Often I feel like I live in a life of neurotic rabbit holes that I am the only one spastic enough to actually care to investigate. I’d like to share one here. I should warn you – the answer at the end isn’t anything spectacular, but that’s the nature of these things. Many of them have lame answers or no answers at all.

A few years ago, a jazz singer named Nancy Wilson passed away to some headlines. When I read about the death of a musician I’m not familiar with, I always make a point to listen to a few of their songs. I’ve found some great music this way, including Nancy Wilsons excellent Jazz and early Pop Ballads. My favorite is without question ‘The Masquerade is Over’. She just absolutely nails the slow, drawn-out death of a relationship and the loss of that spark. A while after finding it, I had been listening to this song on one of many AI-generated Spotify playlists. It was shortly followed by another song I was familiar with – ‘The Tears of a Clown’ by the great Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. In that song, there is a particular line that gave me pause. The line is:

“Just like Pagliacci Did, I try to keep my surface hid”

Now, I didn’t know what Pagliacci was and I probably wouldn’t have learned it, but I remembered that it appeared in Nancy Wilson’s song a few tracks previous:

“I guess I’ll have to play Pagliacci and get myself a clowns disguise, And learn to laugh like Pagliacci with tears in my eyes”

Okay, so now I just must know what this is. As the lyrics might suggest, Pagliacci is a clown. Specifically, he is a clown in an 1890s Italian Opera that goes by his name. The Opera has a play within it where Pagliacci plays a clown who faces emotional devastation, no one amongst either the key characters or the audience of the play realizes he is transitioning from hiding his fields to expressing them openly on state – and not acting. In the end, he finally snaps and murders one of his co-stars. The opera ends with the line:

“The Comedy is over”

I did some lyrical googling and found a handful of examples of other music referencing this opera – almost all of it was Motown-era American music from the 1950s – 1970s. So the question must be asked: Why all of a sudden did Motown artists of the mid-20th century begin referencing an 1890s Italian opera in their music?

1. 1939 (original) I’m Afraid The Masquerade Is Over (Larry Clinton and His Orchestra)
2. 1951 In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening (Bing Crosby)
3. 1954 (cover) I’m Afraid The Masquerade Is Over (Nancy Wilson)
4. 1955 Mr. Sandman (The Chordettes)
5. 1962 Without the one you love (Aretha Franklin)
6. 1964 My Smile is just a frown (turned upside down) (Carolyn Crawford)
7. 1967 Tears of a Clown (The Miracles)
8. 1971 Greatest Performance of my Life (Nancy Wilson)
9. 1975 Me Myself and I (The Dramatics)
10. 1976 The Clown (The Spinners)
11. 1977 Otis and Marlena (Joni Mitchell)

I reached an impasse on this and decided to email Andreas Giger. Andreas is a Professor of Opera and Musicology at LSU who has written extensively on Pagliacci. My question was simple:

“I cannot for the life of me understand why Pop, Soul, and Disco artists in this community so consistently referenced an Italian Opera from 60+ years before their time. Was it just that much of a cultural landmark at the time? Was it particularly popular in these circles? Any insight you could provide or any person you might refer me to would be huge.”

Andrea’s answer was enlightening:

Andreas highlights the popularity of this Opera, a popularity I really wasn’t aware of. I would guess if you surveyed most non-music students in the US you’d be pressed to find a significant group aware of Pagliacci despite its popularity within those circles. That last sentence is a defense from my music nerd friends who will surely say: How do you not know Pagliacci??? Regardless, It seems that this cultural awareness was massive in the 20th century, starting from Caruso’s recordings and lasting through the disco era of the 1970s. What I had noticed in my listening was evidence of a century-long cultural landmark throughout the US and the world. In a way, it’s an earlier example of the crazed evil clown motif that we still see often.

So, this pattern isn’t a specific Motown trend as much as a wider cultural reference. Is that the most interesting answer to this rabbit hole? Maybe not. I sure would prefer if this were to be some interesting story about Smokey Robinson secretly being Italian. But I learned about this Opera, and I learned that it’s almost certainly something my grandparents were aware of and could understand a reference to. I think that’s pretty cool. Not every rabbit hole needs to uncover a conspiracy, I think some can just be neat.

Colin