This town ain't big enough for both of us - British whale

The Sparks' 'This town ain't big enough for both of us' was one of the first songs I was grabbed by as a child, not just because of the strange appearance of Ron Mael. It's a great, dynamic song and a true classic. 

Several cover versions of the song exist, but I didn't know about this one until last weekend. This single comes with a free poster and is pressed on clear vinyl. Reason enough, I think, to pick up this disc and to listen to what this synth-pop solo project of Justin Hawkins of 'The Darkness' fame made of it. Well... it's not bad. A bit strange, maybe.

My collection: 7" single no. 6973
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'This town ain't big enough for both of us' / 'America'

Festival de San Remo 1959

Another one of those San Remo-inspired EP's was released in 1959 by Gianni Ales y su conjunto, also known as  Gianni Ales ed il suo complesso, because the band is actually Italian - but this is a Spanish EP.  I got it from a Spanish seller, of course.

Released in 1959, this EP features four songs from that year's San Remo festival, including the Domenico Modugno composition 'Ciao ciao bambino (Piove)', a song that has been covered numerous times. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6968
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Chao chao bambina (Piove)', 'Io sono il vento' / 'Conoscerti', 'Una marcia in fa'

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'

Tracks of my tears - Colin Blunstone

This single is a bit of an odd beast. Colin Blunstone has one of the best voices in the business and 'Tracks of my tears' is a classic song that probably everyone loves. Add in some early Eighties synth bleeps... and then you get this single. 

Somehow it doesn't quite work as it should. That's not to say that I don't like this single, but much to my own surprise, I think the B-side is better. Trying out singles from time to time means coming up with surprises like this.

My collection: 7" single no. 6971
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Tracks of my tears' / 'The last goodbye'

Si tu eres mi hombre y yo tu mujer - Jennifer Rush

It's the song you know in a version that you don't. Jennifer Rush had a big hit in 1985 with 'The power of love', but she also recorded the song in Spanish. The title for this version isn't as short: 'Si tu eres mi hombre y yo tu mujer' ('If you are my man and i am your woman').

I found this single - not surprisingly - at a stand of a Spanish seller, and I was interested enough to pick up this single. The B-side features the original English version of the song.

My collection: 7" single no. 6969
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Si tu eres mi hombre y yo tu mujer' / 'The power of love'

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'

Triad dimensions - Rheingold

Three decades went by since I bought 'Dreiklangs dimensionen' by Rheingold. The band was confident enough to also record an English version of their song. And 'Triad dimensions' came to be. 

My copy is an Italian promotional single, recognizable thanks to the little holes in one corner of the sleeve saying 'Campione Gratuito'. I think I still prefer the German version, but this is a nice little version as well.

My collection: 7" single no. 6961
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Triad dimensions' / 'River'

Viviremos todo de nuevo - Al Bano & Romina Power

Having bought a Spanish single of 'We'll live it all again' before, I was extra cautious before buying this one. Like the other one, it features the Spanish title 'Viviremos todo de nuevo' but this time it adds the notice 'cantan en español', which made me more certain that this is actually the Spanish version of the duo's Eurovision entry from 1976.

Still, like the original version this song is only partly in Spanish: some parts are still in English. For a while during the 1970's it was allowed to sing in different languages than the country's own, just like in more recent times. Despite this, the Italian duo didn't manage to get higher than 7th place.

My collection: 7" single no. 6960
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Viviremos todo de nuevo' / 'Na, na, na'

Waterloo (German version) - Abba

It's always great to find an Abba single I don't have yet, and this is a special one: the German version of 'Waterloo'. Yes, the Swedes actually recorded their winning Eurovision song in German and released it in Germany. The single isn't especially rare, but it is still hard to find. I finally got myself a copy at the stand of a Eurovision singles seller, and it's a great find.

Obviously I've already got the English and Swedish versions, as well as a beautiful picture disc (and cover versions by Dr. and the Medics, the Gerd Michaelis Chor, Lecia & Lucienne and a certain Swedish Group!) but this single was one I'd been searching for some time already. Now I only want the French version, but I'd rather not pay 100 euros for it...

My collection: 7" single no. 6959
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Waterloo (Deutsche originalaufnahme)' / 'Watch out'

Volare - Barry White

You wouldn't think that the American singer with the deep, sultry voice Barry White and the Eurovision Song Contest have anything in common, but they do: in 1991, Barry White covered the Italian entry from 1958, 'Nel blu dipinto di blu', best known as 'Volare'. He wasn't the first either: artists such as Al Martino, the Gypsy Kings and David Bowie had gone before him.

What's even more astonishing is that Barry recorded his version in two languages: Italian and English. The latter is logical, the former... well, less so. Both languages feature in his recording of the song that was issued as a single in 1991.

