Piove - Arturo Testa

Domenico Modugno's 'Piove' has been covered numerous times, especially in the late 1950's and 1960's when this song was wildly popular. Most versions are as dramatic and slow as the original, but Arturo Testa recorded a fast, jazzy version that is far less dramatic - and more appealing I might add. 

This EP presents four songs from the San Remo Song Festival 1959, as the title suggests, but performed by Arturo Testa and Wilma de Angelis, and not the original artists. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6926
Found: Discogs.com, received 5 April 2023
Tracks: 'Piove', 'Io sono il vento' / 'La marcia in fa', 'Li per li'

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'

Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche - Christine Minier

Of all the French entries at the Eurovision Song Contest during the Eighties, 'Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche' is perhaps the least wellknown - and the song with the longest title. Christine Minier, who performed the song, won the national final while she was working as a hairdresser. The song ended up in 14th place in a field of 22 competitors. 

The single, meanwhile, has become something of a rarity. According to Minier: “The record company guaranted a release only if I finished in the top 5". In the end, the single did get a limited release. As a result, it is rarely offered for sale, even online, and so finding a copy wasn't exactly easy. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6923
Found: Discogs.com, received 1 April 2023
Tracks: 'Les mots d'amour n'ont pas de dimanche' / 'Feu vert'

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'

One more lonely night - Kaija

When I wrote my post about 'Hullu yö' recently, I noticed that my post about another single by Kaija was missing from this blog. I actually think I did write about it, but in the early days of this blog Blogger used to randomly delete posts because of copyright claims. Fortunately they stopped doing this now, because I don't think anyone should stop me from writing about my own records... or should they? 

Anyway, 'One more lonely night' and its B-side 'Una notte folle' are simply the English and Italian versions of 'Hullu yö', which makes this kindof an essential purchase. It's not often that a Finnish artist records an Italian version of their song, in fact it only happened once before, when Lasse Martenson recorded 'Cara domenica', the Italian version of 'Laiskotellen'.

My collection: 7" single no. 3455
Found: eBay, 2008
Tracks: 'One more lonely night' / 'Una notte folle'

Volare - Jane Morgan

Strictly speaking, the lead track of this EP is 'The day the rains came', as it's the first track on the A-side, but it's the second track on that side which I bought this record for: another cover version of Domenico Modugno's 'Volare'. And it's quite an interesting record, too: the label states 'not for sale', which I guess makes it a promotional EP.

Jane Morgan was born in Newton, Massachusetts (USA) on 3 May 1924 and initially found success in France and the UK before achieving recognition in the US, receiving six gold records. Her song 'The day the rains came' reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in early 1959. This EP features her version of 'Volare', sung in Italian and English. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6922
Found: Discogs.com, received 22 March 2023
Tracks: 'The day the rains came', 'Volare' / 'It's all in the game', 'Everybody loves a lover'

L-Imhabba - Helen & Joseph

When Malta started participating in the Eurovision Song Contest in the early 1970's, they insisted on performing in Maltese. This didn't necessarily prove to be a success formula, as these first two entries ended up in last place. Helen & Joseph's 'L-Imhabba' ('Love') was Malta's second unsuccessful attempt after 'Marija L-Maltija'. 

In an effort to make the difficult Maltese language a little more accessible to all the viewers, a word in Italian, Spanish, German and English was included in the chorus: “L-imhabba hi bacio, beso, Küsse / Haz li 'l qalbek tmiss u li jsejhulha "kiss" / L-imhabba hi bewsa helwa zokkor / Li jimbuttawha x-xottejn waqt li jinghalqu l-ghajnejn”. You can see it doesn't really help.

My collection: 7" single no. 6921
Found: Discogs.com, received 22 March 2023
Tracks: 'L-Imhabba' / 'Gonna be a fun day'