[11] The version sung during the March on Rome was composed by G. Castaldo in 1921, using the original score by Giuseppe Blanc and words by Marcello Manni (beginning "Su compagni in forte schiere").

"Giovinezza" was played "with the slightest pretext" at sporting events, films, and other public gatherings, and often carried adverse (even violent) consequences for those who did not join in.

[23] Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli recorded "Giovinezza" in 1937, although the anthem is noticeably excluded from his "Edizione Integrale", released by EMI.

[24] "Giovinezza" followed the inauguration of the Fascist parliament in 1924 (following the Acerbo law)[25] and preceded the Nazi radio broadcast announcing the creation of the Italian Social Republic.

[27] Arturo Toscanini (who had previously run as a Fascist parliamentary candidate in 1919 and whom Mussolini had called "the greatest conductor in the world") notably refused to conduct "Giovinezza" on multiple occasions.

[28] Mussolini did not attend the premier of Puccini's Turandot on 15 April 1926 – having been invited by the management of La Scala – because Toscanini would not play Giovinezza before the performance.

[29] Finally, Toscanini refused to conduct "Giovinezza" at a May 1931 concert in Bologna, was subsequently roughed up by a group of blackshirts, and thereafter left Italy until after World War II.