Tubular bells - Plutonic

'Tubular bells' remains Mike Oldfield's best known piece of work, even if it was the first album he ever recorded. Since its release, many people have gone into the studio to replicate his piece. There are orchestral versions, pieces for classical guitars and of course techno versions.

Plutonic recorded this techno version of 'Tubular bells' in 1990. It is fairly repetitive, and a good indication of where music was heading at the time. Constructed entirely on synths and sequencers, some would argue that musicality was nowhere to be seen. Still, the track does have a nice groove and uses the best known theme from Oldfield's original. I would rate this version as 'average'.

My collection: 7" single no. 6301
Found: Discogs.com, received June 27, 2020
Cost: 1,5 euro
Tracks: 'Tubular bells' / 'Amen'

Red hot - Robert Gordon with Link Wray

Rock 'n' roll can be exciting, as I found out quite early on, when I got the album The best of the top 40 of the year in the summer of 1979. One of the tracks on the album was Robert Gordon's 'Red hot', a track that packs a lot of punch in under three minutes. The track was taken from Robert Gordon's debut album together with legendary guitarist Link Wray and featured cover versions of various rock 'n' roll songs.

'Red hot' was originally performed by Billy Lee Riley. Robert Gordon & Link Wray's version became a big hit in the Netherlands in March 1978, peaking at number 7. Finding this single was quite a surprise, I can't remember ever seeing this one before although it isn't exactly rare.

My collection: 7" single no. 6299
Found: Kringloop, Den Haag, June 14, 2020
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'Red hot' / 'Sweet surrender'

Marianne - Sergio Endrigo

Sergio Endrigo was born in Pola, Istria (Italy) on June 15, 1933 and started his career in music in the early 1960's. After releasing a few albums he won the San Remo Music Festival in 1968 with the song 'Canzone per te'. In the same year, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with this beautiful song: 'Marianne'.

You can easily call it a scandal that the contest was won that year by the banal song 'La la la' and this song, beautifully composed and performed by Endrigo, ended up in tenth place. But Eurovision wouldn't be alive today without a scandal or two.

My collection: 7" single no. 6298
Found: Discogs.com, received June 12, 2020
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Marianne' / 'Il dolce paese'

Experience - Diana Ross

Released in 1985, 'Experience' was a single by Diana Ross that went by almost unnoticed, even if the song was written by the Bee Gees and remixed by François Kevorkian - big names. The track was not released as a single in the USA, but even where it was released, it didn't manage to get to the top 10. Ireland was the most generous, with its highest chart placing at no. 14, but in Australia and the UK  the single finished at number 64 and 47 respectively.

That's not to say it's a bad track: I actually quite enjoy this. It's the B-side that seems to be a throwaway track, although even that one appears, like the A-side, on the album 'Eaten Alive'.

My collection: 7" single no. 6297
Found: Plato, Leiden, June 30, 2020
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'Experience' / 'Oh teacher'

A la folie ou pas du tout - Serge & Christine Ghisoland

Serge & Christine Ghisoland (both born in 1946) are a singing duo and married couple from Mouscron, Belgium, best known for their participation in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest. With their song 'A la folie ou pas du tout' ('Madly, or not at all'), they only managed to reach 17th place in a field of 18 competitors, ahead only of the Maltese entry.

Although they released a few more singles between 1970 and 1972, there is little information available on the couple after their Eurovision appearance. Serge Ghisoland is believed to have worked for many years with Belgian record label, Elver. He was also a music teacher in several schools in the Mouscron/Comines region of Belgium.

My collection: 7" single no. 6296
Found: Discogs.com, received May 30, 2020
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'A la folie ou pas du tout' / 'Femme'

Rhapsody in blue - Leonard Bernstein

As you can gather from this blog, my collection focuses on pop music, but I do enjoy a bit of classical music now and then. Whether George Gershwin's compositions are actually classical music is another debate, because his work borders on the modern and has even been turned into pop songs by the likes of Kate Bush and Fun Boy Three.

Anyway, whatever: this single was interesting enough to warrant a place in my collection. It's an outtake from an album that presents 'Rhapsody in blue' and 'An American in Paris', released in 1959 by Philips in the Netherlands. This single cuts 'Rhapsody in blue' in two and presents the two parts on a 7" single, to be played on 33 rpm, in order to offer the full 16 minute work.

My collection: 7" single no. 6294
Found: Plato, Leiden, May 30, 2020
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'Rhapsody in blue (part 1)' / 'Rhapsody in blue (part 2)'

I've found love (now that I have found you) - Love & kisses

I'm not really sure if a sleeve like the one shown here would be well received nowadays, with all the #metoo scandals we have been witnessing over the past few years. But back in 1977, this wasn't a problem. Love & Kisses was a disco group assembled by European producer Alec Costandinos, using a variety of male/female singers. Costandinos was born Alexandre Kouyoumdjiam in Cairo, Egypt, in 1944 to an Armenian father and a Greek mother.

The debut album consisted of just two songs: 'Accidental lover' and 'I've found love (now that I've found you)'. This single contains the same two tracks, but obviously in edited form, because the LP presented versions that exceeded 15 minutes.The single reached number 12 in the Dutch Top 40.

My collection: 7" single no. 6293
Found: Plato, Leiden, May 30, 2020
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'I've found love (now that I've found you)' / 'Accidental lover'