Tarantella Napoletana
Melody associated with Italy, particularly Naples
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Tarantella Napoletana", also known as the "Italian riff", is a tarantella song that concludes the 1852 opera La festa di Piedigrotta by Luigi Ricci, associated with Naples. It is familiar to North American viewers of popular media as a quintessentially Italian musical riff or melody.

The tarantella was adapted into the 1950 song "Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me", written by Buddy Arnold and Milton Berle, and performed by Evelyn Knight and the Ray Charles Band.[1]
See also
- Arabian riff, "The Streets of Cairo", "The Poor Little Country Maid", "the snake charmer song"
- "Funiculì, Funiculà", another Italian song often used in media as a leitmotif to represent Italy
- Jarabe Tapatío, the "Mexican hat dance"
- Oriental riff, stereotypical pentatonic riff