My collection: 7" single no. 6958
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Volare (edit)' / 'Dark & Lovely (You over there) (edit)'

Hey nana - Charles Dumolin

In 1979, Belgium was represented by Micha Marah, who performed a handful of songs during a national final. Contrary to what she expected, the song she liked least, 'Hey nana', won the vote. She was in total shock. She hated the song with its naïve and childish lyrics in which the singer suggests marriage to her lover and paints a picture of domestic bliss. As it turned out, the song ended up in a shared last place at the Eurovision Song Contest, together with Austria's Christina Simon and her 'Heute in Jerusalem'. 

Micha never recorded the song. In the end, composer Charles Dumolin recorded the song himself and released it as a single. I wonder if it reached the charts... but probably not.

My collection: 7" single no. 6957
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Hey nana' / 'Queen Cherbourg'

 

Ciao, ciao, bambina (Piove) - Four Jacks

It's funny how many cover versions there are of 'Piove', the 1959 Italian Eurovision entry by Domenico Modugno. This blog has presented quite a few of them already and here's another one - from Denmark this time. 

Four Jacks was a Danish pop/schlager vocal quartet. They formed in 1956. Original member Otto Brandenburg left in 1958 to pursue a successful solo career and was replaced by Flemming Rasmussen, better known under his stage name James Rasmussen. After the quartet split in 1963 John Mogensen served as a bar pianist for some years before becoming Denmark's most popular schlager artist of the first half of the 1970's. 

This single was released in 1959. In the same year they also released a song called 'Waterloo' - not the famous Abba song from 1974, obviously. 'Ciao, ciao, bambina (Piove)' remains the only Eurovision cover the group recorded. My copy was previously owned by Elisabeth Johannessen, who lived in Børkop. I wonder if she's still alive.

My collection: 7" single no. 6956
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Ciao, ciao, bambina (Piove)' / 'Drømmen om dig'

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'

Libertine - Mylene Farmer

'Libertine' was only Mylene Farmer's third single when she originally released it in 1986. The sleeve pictured here is the original one, before the music video became popular and the single was re-released with a photograph from that video on the front sleeve.

The song remains the same: a charming release by a very young Mylene Farmer, some time before she achieved superstar status in France and some other countries. Thirty years after buying the re-release, I finally own the original single now.

My collection: 7" single no. 6952
Found: Record fair, Den Bosch, 22 April 2023
Tracks: 'Libertine' / 'Greta'

Waiting on a friend - Rolling Stones

I don't have many Rolling Stones singles which may seem strange for a collector such as me, but the fact is, I only like a few of their songs, and the ones I want to have are often too expensive to warrant me buying them. For some reason any Rolling Stones single commands a high price. Therefore I was quite surprised to find this one for one measly euro.

'Waiting on a friend' reached number 13 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, but only managed number 50 in the UK singles chart and number 9 in the Dutch Top 40. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6950
Found: Vinyl & zo, Rijswijk, 15 April 2023
Tracks: 'Waiting on a friend' / 'Little t+a'

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'

La felicidad / La, la, la - Luis Alberto del Parana y los Paraguayos

A few months ago I went to a record fair in Rotterdam and I was quite disappointed when I found this colourful sleeve without the actual disc in it. It's the first time I saw this one and I really wanted to have it - but unfortunately it wasn't to be. So I was happy to find a copy with the disc enclosed recently.

Yet another cover version of that Spanish Eurovision triumph 'La, la, la', then. Luis Alberto del Parana y Los Paraguayos released a lot of albums between 1957 and 1977, concentrating mainly on Spanish-oriented material. Their version of 'La, la, la' is nice but not too different from many other cover versions.

My collection: 7" single no. 6948
Found: Vinyl & zo, Rijswijk, 15 April 2023
Tracks: 'La felicidad' / 'La, la, la'

I will survive / Never can say goodbye - Gloria Gaynor

Although Gloria Gaynor had her biggest successes in the Seventies, her two best known songs were released on this single in 1987.

'Never can say goodbye' was originally recorded by the Jackson 5 in 1971, but Gloria released her version in 1974 to similar success, reaching number 2 in the UK singles chart and number 6 in the Dutch Top 40.

'I will survive' is the song that Gloria is most remembered for. It topped the UK singles chart in 1978, and reached number 4 in the Dutch Top 40.

My collection: 7" single no. 6943
Found: Vinyl & zo, Rijswijk, 15 April 2023
Tracks: 'I will survive' / 'Never can say goodbye'

Don't stop believing - Journey

'Don't Stop Believing' was released in October 1981 as the second single from Journey's seventh album, 'Escape'. The song was written by the band's vocalist Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, and keyboardist Jonathan Cain. The song is memorable for its opening keyboard riff, one of the most recognizable intros of the early Eighties.

The song is unusual in that its chorus does not arrive until the song is nearly finished; its structure consists of two pre-choruses and three verses before it arrives at its central hook. The band recorded the song in one take at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6942
Found: Vinyl & zo, Rijswijk, 15 April 2023
Tracks: 'Don't stop believing' / 'Natural thing'