Oro Incenso & Birra (Gold, Frankincense & Beer) is the fifth studio album released by the Italian singer-songwriter Zucchero Fornaciari on 13 June 1989. As with his previous album Blue's, the album is credited to "Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari". Its title represents a pun on "oro incenso e mirra", the Italian for "gold, frankincense and myrrh", with mirra being replaced by birra, meaning beer.[2]
It has sold an estimated 1.84 million copies in Italy and 2.5 million copies in Europe up to 1995,[3][4][5] becoming the best-selling album internationally by an Italian until it was overtaken by Andrea Bocelli's album Romanza in 1997. As of 2015 it has reported sales of over 8 million copies.[6]Rolling Stone Italia included the album in its list of "the 100 best Italian music albums of all time".[7]
Composition
This was the last Zucchero album to be sung entirely in Italian: subsequent albums have been released in international versions with English lyrics on some tracks. The guitar solo in "A Wonderful World" was written and performed by Eric Clapton, a close friend of Zucchero's.[8]
The Italian singer-songwriter Francesco de Gregori wrote the lyrics for the song "Diamante", one of Zucchero's biggest hits to date. On the album credits "Diamante" is dedicated to Diamante Arduini Fornaciari, Zucchero's grandmother. The song was included in the Baywatch episode "Tequila Bay" in Season 3.
^Daniela Borghi (12 May 1995). "E' Claudio Baglioni il Jackson italiano". La Stampa (in Italian). p. 64. Retrieved 7 March 2016. Secondo l'autorevole mensile Musica e dischi, in testa c'è Zucchero con «Oro incenso & birra» dell'89: pare abbia venduto 1 milione e 300 mila in patria, macinando due milioni e mezzo di copie in Europa.
