Rocco Granata and his Marina

Who doesn’t remember the old hit song “Marina”?

Today, Rocco Granata is 74 years old and lives in Belgium. Here, he is as well known as Eddy Merckx, Jaques Brel and Jean Marie Pfaff. The Flemish and the Walloons both love the friendly Italian, who left Calabria (in Southern Italy) with his parents and sister at age 10, to come to the grey, rainy “Waterschei” in Belgian Limburg. His father was one of the first immigrant workers coming to Belgium with thousands of other Italians to work in the mining industry.

Even in those days, little Rocco was a fantastic accordion player. As a young man and against his father’s will, he got into a train to Brussels and found the accordion of his dreams in a music shop. It was supposed to cost 25,000 Belgian Francs, but he didn’t have that kind of money. Rocco finally managed to convince the shop owner to let him take the accordion home and pay it off in instalments. Somehow, Rocco had managed to inspire the man by his dream.

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At age 20, Rocco composed the hit song ‘Marina’ on his accordion. Just like that, in a pub. This was during one of his gigs in a pub in Diest. The other musicians of the band he was playing with wanted to take a short break. Rocco, however, decided to continue playing. On the wall, there was a cigarette ad for the brand Marina and the poster next to it showed a beautiful young woman.

Rocco hummed a melody: Marina, Marina, Marina…..he played a bit on the accordion and the melody suddenly appeared from nowhere…

A hit was born. The next day, he wrote the lyrics to his happy melody. However, he was soon brought back down to earth when no recording company wanted this song. Once again, Rocco didn’t give up and produced the song by himself. At his own cost, he had three hundred records made. Suddenly, interest in the record became bigger and bigger. Everybody wanted to listen to the song! It became a hit, and even today plenty of people can sing along the melody when they hear the name Marina.

Up to today, numerous cover versions have been released. “Marina” has been sold at least a hundred million times, possibly even more often. Rocco does not want to reveal the true numbers. However, one thing is certain: he kept all the rights to the song, which has made him a very wealthy man.

He is a singer, songwriter and has his own recording company. In the seventies, he had George Baker Selection, Tee Set and Alexander Curly under contract. For 44 years, he has been living together with his big love Rosi. He loves to play golf and enjoys a glass of wine with his friends. At home, he eats pasta with his children and grandchildren and enjoys the Italian lifestyle far away from Italy, in Belgium. This is how Rocco enjoys his life the best. Rocco Granata is something like a symbol to the Italians, the immigrant worker who made it! A touching success story. He is very proud of what he has achieved and is delighted that his life is now being turned into a movie.

The movie “Marina” is a Belgian production. Matteo Simoni plays the main character “Rocco” and he loves the part! A lot of the scenes were shot in the Belgian town of Verviers. The Grand Theatre in Verviers, for example, represents the Carnegie Hall in New York. The accordion solo in the movie is, of course, played be the real Rocco, while Matteo Simoni represents him standing on stage and singing. In the movie, real-life Rocco actually also features in the movie. He only has a small part, however, as the owner of the music shop, where he bought his accordion all those years ago. And he looked at the recordings over and over again and also repeatedly visited the set. As he says, it was a great experience for him to be a spectator watching his own life being caught on film. He is delighted, as for him this movie is also a symbol for 50 million immigrant workers who left their home country and went into the world.

Today, Rocco Granata only does what he enjoys. His last two albums with Jazz and Bossanova did not sell so well, because they don’t cater to the masses. But he doesn’t mind. He had a great time playing the numbers, and this is what is most important to him. The movie “Marina” is due to be released in the fall.