And I Think of You - E penso a te

"And I Think Of You (E penso a te)"
Italian CD single
Single by Tanita Tikaram
from the album The Best of Tanita Tikaram
A-side	"And I Think Of You (E penso a te)"
Released	1996
Format	Promo single
Recorded	1996
Genre	Folk Rock
Length	4:18
Label	East West Records
Songwriter(s)	Lucio Battisti, Mogol, translated by Tanita Tikaram
Producer(s)	Rapino brothers
Tanita Tikaram singles chronology
"Yodelling Song" (1995) "And I Think Of You (E penso a te)" (1996) "Stop Listening" (1998)
"Yodelling Song" (1995) "And I Think of You - E penso a te" (1996) "Stop Listening" (1998)

E penso a te (English: And I think of you) is a song composed in 1970 by Lucio Battisti based on the lyrics by Mogol. Initially sung by Bruno Lauzi, it was subsequently re-recorded by numerous other artists. The most popular version remains the one which its author, Lucio Battisti, gave in 1972.

The lyrics recount the nostalgic thoughts of a man who is in love with a somewhat distant woman. The song does not say who she is: she may be a former lover or wife, with whom the protagonist broke up, or maybe just a casually encountered woman he immediately fell in love with.

The protagonist, in any case, can't help but think of her constantly: the first and third stanza describe the actions of his daily life, each one followed by "... e penso a te" ("... and I think of you"), a line which highlights his obsession and his inability to fully enjoy what he is doing. During the day, the protagonist is at work, then comes home, and has a date with his current girlfriend, but keeps on thinking to his real love and fails to appear funny and involved; he finally goes to bed but can't sleep for the same reason. In the second stanza, he asks himself what she might be doing in this moment and bets she is searching for him too; but he has no true hope, because "the city is too big for two who, like us, are looking for each other".

The three stanzas are followed by an instrumental coda which represents the explosion of nostalgia. In Battisti's rendering, the coda has a final diminuendo in which all of the instruments dissolve into silence, leaving only the singer's voice, as to represent his loneliness in the world.

Mogol, who wrote the song's lyrics, told that the protagonist «still hopes in a casual encounter; the desire to see each other is such that there is the will of the miracle, of the impossible, opposed to the reality which seems impregnable. [...] It's a constant search. As if they were dogs: ther's a cue that goes beyond reasoning, a kind of animal instinct».

The lyrics of the song were written in just 19 minutes during a drive on the Milano-Como Highway in which Mogol composed the lyrics almost entirely improvising while Lucio Battisti sung the melody line. The drive took place on a full-loaded tiny car; on board there were four people including Mario Lavezzi. According to some versions, Battisti was driving, according to others he was sitting in the passenger seat and Mogol himself drove the car.