Mah-na mah-na - Piero Umiliani

'Mah-na mah-na' is probably better known in the version by the Muppets, shown in the very first episode of this hilarious TV show. The track is however much older, as this single proves: the original version by Piero Umiliani was released in 1969. 

Piero Umiliani (17 July 1926 – 14 February 2001) was an Italian composer of film scores. His composition 'Mah-na mah-na' was originally used in Sweden: Heaven and Hell, a 1968 Mondo documentary about Sweden. It was a minor charting single (spending 6 weeks on the Billboard chart and peaking at number 55, and reaching number 22 in Canada), popularized by The Red Skelton Show, first airing in October 1969, and The Muppets, who covered the song several times; starting on episode 0014 of Sesame Street on 27 November 1969, then The Ed Sullivan Show three days later, and again on the syndicated series The Muppet Show in 1977. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6717
Found: Discogs.com, received 7 May 2022
Cost: €2
Tracks: 'Mah-na mah-na' / 'You tried to warn me'

Romantica - Robertino

Robertino recorded an EP of songs from the San Remo festival 1963, which I bought late last year. It turns out that this wasn't the only time the child star recorded Eurovision-related material: this single presents his version of the 1960 Italian entry, 'Romantica'. And it has to be said that this version is performed with a passion and emotion that rather impresses. It sounds more mature than one would expect from a 12-year-old.

Although this is a Dutch pressing, the single did not make it into the charts. Perhaps this is not surprising: even the original version by Renato Rascel did not chart. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6715
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 7 May 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'Romantica' / 'Lettera a Pinocchio'

A walk in the park - Nick Straker

In 1987, the producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman were everywhere. Their hits with Mel & Kim, Rick Astley, Samantha Fox and Kylie Minogue were high in the charts all over Europe. They were also involved with some lesser known tracks, songs that didn't quite make it. 

One example of this is this single: a 1987 remix of Nick Straker's 'A walk in the park'. This version bears all the characteristics of an Eighties hit, but it didn't manage to convince the record buying public at the time.

My collection: 7" single no. 6716
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 7 May 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'A walk in the park (1987 production)' / 'Way of life (1987 production)'

La la la / Jedan dan - Willy Schobben

Willie Schobben (also: Willy Schobben) was a Dutch trumpeter, composer, conductor and arranger. Already at the age of six he played trumpet with the local fanfare Sint Hubertus from Maastricht. He was educated at the music lyceum of Maastricht. In 1927 he played the predecessor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra with the Maastricht Municipal Orchestra (MSO). 

Shortly after the Second World War, together with Bep Rowold and Pi Scheffer, he founded the band Red, White and Blue Stars, the predecessor of the well-known big band The Skymasters, where he, since the first rehearsal in 1946, played the trumpet. His greatest success came in 1962, when two of his records reached the number one spot in the Dutch charts, "Mexico" and the instrumental version of "Brandend Zand". He lived in Kerkrade for the last years of his life, where he died in early 2009 at the age of 93, after a short illness.

This single presents his versions of the Eurovision classics 'La la la' and 'Jedan dan', which were both performed at the 1968 edition. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6714
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 7 May 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'La la la' / 'Jedan dan'

Tophits van de Turk - Draaiorgel "De Turk"

Barrelorgans are an important piece of cultural heritage in the Netherlands. When you're walking the streets in one of the bigger cities you may still get across one of them, usually with one or two men hoping to get a little money from passers by. 

One of these barrelorgans is "De Turk", built in 1908 by Limonaire in Paris, France. The organ had a chocolate colored front and the Kapellmeister (the statuette) on the organ had a Turkish appearance, hence the name. Actually, it was an image of a Zuaaf, but everyone called it a Turk. This image disappeared from the organ during a renovation in 1915; however, the name was retained.

During the Sixties several singles and albums were recorded with this machine, with instrumental versions of popular hits of the time. This single, featuring four medleys, includes a version of the 1964 Eurovision entry of the Netherlands: 'Jij bent mijn leven'. You will hear it in medley no. 26. You will also hear songs like 'Pour moi la vie va commencer', 'Quiereme mucho' and 'Tender years'.

