Tour de France - Kraftwerk

I went on a holiday in Germany and bought a single about France. That, in a few words, sums up my most recent acquisition. But obviously there's a little bit more to the story: this single came free with the magazine Musikexpress, which contains a cover story about Kraftwerk and their 2003 album 'Tour de France'. In it, there's an interview with Ralf Hütter and a description of every track on that album.

The single contains a new edit of 'Tour de France', which does not appear on the single 'Tour de France' which I bought 14 years ago and which was released 40 years ago. The B-side is, unfortunately, empty.

My collection: 7" single no. 7007
Found: Eckert, Hbf Landau (Germany)
Tracks: 'Tour de France'

Silencio e tanta gente - Maria Guinot

Since their first participation, Portugal has entered many songs into the Eurovision Song Contest without ever winning until just a few years ago. In the mean time they managed to send in some boring, but mostly interesting and beautiful songs. Unfortunately they are forgotten by most, because they were rarely rewarded with high scores.

One example is 'Silencio e tanta gente' by Maria Guinot, Portugal's entry in 1984. You know, the year Sweden won yet again with one of their most inane songs, 'Diggi-loo diggi-ley'. Guinot's song is almost the complete opposite to that poppy, singalong track with golden shoes: it's dramatic, melodic and beautifully orchestrated. But it ended up in 11th place in a field of 19 competitors. I ordered my copy of this single from a Portuguese seller. Because it's actually quite hard to find a copy of this one!

My collection: 7" single no. 7004
Found: Discogs.com, received 14 July 2023
Tracks: 'Silencio e tanta gente' / 'Estimo que esta carta te encontre de saude'

If you could read my mind - Viola Wills

30 years ago I bought 'If you could read my mind' on 7" vinyl. The single featured two versions of the song, including a 'short US Disconet version'. Disconet was always renowned for their long remixes of disco songs, and so it was intriguing enough for me to buy this 12" single which features the full length Disconet remix of the same track. The remix is a whopping 12 minute trip, but it's an extended version rather than the kind of remixes that are being done these days, where the music is usually replaced by something anonymous - and sometimes the vocals too. 

What's more, this 12" single also presents a 'regular' extended version of the track, which is almost seven minutes long. By comparison, it is short, of course.

My collection: 12" single [unnumbered]
Found: Kringloop, Den Haag, 2 July 2023
Tracks: 'If you could read my mind (Special US Disconet version)' / 'If you could read my mind [extended]'

Ljiljana Petrovic - Ljiljana Petrovic

In 1961 Yugoslavia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest as the first country from Eastern Europe. Back then there was still an iron curtain between the capitalist west en and socialist east. Yugoslavia was always more focused on the Western European countries than other Eastern European countries and joining in on the song competition was one way to get closer to them. 

Petrovic, who was just 21 years old at the time, competed with the song 'Neke davne zvezde' ('Some distant stars') and it was only ever released on this album on 10" vinyl. The album is a bit of a mixed bag, with covers of 'Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini' and 'Les enfants de Piree' two songs with a 'Cha cha cha' theme and very different sounding songs alltogether. In between the eight songs 'Neke davne zvezde' stands out as a more classic chanson - albeit in the Serbo-Croatian language. The song reached eighth place in a field of 16 competitors.

Petrovic continued to record music until the late 1970s, at which point she retired from public life until the late 1980s, when she became an author, releasing a book of poetry in 1991. She passed away on 4 February 2020.

My collection: 10" vinyl [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 23 June 2023
Tracks: 'Deca pireja', 'Jolly Jocker', 'Crni andjeli', 'Mambo cha-cha-cha' / 'Bikini sa zutim tackicama', 'Neke davne zvezde', 'Bongo cha-cha-cha', 'More u kutiji'

Perfect - The The

Some singles that I never bought are a mystery to me. I was always a fan of The The, ever since I heard 'Uncertain smile', but somehow 'Perfect' never made it into my collection. I think it's because whenever I saw a copy the price was just too high. Even back in the late Eighties and early Nineties, when I discovered record fairs, dealers were charging quite a lot for this early single.

Now that I have a slightly better budget I can afford to buy this single - not least because the price has gone down! I almost bought a European copy but then I was buying a few singles from a UK dealer online and this one popped up. 'Perfect' reached number 79 in the UK singles chart and appeared on the band's 1983 album 'Soul mining'.

My collection: 7" single 7002
Found: Discogs.com, received 17 June 2023
Tracks: 'Perfect' / 'The nature of virtue (version 1)'

Dizzy miss Lizzie - Flying Lizards

A big music collection comes with its own challenges. Over the past few years I have been eliminating certain 7" and 12" singles - most of which are still featured on this blog. I have done so quite carefully: most of the discs I sold or threw out were replaced by CD versions or better copies. After all, who needs sleeves that are written or stickered on? 

Certain 12" singles were only taking up space when there were better versions in smaller formats. This is a good example. I recently sold my 12" single of 'Dizzy miss Lizzie', and the money I got for it went towards finally buying the 7" single! I am pleased to say that the copy I bought is in mint state as well, so I'm quite happy with this particular exchange.

My collection: 7" single no. 7001
Tracks: 'Dizzy miss Lizzie' / 'Dizzy'
Found: Discogs.com, received 17 June 2023

Even it up - Heart

'Even it up' was the next single by Heart, after 'Dog & butterfly', but now released on the Epic label instead of Portrait. It was the first single of the band's fifth album 'Bebe le Strange'. Lyrically it is about a woman who is demanding that her lover "even it up" by reciprocating the effort that she has put forth in their relationship. 

According to Ann Wilson: "That song was written in about '79 or '80, and it was definitely a response to being obstructed as women in the rock field. There are so many systemic things that get thrown up in front of you, different glass walls and stuff. We were speaking out against it then." The single reached number 33  the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 56 in Canada.

My collection: 7" single no. 6999
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, 3 June 2023
Tracks: 'Even it up' / 'Pilot'