Light my fire - Jose Feliciano

Nothing beats the original by the Doors, of course, but Jose Feliciano still made some waves when he recorded his version of 'Light my fire' in 1968. The Puerto Rican vocalist and guitarist got to number 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts for three consecutive weeks, and also peaked at number 6 in the UK singles chart and number 24 in the Dutch Top 40.

In a 1969 interview, Feliciano said that he liked the song when he first heard it, but felt that he should wait a year before releasing the song. Songwriter Robby Krieger said in an interview about the cover: "It's really a great feeling to have written a classic. I think I owe a big debt to Jose Feliciano because he is actually the one, when he did it, everybody started doing it. He did a whole different arrangement on it." 

My collection: 7" single no. 7024
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 10 September 2023
Tracks: 'Light my fire' / 'California dreamin''

Al di la - Umberto Marcato

I actually found two versions of 'Al di la' on one day, both in the original record company sleeves, which I guess is a plus. Umberto Marcato appeared on this blog once before, with his version of 'Volare', so it's no surprise that he would cover 'Al di la' a few years later. 

In contrast to the Peter Kreuder version this is not an instrumental version, but actually sung - and sung very well too. For me it's one of the better versions of this particular song.

My collection: 7" single no. 7012
Found: Bennies Fifties, received 18 August 2023
Tracks: 'Al di la' / 'Il nostro concerto'

Al-di-la - Peter Kreuder

Some of the standard phrases I use when I buy records online are 'Volare', 'Piove' and 'Al di la', because you never know if a seller has some extra singles that might be of interest. And these three songs have been covered many times.

One of those covers is this instrumental version by Peter Kreuder. He was an German-Austrian pianist, composer and conductor. Born on 18 August 1905, he started his career as a very young man, playing his first compositions as a teenager. He passed away on 28 June 1981.

My collection: 7" single no. 7011
Found: Bennies Fifties, received 18 August 2023
Tracks: 'Al-di-la' / 'Einmal sehen wir uns wieder'

Ljiljana Petrovic - Ljiljana Petrovic

In 1961 Yugoslavia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest as the first country from Eastern Europe. Back then there was still an iron curtain between the capitalist west en and socialist east. Yugoslavia was always more focused on the Western European countries than other Eastern European countries and joining in on the song competition was one way to get closer to them. 

Petrovic, who was just 21 years old at the time, competed with the song 'Neke davne zvezde' ('Some distant stars') and it was only ever released on this album on 10" vinyl. The album is a bit of a mixed bag, with covers of 'Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini' and 'Les enfants de Piree' two songs with a 'Cha cha cha' theme and very different sounding songs alltogether. In between the eight songs 'Neke davne zvezde' stands out as a more classic chanson - albeit in the Serbo-Croatian language. The song reached eighth place in a field of 16 competitors.

Petrovic continued to record music until the late 1970s, at which point she retired from public life until the late 1980s, when she became an author, releasing a book of poetry in 1991. She passed away on 4 February 2020.

My collection: 10" vinyl [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 23 June 2023
Tracks: 'Deca pireja', 'Jolly Jocker', 'Crni andjeli', 'Mambo cha-cha-cha' / 'Bikini sa zutim tackicama', 'Neke davne zvezde', 'Bongo cha-cha-cha', 'More u kutiji'

Congratulations - The Mertens Brothers Style

The popularity of the Eurovision Song Contest is easily measured by the amount of cover versions certain songs get. Measured by that criterium, the Sixties and Seventies were certainly the peak of the Contest's popularity. 

'Congratulations', the number 2 song of the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, was covered by various artists even in the same year. One of those cover versions was this instrumental one by the Mertens Brothers Style, a duo consisting of Albert and Theo Mertens. They recorded several trumpet-based instrumental albums and even one more Eurovision cover: 'Puppet on a string', which will appear in this blog someday as well I would think.

