Peter Van Wood (19 September 1927 – 10 March 2010), was a Dutch-Italian guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor, and astrologer.Zampa (1990). p. 1690.

Biography

Peter Van Wood was born in 1927 as Pieter van Houten in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. He began playing guitar when he was fourteen years old, and studied at the

Royal Conservatory of The Hague The Royal Conservatoire ( nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Nether ...

. At the same time he started listening to great

jazz guitar Jazz guitar may refer to either a type of electric guitar or a guitar playing style in jazz, using electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars. In the early 1930s, jazz musicians sought to amplify their sound to be he ...

players and began playing in small groups in and around the Netherlands. He was among the first to use the electric guitar with special effects such as echo and

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...

. In 1946 he performed at the

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 a ...

and in 1947 and 1948 he toured all over the world, including concerts at the Olympia theatre in Paris and at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

in New York City. About this time he acquired his signature guitar, a custom

Gretsch White Falcon The Gretsch White Falcon is an electric hollow-body guitar introduced in 1954 by Gretsch. This guitar was created as a "showpiece" to exhibit the craft of Gretsch's luthiers, sales, and demonstration representative, Jimmie Webster, who created i ...

; this was allegedly a personal gift or "endorsement" from Fred Gretsch, and was humorously dubbed by an Italian TV host "the Texan milkman's guitar". In 1949 he moved to Italy. After a series of concerts and shows in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

, he was contacted by pianist and singer Renato Carosone, who was asked to put together a group for a club's opening night, and the Trio Carosone, with

Gegè Di Giacomo Gennaro Di Giacomo (1918–2005) was an Italian drummer and singer. Biography Nephew of the poet Salvatore Di Giacomo Salvatore Di Giacomo (12 March 1860 – 5 April 1934) was an Italian poet, songwriter, playwright and fascist, one of ...

on drums, was formed. The trio recorded several albums for the

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment ...

record label, and then became a quartet with Hungarian Romani musician Elek Bacsik on bass, guitar, and violin. In 1954 Van Wood left the Trio Carosone in order to devote himself to his solo career. He relocated to Milan and formed a quartet, which signed for Fonit and released many successful records. Van Wood's most famous song is "Butta la chiave", which prominently features an apparent "dialogue" between the lyrics he sings and the responses of his "singing" guitar, mimicking the negative responses of a wife who is refusing to let her husband back into their house. It is unclear whether he made use of a rudimentary

wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The ped ...

, a "singin' guitar" device like

Alvino Rey Alvin McBurney (July 1, 1908 – February 24, 2004), known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader. Career Alvin McBurney was born in Oakland, California, United States, but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Early i ...

, or simply a vibrato-bar to achieve that effect, which astonished Italian audiences with its novelty. His other well-known songs include "Via Montenapoleone", a song about one of the most renowned streets of Milan, "Tre numeri al lotto", "Mia cara Carolina" and "Capriccio". In the 1960s he decided to dedicate himself to

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

and started to contribute

horoscope A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an as ...

s to Italian newspapers and magazines while continuing to make recordings. He opened the Amsterdam 19 night club in Galleria Passarella in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

where he often performed as a singer and guitarist. In 1974 he recorded ''Guitar Magic'' an instrumental album for Vedette Phase-6 record label. In 1982 Van Wood recorded the theme song of the Italian television show ''La Domenica Sportiva''. He came again to prominence on Italian television when he took part in the football show '' Quelli che... il Calcio'' presented by

Fabio Fazio Fabio Fazio (; born 30 November 1964) is an Italian television presenter. After debuting in 1982, he presented many TV programs, including '' Quelli che... il Calcio'', '' Vieni via con me'' and ''Quello che (non) ho''. Since 2003, he presents t ...

. After this he often appeared as a guest on

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

television shows, discussing astrology. In October 2007 he sued

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University ...

for one million euros, claiming that the song "

Clocks A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...

" plagiarized his song "Caviar and Champagne". Peter Van Wood died on 10 March 2010 at the

Agostino Gemelli University Policlinic The Gemelli University Hospital ( it, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli) is a large general hospital in Rome, Italy. With 1575 beds, it is the second-largest hospital in Italy, the largest hospital in Rome and one of the la ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

after a long illness.

Discography

With the Trio Carosone

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

Filmography

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Peter Van 1927 births 2010 deaths Dutch astrologers Italian astrologers 20th-century astrologers 21st-century astrologers Dutch guitarists Italian guitarists Dutch male singers Dutch singer-songwriters Dutch male guitarists Musicians from The Hague Royal Conservatory of The Hague alumni Dutch expatriates in Italy