My collection: 7" single no. 6713
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 7 May 2022
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'No. 23', 'No. 24' / 'No. 25', 'No. 26'

Mamma Mia - Abba

With the recent resurgence of Abba in "abbatar" form, it is appropriate, I guess, to post another single by the Swedish quartet. I am still collecting some of their singles, in particular the ones that were released in the GDR by the state-run Amiga label. 'Dancing queen / Fernando' was my first acquisition, and here's another one: 'Mamma mia', released with the song 'Tropical loveland' on the B-side. 

As you can see, the sleeve is hardly exciting, without a colourful photograph that was always there on the single releases in Western Europe. I guess the good people in the eastern part of Germany were not meant to be shown the kind of glamorous pictures we were constantly bombarded with back then.

My collection: 7" single no. 6712
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 7 May 2022
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'Mamma mia' / 'Tropical loveland'

Love is blue - The Dells

The Dells were a male soul/doo-wop/funk/disco vocal group, formed in 1952 in Harvey, Illinois (USA). Their vocal leaders were the falsetto singer Johnny Carter and baritone singer Marvin Junior. In the late Fifties they had some line-up exchanges with the doo-wop vocal groups The Moonglows and The Flamingos.

This single was released when Paul Mauriat's instrumental version of 'Love Is Blue' became a big hit in the USA. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6711
Found: Discogs.com, received 30 April 2022
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'Can sing a rainbow, Love is blue' / 'Hallelujah baby'

It's just a game - Bendik Singers

The Bendik Singers were a four-member Norwegian vocal group, brought together by singer and composer Arne Bendiksen to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973. The group consisted of Anne-Karine Strøm, Ellen Nikolaysen and brothers Bjørn and Philip Kruse. They performed Bendiksen's song 'Å for et spill' at the Norwegian national selection and were voted the winners. Before the contest the song was translated into English, with words and phrases also included from other European languages, and retitled 'It's just a game'.

'It's just a game' was an unusually structured song for Eurovision, featuring jazz-influenced freestyle vocal interplay, and proved distinctive enough to earn Norway its first top 10 placing since 1966, finishing the evening in 7th place with 89 points. This proved to be Norway's only top 10 ranking of the 1970s, and would not be bettered until the victory of Bobbysocks in 1985.

My collection: 7" single no. 6711
Found: Discogs.com, received 29 April 2022
Cost: €7
Tracks: 'It's just a game' / 'Memories of you'

Pas pour moi - Daniela Simons

Sometimes it's no fun being a collector. I already had 'Pas pour moi' and 'Nee voor mij', the French, English and Dutch versions of the Swiss entry for the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest. Recently it turned out that there was also a German version of the song. And so, here's a third single, added to the collection, again with an almost identical sleeve.

The good news is, with this single the collection is actually complete. It doesn't happen very often that it's possible to get all the versions of a Eurovision song for a relatively cheap price, because translated versions often command high prices. So I guess I should count my blessings on this one.

My collection: 7" single no. 6710
Found: Discogs.com, received 20 April 2022
Cost: €3
Tracks: 'Pas pour moi' / 'Geh nicht vorbei'

(They long to be) Close to you - The Carpenters

I think this single is probably one of the most wellknown by the Carpenters. When you hear the first few lines, you'll instantly recognize it from compilation albums, radio shows or whatever. According to a blurb on the back of this German sleeve, their sound consists of 'a little bit of jazz, a bit of rock and a bit of cocktail-party-music'. That's not a bad description, actually.

The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and originally recorded by Richard Chamberlain in 1963. It was also recorded by Dionne Warwick that same year, but the version by the Carpenters, released in 1970, became the most successful, peaking at number 1 in the US Billboard Hot 100, Australia and Canada. In the UK, the single reached number 6, and in the Netherlands it only made number 33 in the Dutch Top 40. Oddly, there is no record of a German chart placing. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6709
Found: Flea market, Voorburg, 18 April 2022
Cost: €0,5
Tracks: '(They long to be) Close to you' / 'I kept on loving you'

Copacabana (At the Copa) - Barry Manilow

Many years ago, 43 to be exact, I got the album Het beste uit de Top 40 van het jaar. It was one of the first albums I owned and I played it many times. Almost every song on it is a winner, and I have bought most of them on 7" as well. Every now and again, I pick up one of the remaining singles, just like this one.

