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'