My collection: 7" single no. 6997
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 3 June 2023
Tracks: 'Congratulations' / 'Jingle march'

Caracola - Los TNT

During the Eurovision Song Contest 1964, Spain was represented by Italian-Uruguayan band Los TNT with the song 'Caracola', written by Fina de Calderón. The song was chosen through a national final, while the performers were chosen internally by TVE. They received a single point from Italy, coming 12th in a field of 16 competitors.

It's not easy to find a copy with a picture sleeve for a reasonable price. This single is the next best thing: a single in an official Belter record company sleeve.

My collection: 7" single no. 6987
Found: Discogs.com, received 6 May 2023
Tracks: 'Caracola' / 'Camino de la felicidad'

Non ho l'eta per amarti / Près de ma rivière

This single could only be bought by those who bought Expo Bread, in Belgium during the Sixties. This combination of music and bread is one I didn't know before, but apparently it was quite successful, as this single was number 45 in a series. Without exception the singles contained cover versions of existing songs, and in the case of this single both are Eurovision tracks from 1964: the winning song and the runner-up. 

'Non ho l'eta' was the Italian winning song, and the Belgian entry 'Près de ma rivière' ended up just behind it. On this single the songs are performed by Patricia Smith and Eric Richard respectively, together with Jack Say's orchestra. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6984
Found: Discogs.com, received 2 May 2023
Tracks: 'Non ho l'eta per amarti' (Patricia Smith) / 'Près de ma rivière' (Eric Richard)

Walking the streets in the rain - Butch Moore

If you want to buy singles of Irish Eurovision entries, you're likely to find lots of Dana, Linda Martin and the unavoidable Johnny Logan. The really good songs are much harder to find. The very first Irish Eurovision song from 1965, for example, is almost impossible to find. A copy with a picture sleeve will set you back €75, apparently, so you're lucky to find a disc in a generic disc for a lower price. And so, that's what I did.

'Walking the streets in the rain' is one of the best Irish Eurovision entries ever: a ballad with lyrics that set a scene almost immediately. You can almost picture the singer walking in the rain and crying. There was fierce competition that year, but the song still ended up in sixth place in a field of 18 competitors. Butch Moore (10 January 1938 - 3 April 2001) enjoyed a successful career in Ireland until he emigrated to the USA in 1970. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6983
Found: Discogs.com, received 2 May 2023
Tracks: 'Walking the streets in the rain' / 'I stand still'

Sanremo 1965 - Los Mustang

Back in the Sixties, the Sanremo festival was a popular music festival and spawned many cover versions. This single from the Spanish group Los Mustang demonstrates just how international the appeal of the festival was. 

This EP presents four songs from the Sanremo Festival 1965, including Italy's Eurovision entry 'Se piangi, se ridi' - and this obviously explains my interest in this disc. All four songs are translated into Spanish to appeal to the Spanish record-buying public. My copy is a bit tatty but it's a great item nonetheless.

My collection: 7" single no. 6967
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Yo que no vivo sin ti', 'Antes o despues' / 'Amigos mios', 'Si lloras, si ries'

Eenmaal kom je weer - Claude Lombard

It's only 16 months since I bought Claude Lombard's 'Quand tu reviendras', and even then I was aware that there was also a Flemish version of the song. (I am always tempted to say 'Dutch', but since Claude comes from Belgium the correct word is actually 'Flemish'.) 

'Eenmaal kom je weer' ('One day you'll return') is a pretty faithful translation of 'Quand tu reviendras', whereas ''t Geluk ligt verborgen' ('Happiness lies hidden') takes a bit more liberty from the original title 'Le temps ça s'invente'. Claude also recorded her song in German ('Wenn du wieder kommst') and Spanish ('Se que volveras'), but whether I can find those singles for a reasonable price remains to be seen...