'Copacabana' was a big hit for Barry Manilow in 1978. It was inspired by a conversation between Manilow and Bruce Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, when they wondered if there had ever been a song with the title 'Copacabana'. There wasn't, and so they decided to write one themselves. 

In 1985, Manilow and his collaborators Sussman and Jack Feldman expanded the song into a full–length, made-for-television musical, also called 'Copacabana', with many additional songs and expanding the plot suggested by the song. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6708
Found: Flea market, Voorburg, 18 April 2022
Cost: €0,5
Tracks: 'Copacabana (At the Copa)' / 'A Linda song'

En gång ska vi åter mötas - Thory Bernhards

Swedish singer Thory Gunhild Elisabet Bernhards was born on 12 October 1920 in Örebro. Her career started in the middle of World War II, when she recorded 78rpm shellac records with various orchestras. In 1961 she recorded 'En gång ska vi åter mötas', a Swedish cover of 'Einmal sehen wir uns wieder', the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest that year. (The original was performed by Lale Andersen.) The song reached a second place on the industry magazine Show Business' list of best-selling records in Sweden.

This EP presents a further three cover versions: 'Hon grät vid min skuldra' was originally 'She cried on my shoulder', originally performed by Mark Dinning, 'Det var du som sa' nej!' is a cover of Ferlin Husky's 'Wings of a dove' and finally 'Flyg, du fula fluga, flyg!' was originally performed by Willy Millowitsch as 'Schnaps! Das war sein letztes Wort'.

My collection: 7" single no. 6707
Found: Discogs.com, received 14 April 2022
Cost: €2
Tracks: 'En gång ska vi åter mötas', 'Hon grät vid min skuldra' / 'Det var du som sa' nej!', 'Flyg, du fula fluga, flyg!'

Dansevise - Lars H.U.G.

If you would ask me what the most beautiful winning songs of the Eurovision Song Contest are, it is likely that my answer would include 'Dansevise'. It's quite impressive how they managed to win the Contest (in 1963) in a language nobody outside Denmark understands, and with a melody that really stands the tests of time.

In 1989, a cover version was recorded by Lars Haagensen. His stage name was Lars Hug until an impending lawsuit from a Danish entrepreneur out of the Hug family made him change it to Lars H.U.G. Not the best outcome, but there you go. His version of 'Dansevise' was a great update of that familiar song. I don't know if it was a hit in Denmark, but it should have been anyway. I got to know this version through Napster (remember those days?) and I am glad to have finally found a physical copy. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6706
Found: Discogs.com, received 14 April 2022
Cost: €4
Tracks: 'Dansevise' / 'Smuk og dejlig'

Eurovisie songfestival - Teddy Scholten

Although I already own 'n Beetje and 'n Beetje, two singles by Teddy Scholten, this EP is the one that rules them all. It features all three tracks that are found on those two singles, plus a Dutch cover of 'Oui oui oui', the song with which Jean Philippe participated in the 1959 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest - the one that was won by Teddy Scholten.

On this EP Teddy Scholten performs four songs from that Song Contest: cover versions in Dutch from the British, French and Italian entries, plus of course her own winning song. It comes in a beautiful picture sleeve, which has survived the 63 years since its release. That is an impressive feat in itself.

My collection: 7" single no. 6703
Found: Discogs.com, received 14 April 2022
Cost: €5
Tracks: ''n Beetje', 'Zing kleine vogel' / 'Oui, oui, oui', 'Li per li'

Pale shelter (You don't give me love) - Tears for fears

Owning Pale shelter, Pale shelter, Pale shelter and Pale shelter was not quite enough. While that last one is the 12" single of the re-released version of 'Pale shelter', the accompanying 7" single was still missing from my collection. But here it is, after some searching, and it was the last single I bought at the record fair in Den Bosch earlier this month - exactly at 5pm when the fair closed. 

