Susan Duncan Smith together with her husband Cesare Di Natale. The decisive factor was that the name wrote itself exactly as it is read and pronounced. With the "foundation" of Oliver Onions began the singing career of the brothers. From then on they had two parallel careers, one as very successful film composers Guido and Maurizio De Angelis and the other as vocal duo Oliver Onions.
The cooperation of the brothers
The two brothers describe their cooperation as very good, because they complement each other well. Maurizio is a more thoughtful guy who thinks about decisions and problems, while Guido is a more spontaneous guy, a doer. For example, Maurizio had doubts whether they should accept the commission for their first soundtrack (Per grazia ricevuta), because he was unsure whether they would be able to do it. However, Guido was immediately certain of this and finally prevailed. Both worked together on the music, but Maurizio was always a bit more interested in the music, while Guido also managed many important things around it, such as budget negotiations, schedules or arrangements with the directors of the films.
The greatest successes
Together they wrote numerous title and film tunes and became the court composers for the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films. The most famous of these titles are probably the already mentioned Flying through the air (from: ... Più forte ragazzi! (US-Title: All the way, boys!), 1973), Dune Buggy (from: ...Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo! (US-Title: Watch out, we're mad!, 1974) and Bulldozer (from: Lo chiamavano Bulldozer (US-title: They called him Bulldozer, 1978). But also far away from the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies, they were very successful. In 1977 they already had a number one hit in Germany with "Orzowei". But the most successful title of the De Angelis brothers is "Santa Maria", with which they were placed in the top 10 of the German charts for 17 weeks, 6 weeks at number one. It was replaced by the German version of the song, sung by Roland Kaiser, who held the top position for the next five weeks. Incidentally, Roland Kaiser had already covered a De Angelis song in 1976 for his first single, which was entitled "Frei, das heißt alleine", the original version was released in 1975 as "Verde".

Additional Links:
Internet Movie Database
Interview mit Maurizio De Angelis vom November 2015 für colonnesonore.net (ital.)
Interview mit Guido und Maurizio De Angelis vom Januar 2006 für colonnesonore.net als PDF (ital.)
Add-on: Alle Soundtracks von Guido und Maurizio De Angelis

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Filmography
No. Year Title Role Voice actor Picture
1. 2008 Triggerman Edward 12-Fingers  
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Work as crewmember
 
Music
No. Year Title Comment
1 1971 Trinity Is STILL My NameMusica di
2 1972 Man of the East
3 1972 All The Way, BoysMusica di
4 1972 Even Angels Eat Beans
5 1973 Flatfoot Cop
6 1974 Watch out, we're mad!
7 1974 Two Missionaries
8 1975 Flatfoot Goes East
9 1975 Soldier Of Fortune
10 1977 Charleston
11 1977 Crime Busters
12 1978 Flatfoot in Africa
13 1978 They called him Bulldozer
14 1978 Odds and Evens
15 1979 The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid
16 1980 Flatfoot in Egypt
17 1980 Why did you pick on me?
18 1982 Banana Joe
19 1982 Bomber
20 1988 Big Man: An unusual insuranceMusiche
21 1988 Big Man: BoomerangMusiche
22 1988 Big Man: Let the buried lieMusiche
23 1988 Big Man: The False EtruscanMusiche
24 1988 Big Man: Another Falling StarMusiche
25 1988 Big Man: A policy for hellMusiche
26 2001 Father HopeMusiche di

Producer
No. Year Title Comment
1 2001 Father HopeProdotto da
2 2008 Doc WestProdotta da
3 2008 TriggermanProdotta da

Writer
No. Year Title Publisher Country
1 2023 Guido De Angelis - Il sognatore - Io, gli Oliver Onions e tutta una vita Mondadori Italien
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