My collection: 7" single no. 6962
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Eenmaal kom je weer' / ''t Geluk ligt verborgen'

Spørg ikke, hvorfor... - Poul Bundgaard

Another Danish singer who recorded several covers of Eurovision songs was Poul Bundgaard. I bought one of his singles, 'Sig dejlige ting til mig', a year ago. At the same record fair and from the same seller I bought this one last Saturday. It's another disc with two Eurovision covers of the year 1964: 'Warum, nur warum' and 'Où sont-elles passées', songs from Austria and Monaco respectively. 

Quite why Poul decided to cover these two songs remains unknown: you would think that the numbers 6 and 3 from the scoreboard were less popular than the winning song. But perhaps these two songs better suited his voice.

My collection: 7" single no. 6955
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Spørg ikke, hvorfor...' / 'Den forbudne frugt'

Lille marionet - Grethe Sønck

Grethe Sønck was born on 16 July 1929 as Grethe Ingeborg Nielsen Hald. She changed her surname to Sønck in 1968. In 1946, she won a talent contest, and in 1947, she became a singer at the Restaurant Sommerlyst at Dyrehavsbakken. As a revue actress, she started in Cirkusrevyen at Dyrehavsbakken in 1962, and later came to Nykøbing Falster Revue.

She starred in several movies and also recorded many singles and albums. Her repertoire included several Eurovision covers, including this one: a Danish version of Sandie Shaw's 'Puppet on a string'. Grethe Sønck died on 12 February 2010 of natural causes, aged 80.

My collection: 7" single no. 6954
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Lille marionet' / 'Jeg drømte mig en drøm'

National goes international

This is an interesting little EP. It was given away for free during the Firato, an audio and video fair held in Amsterdam between 19 and 29 September 1969. I actually went to the Firato once, somewhere in the late Eighties or early Nineties, when DCC's were demonstrated for the first time. It was an interesting fair, but these days events like this are not organized anymore, unfortunately.

Anyway, this EP comes from National, the biggest manufacturer of radios in the world, according to themselves. It includes instrumental covers of 'Lady Madonna' from the Beatles and 'L'amour est blue' from Vicky Leandros, as well as two lesser known tracks. As usual with discs like these, the performers remain uncredited. The Eurovision connection made me want to have this - obviously.

My collection: 7" single no. 6947
Found: Vinyl & zo, Rijswijk, 15 April 2023
Tracks: 'Lady Madonna', 'Oedo Nihonbashi' / 'L'amour est bleu', 'Suzuran'

Come running - Marty Wilde

Although picture sleeves were very rare in the 1960's, I still have this EP of Marty Wilde featuring his January 1962 release 'Come running' with a great picture sleeve. How come? I don't know, but this is a very nice selection of songs and you could almost qualify this as a mini-greatest hits compilation.

Besides 'Come running', this EP also features the theme song of the movie 'The Hellions', in which Marty appeared as an actor as well as providing this song, and 'Tomorrow's clown', which reached number 33 in the UK singles chart. The B-side of the original single of 'Come running', 'Ev'ryone' appears on this EP as well.

My collection: 7" single no. 6925
Found: Discogs.com, received 5 April 2023
Tracks: 'Come running', 'Ev'ryone' / 'The Hellions', 'Tomorrow's clown'

Laiskotellen - Lasse Mårtenson

Lasse Mårtenson represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 with 'Laiskotellen'. The song was composed by Mårtenson and lyrics by Sauvo Puhtila. The song finished seventh in the competition,  organized in Copenhagen, and collected nine points. Finland received three points each from Denmark, Norway and Great Britain. The song thus became, along with Marion Rung's "Tipi-ti", the most successful Finnish Eurovision song up to that point.

My copy of 'Laiskottellen' came without a picture sleeve as was habitual at the time. I received my copy from a Finnish dealer on Discogs, one of very few copies on sale in recent times.