Buying one Tears for fears single every year seems to have become a trend - see this page - although I seem to have missed out last year. Guess I will have to make up for that this year. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6702
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Cost: €5
Tracks: 'Pale shelter (You don't give me love)' / 'The prisoner'

Boum badaboum - Minouche Barelli

During the Sixties there was – not for the last time – fear for a nuclear disaster. The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was still fresh in everyone’s memory and the Cold War would rage on for two more decades.When Monaco asked Serge Gainsbourg to write a song for their representative Minouche Barelli, he played on these fears and wrote a song that would really shock the audience. Minouche almost shouted her lines and at regular intervals an ominous countdown is heard, which counts down the seconds to the big bomb.

The song was rewarded with a fifth place during the Eurovision Song Contest of 1967, and Minouche went on to record her song in English, German and Italian, with the same title. I've been searching for this single for a long time, and was glad to find a copy during the big international record fair in Den Bosch earlier this month. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6700
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Cost: €3
Tracks: 'Boum badaboum' / 'Il faut dire'

I have a dream - Nana Mouskouri

After Nana Mouskouri covered Abba's hit single 'Chiquitita' in 1984, she probably thought she could take on another song from the Swedish band. It would have been refreshing if she had chosen an uptempo song this time, but instead she went for 'I have a dream', a song that was pretty similar to 'Chiquitita' in atmosphere and tempo. 

This cover version was released as a single after the worldwide hit 'Only Love', that had reached number one in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands. The album, from which this single and 'Only Love' were taken, reached number 14 in the Netherlands and number 19 in the UK.

My collection: 7" single no. 6697
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'I have a dream' / 'Recuerdos'

I don't wanna take this pain - Dannii Minogue

MCA Records was pretty smart when it came to selling their singles. They probably knew that the interest in Dannii Minogue was at least in part driven by her visual appeal, and so her singles usually came in limited edition poster sleeves, in order to drive sales. This 1991 single of 'I don't wanna take this pain' is a good example: it promises a poster sleeve and a 1992 calendar. 

The tactic seems to have worked out: the single entered the UK singles chart on 14 December 1991 and reached number 40 during a five week run. It wasn't a very big hit, but at least she got noticed.

My collection: 7" single no. 6696
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'I don't wanna take this pain' / 'I don't wanna take this pain (saxstrumental)'

Baby love - Dannii Minogue

'Baby Love' is a 1986 song by American singer Regina. The song was written by Stephen Bray, Regina Richards & Mary Kessler and shouldn't be confused by the song of the same name by the Supremes. Bray had written several hits for Madonna, and "Baby Love" was actually intended for her to record. After she declined, Regina recorded the vocal herself in late 1985, though with Bray's production it sounded similar to Madonna's other recordings of the time and was sometimes mistaken for one.

The song was covered by Dannii Minogue (Kylie's little sister) for her debut album, 'Love and Kisses' (1991). The single reached number 14 in the UK singles chart - partly thanks to this limited edition booklet sleeve with a pull out poster. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6695
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Cost: €1
Tracks: 'Baby love (Smoove radio edit)' / 'Baby love (Album edit)'

Hou toch van mij - Bob Benny

Two years before Bob Benny represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest with 'September gouden roos', he appeared on the Eurovision stage for the first time with 'Hou toch van mij', which is translated rather randomly as 'Love me anyway'. It is a quite desperate invitation to an unnamed someone to love the singer. 

The song was rewarded with a sixth place during the 1959 edition of the Contest, which was a lot better than 'September gouden roos' which ended in last place in 1961. Personally I prefer the 1961 song, but then I've always been a sucker for those losing Eurovision songs. Finding these two singles was a real treat: it's nearly impossible to find singles from the earliest years of Eurovision.

My collection: 7" single no. 6694
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 9 April 2022
Tracks: 'Hou toch van mij' / 'Een enkel woord'