Tony Iglio, born in 1932, has been one of the most po­pular orchestral arrangers of RAI (Italian National Te­levision) and has composed over 1500 songs. Son of art, over the years he has played with and for the most important figures of the last century in Italy.

I have deep love for various of “library” LPs, that were mostly recorded in the ’70s. That’s why I managed to interview Sven Libaek (interview here), Bernard Fevre (interview here) and Janko Nilovic (interview here). There are a ton of other composers, that recorded wonderful LPs inside the genre and among them is Tony Iglio. He made only one LP entitled Drugstore, which isn’t your typical “library” album, but has a deep jazz undertone and a lot of space for experimentation. 

Full spacious jazzy oriented sound, that I would consider among the best “library” LPs I heard lately. Tony Iglio would be impossible to find, but wonderful Cinedelic Records from Italy found him and made a reissue which will come out in matters of few days. Preorder already available. If you’re a fan of exploitation albums please do yourself a favour and visit Cinedelic Records.

They helped us out to talk with Mr. Iglio. Enjoy reading how this album came to realization. 

Before Drugstore I was involved with arranging and directing orchestras in a hundreds of recordings for various singers in pop and traditional Neapolitan music.This was my first LP under my name and was made for television and radio synchronizations and documentaries soundtracks. I composed and arranged all the tracks, playing also keyboard and sax. It was  recorded in full artistic freedom in one of the most important Italian studios, the Phonotype Records of Naples that exists since 1903. The musicians were all professionals, some taught at prestigious conservatories. Trumpet player Eddie Caruso helped me the most; he played with me in RAI (Italian national TV) and later became the first trumpet player in the RSI orchestra of Lugano for over 10 years.

The LP was pressed in 1971. I remember it because in the same year I was working also for Peppino Di Capri, and was presented live at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, February 6, 1972; it was not an easy drive to chew but played live aroused much interest, especially for the technical skills of the musicians and originality.

The first printing of the LP made very few copies and were simply shades of brown with green writes on the back; later was realized, in no more than 200 copies, in black and red version. Between the two versions, there was a change in the title of the first track on side B. “Menage” became “Velvet”.

Albums that I realized later, were more in the commercial side, where I re-arranged famous themes, from bossa nova, jazz, soundtracks, plus some of my original compositions. 

Honestly I have not done other album free as Drugstore, where we had a lot of fun experimenting, shouting and trying out new effects.

Tony Iglio in the centre.