Active from 1940 to 1960, the duo Patrice et Mario left a repertoire of popular songs, including adaptations of Italian, Spanish and American tunes. Patrice Paganessi (born Patrizio Paganessi in Vertova, Lombardy, on December 21, 1916) and Mario Moro (born 1918), two performers of Italian origin, met in 1938 at an amateur singing competition. After a few years on stage, the duo were spotted opening for Maurice Chevalier at the A.B.C. in December 1945, and were signed by the Odéon label, who recorded a large repertoire on 78-turns between 1945 and 1955, followed by 45-turns and multiple EPs, as well as a handful of 25cm albums until 1958. Comprising over two hundred songs, more than one hundred and thirty of which are included in the 5-CD boxed set Anthologie 1945-1960, this repertoire includes mostly French classics, as well as a large number of adaptations of foreign tunes from Italy, Spain and the USA. Among the duo's greatest hits are "Les Trois caballeros" (1946), "La Paloma", "Étoile des neiges"," Montagnes d'Italie", "Bambino", "Gondolier " and "Jambalaya", set to exotic music borrowing from musette or various local folklores. At the beginning of the 1960s, when the yé-yé wave took over, the duo stopped performing. Patrice Paganessi died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on April 26, 1992, followed ten years later by Mario Moro, in Clichy, on August 9, 2002.
