Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli dies at age of 91

Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli, who wrote the much-loved hits "Il Cielo in Una Stanza" and "Sapore di Sale", has died at the age of 91, his family said in a statement quoted by Italian media Tuesday.

Paoli became famous in the early 1960s and was the leading voice of a generation of Italian musicians inspired by Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens.

"Il Cielo in una Stanza" ("Heaven in a Room") came out in 1960. Originally sung by a young Mina -- who went on to become Italy's most successful musical artist -- the song was later featured in the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's mobster drama "Goodfellas" (1990).

Paoli later said the inspiration for the song came to him in a brothel with a purple ceiling in Genoa, the historic port town where he grew up and died.

Paoli's personal life was tumultuous.

While married to his first wife, he had an affair with the actress Stefania Sandrelli, who was a teenager at the time. The two had a daughter, Amanda, born in 1964 when Sandrelli was 18.

The actress said Paoli's other hit "Sapore di Sale" ("Taste of Salt"), which he wrote in Sicily, was inspired by her.

He also had an intense affair with singer Ornella Vanoni, who died in November, with the two artists remaining friends and working together throughout their careers.

Paoli struggled with alcohol and drug abuse from the late 1960s but he made a comeback in the 1980s.

In 1987, he was elected to parliament for the Italian Communist Party. He left in 1992 to continue his musical career.