Fred Buscaglione, nome d’arte di Ferdinando Buscaglione (Torino, 23 novembre 1921 – Roma, 3 febbraio 1960), è stato un cantautore, polistrumentista e attore italiano.

A Torino dal 1946, Fred aveva ricominciato a frequentare assiduamente l’amico Leo Chiosso, con il quale iniziò a comporre canzoni. Il rapporto tra i due era praticamente simbiotico, al punto che si trasferirono nello stesso palazzo, in due appartamenti dirimpetto l’uno all’altro, in Via Eusebio Bava 26 bis, in zona Vanchiglia. Trascorrevano giorni e notti intere insieme a chiacchierare a scambiarsi idee, battute e frasi musicali che Leo annotava e Fred accennava sulla tastiera del pianoforte.

Nacquero così le canzoni che lo fecero conoscere in tutta Italia, molte delle quali eseguite dal vivo in concerto e registrate su disco, alcune in coppia con la moglie Fatima quali: Che bambola!, Teresa non sparare, Eri piccola così, Love in Portofino, Porfirio Villarosa (ispirata alla figura del celebre playboy Porfirio Rubirosa), Whisky facile.

Fred si calò nel personaggio, facendosi crescere un paio di baffetti e presentandosi in scena in doppiopetto gessato e cappello a larghe falde, ispirato a Clark Gable ed ai gangster americani come apparivano nei racconti hard-boiled di scrittori quali Damon Runyon, uno degli autori preferiti da Chiosso.

La sua discografia, nonostante la brevità della sua carriera, è folta. Nel 1956 incise numerosissime canzoni e in quello stesso anno uscirono i suoi primi 33 giri. Eppure non fu facile per lui trovare una casa discografica che accettasse di incidere quelle canzoni così trasgressive e inconsuete per l’epoca. Le sue prime incisioni risalgono al 1952, alcuni pezzi standard del repertorio jazz per l’etichetta La Voce del Padrone (oggi pressoché introvabili), ma nessuno si sentiva di dargli l’opportunità di incidere le “sue” canzoni.

Un aiuto decisivo arrivò dall’amico Gino Latilla, che aveva ottenuto un discreto successo con la canzone Tchumbala-bey scritta dal duo Chiosso-Buscaglione. Egli insistette tanto con il direttore della sua casa discografica, la Cetra, affinché lui gli lasciasse incidere le sue canzoni, al punto di anticipare di tasca propria le spese, e così nel 1955 vide la luce il primo singolo: un 78 giri che contiene due canzoni: Che bambola!/Giacomino. L’idea piacque al pubblico e il singolo vendette circa 980.000 copie in assenza di qualsiasi battage pubblicitario cosicché Buscaglione, incoraggiato da questo inaspettato successo, decise di incidere tante altre canzoni e sempre grazie all’appoggio di Latilla partecipò ad alcune trasmissioni radiofoniche, che contribuirono notevolmente alla sua nascente popolarità.

Ferdinando “Fred” Buscaglione (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfrɛd buskaʎˈʎoːne]; 23 November 1921 – 3 February 1960) was an Italian singer and actor who became very popular in the late 1950s. His public persona – the character he played both in his songs and his movies – was of a humorous mobster with a penchant for whisky and women.

Ferdinando Buscaglione was born in Turin, Italy on 23 November 1921. The son of a porter, his great passion for music appeared at a very young age. When he was 11, his parents enrolled him at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin. During his teen years, he performed at night clubs in Turin singing jazz and playing double bass and violin.

During World War II, he was incarcerated in an American internment camp in Sardinia. His musical talent was apparent and he was allowed to join the orchestra of the allied radio station of Cagliari. This permitted Buscaglione to continue to make music and to experiment with new sounds and rhythms coming from the U.S. (Most foreign music had been officially forbidden by the Italian Fascist regime.)

After the war, Buscaglione returned to Turin and resumed working as a musician for various bands. He then formed his own group, the Asternovas. During a tour in Switzerland in 1949 he met and married the half-German half-Moroccan entertainer Fatima Robin. In the meantime he was gradually creating his public character, inspired by Clark Gable and Mickey Spillane’s gangsters. His friend Leo Chiosso, a lyricist who wrote many of his songs, told him stories about gangsters and their babes, New York City and Chicago, tough men who were ruthless with enemies but easily fell victims to a woman’s charms. Together they wrote the hits that brought nationwide fame to Buscaglione: Che bambola (Whatta babe!), Teresa non sparare (Theresa, don’t shoot!), Eri piccola così (You were so small), Guarda che luna (Look, What A (beautiful) Moon), Love in Portofino, Porfirio Villarosa (a caricature of Porfirio Rubirosa), Whisky facile (Easy Whiskey).

After perfecting his routine in night clubs and theatres he started recording his songs in 1955; the first single (a shellac 78rpm record containing ‘Che bambola’ and ‘Giacomino’) sold 1,000,000 copies with close to no promotion, propelling him to a degree of fame he never considered possible.

By the end of the 1950s, Buscaglione was one of Italy’s most wanted entertainers. He appeared on advertising campaigns, on television, in movies.

At 38 years of age, he was killed in a car accident when his pink Ford Thunderbird collided with a truck in the early hours before dawn in Rome, of all places, right before the U.S. embassy. Only hours earlier he had dinner with some friends at a restaurant in Rome and met future Italian pop diva Mina Mazzini who made her Sanremo Music Festival debut earlier. The two discussed future collaboration that sadly never materialized.

Alongside his legacy, in songs and movies, Buscaglione deserves mention for having encouraged musicians and singers from the newer generation (the one influenced by the earliest forms of rock and roll) to stand up against the conservative producers and discographers of the time, demanding recognition for their art and their style. In this role he proved instrumental in the rise of the “yellers” scene which from the early 60s started to revolutionize the Italian popular music panorama