My collection: 7" single no. 6790
Found: Discogs.com, received 15 October 2022
Tracks: 'Laiskotellen' / 'Ehkä kerran'

Eurovisão 1966 - Isabel Fontes

I do love covers of Eurovision songs, for some reason, and sometimes there's a particular twist that really interests me. This EP features not one, but four Eurovision covers, all from the year 1966, in Portuguese. It includes the winning song from that year, 'Merci Chérie' (Austria), 'Dio, come ti amo' (Italy), 'Ne vois-tu pas?' (Switzerland) and 'Yo soy aquel' (Spain).

The EP was recorded by Isabel Fontes, a Portuguese singer who has gone missing in the mists of time. A listing on Discogs reveals that she released three EP's between 1966 and 1977, but Wikipedia has no information about her at all. These days, Isabelle Fontes is a Brazilian model who lives in the USA.

My collection: 7" single no. 6917
Found: Discogs.com, received 21 March 2023
Tracks: 'Deus, como te amo', 'Mas, tu nao ves?' / 'Merci Cheri', 'Eu sou aquela'

Près de ma rivière - Robert Cogoi

The Dutch 'favorieten expres' version of 'Près de ma rivière' appeared on this blog almost a decade ago, but recently I acquired the French 4 track EP, which is worth featuring here because it contains four tracks instead of just two, and it comes in a beautiful cover. Also, three of the four tracks don't appear on that other single. 

Robert appeared on the Eurovision stage in 1964. As a result, his performance has been lost in time, because along with the very first edition in 1956 the Eurovision Song Contest of 1964 was not properly stored in a video archive. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6910
Found: 33|45 Records, Den Haag, 10 March 2023
Tracks: 'Près de ma rivière', 'Present'moi' / 'Fille du soleil', 'Toute une vie'

Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder - Carmela Corren

Carmela Corren (née Bizman, 13 February 1938 – 15 January 2022) was an Israeli singer and actress. She dreamed of being a dancer, but switched to singing in the wake of an injury. American television producer Ed Sullivan discovered her in 1956 during a work venture in Jerusalem. Corren, just out of military service, was persuaded to come to New York to appear on his show. She later toured South Africa with Cliff Richard and sang in English clubs. Later, she starred in several films and television productions. 

With the beginning of the 1960s, Corren became well-known in Germany, as well as in Switzerland and Austria. In 1963, she represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest with her song 'Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder', finishing in seventh place.

My collection: 7" single no. 6905
Found: Discogs.com, received 9 March 2023
Tracks: 'Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder' / 'Always you'

Arrivederci Franz - Birthe Kjaer

Although Danish singer Birthe Kjaer didn't get to represent her country at the Eurovision Song Contest until 1989 with the classic 'Vi maler byen rød', her interest in the competition started a lot earlier. It is evidenced on this single from 1968. 

Although 'Arrivederci Franz' is an original song, the B-side is actually a cover version of the Eurovision song 'Ein Hoch der Liebe', performed for Germany by Wencke Myhre. Thøger Olesen provided the Danish lyrics for Birthe's version.

My collection: 7" single no. 6902
Found: Discogs.com, received 7 March 2023
Tracks: 'Arrivederci Franz' / 'Sig ja til kaerlighed'

Medley no. 40 - Draaiorgel "De Arabier"

Dutch barrel organs are a bit of cultural heritage that mostly cause irritation when they're on the street these days. Back in the Seventies and earlier, people weren't so involved in Walkmans, ipods or iphones, and a bit of music was more appreciated. So much so, that the sound of these barrel organs was even recorded and released on singles.

Some of these singles are of special interest to me, for there's a bit of Eurovision on them. This EP is a good example: it finishes (on side B) with a version of 'Non ho l'eta', the only good Italian Eurovision winner (unless you think Toto Cotugno or Måneskin actually contributed beautiful melodies to Eurovision history). 

My collection: 7" single no. 6895
Found: Record fair, Rotterdam, 4 March 2023
Tracks: 'De winter was lang / Zondag in Amsterdam / Gib mir dein Wort' / 'Vous permettez monsieur / Ik heb 't geluk besteld / Non ho l'eta'