r.i.p.

looking at wikipedia i just noticed that al wilson died yesterday at the age of 68. actually i don't know too much about him, his life and his music - but i discovered his song "the snake" recently which i find very cool. especially the lyrics are a break from the norm - at least when it comes to soul music.

the lyrics go like this:

On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
"Oh well," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you"
"Take me in oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the snake

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from workthat night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taking in had been revived
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the snake

Now she clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the snake

"I saved you," cried that woman
"And you've bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the snake

listen:
al wilson - the snake (1968)

sunny

i know it's a very uncool topic - but the weather really makes me sick right now. where i live there was neither a frosty winter nor a decent spring (yet!), instead there's rain, fog and semi-coldness all the time. it almost feels like it's october non-stop for half a year now.

so i thought the sun might feel attracted by some sunny music...?

so here we go with "sunny", a song which has been covered numerous times by almost everyone. i own two compilation albums which only feature different versions of the song. and coverinfo alone lists 61 versions, mentioning the likes of ella fitzgerald, frank sinatra & duke ellington, dusty springfield, cher, marvin gaye, stevie wonder, wilson pickett and of course dee felice trio with james brown, the version which i assume to be the best known.

and even though the list at coverinfo is pretty comprehensive the are at least two versions which are not mentioned there: the finnish and the danish incarnation.

the finnish version is still called "sunny" and it's sung by anki lindqvist (or simply anki), a finnish singer who died last november aged 62. i don't know too much about her but she recorded a whole bunch of stuff - though she seems to have had her heyday in the sixties. at least that's the time she sung her best songs, for example a finnish version of the kinks' "you really got me" (which i will post here at some other time as it's the coolest version of the song i know).

the danish version is by birgit lystager who called it "birger" (even though it sounds like "beaver"). birgit had her career going in the late sixties/early seventies and i've bee told her version of "pretty belinda" (which is called "smilende susie") is one of the all time faves in the danish gay scene. some of you might remember that dans mon cafe featured that song two years ago.

listen:
anki - sunny (1966)
birgit lystager - birger (sunny) (1970)

eila pellinen - sitä rakkaus on

i already posted this song on my short-lived finn faves blog some time ago. but as i didn't tell anyone about it no one downloaded it - so i thought i might as well post it here again...

"sitä rakkaus on" starts off with one of the most thrilling string arrangements i've ever heard. so deep! so threatening! so unbelievable! also the horns are pretty cool, almost sounding as if the whole orchestra was on dope or something.

and then of course there's Eila Pellinen singing. i don't know why - but especially finnish girl singers have this very cool and dark timbre i really got addicted to.

pomus.net has a biography about eila pellinen - which most of you (just as me) probably won't understand. but there's some very basic information even i am able to catch: eila pellinen was born in 1938 and died an early death in 1977 in espoo (which is right next to helsinki).

so she was 23 years old when she recorded "sitä rakkaus on" for the national pre-selection of the eurovision song contest. at least yle.fi gives credit to Eila Pellinen to have recorded the song (at the quite reliable database of finnish music - see grand prix 1962 suomen euroviisut). other sources like wikipedia.fi or escstats.com claim that pirkko mannola performed the song. so it's a little bit confusing. but this version here is definitely not sung by pirkko mannola - and whoever decided on the winner of this national contest didn't prove to have the best taste in history: eila didn't win, instead marion rung was graced by success with a pretty stupid song called "tipi-tii". shame on that!

listen:
eila pellinen - sitä rakkaus on (1962)

last days of (myrna) march

i guess everyone who downloaded myrna march's album "explosive vocal percussion" from unpleasant.org about two years ago fell in love with that girl immediately. at least i did...

while searching the net for information about myrna march i found the website of her widower a. roufa who recalls his 24-year-marriage with myrna and tells about the circumstances of her death. but beware: it's becoming quite a sad story in the end. just read yourself...

for all of you who missed the chance of downloading the album from unpleasant and are unaware of myrna march's music i included my personal favourite from that album which is called "fandango" (though my favourites change frequently as "love is coming my way" and "majorca" are absolutely faboulous too).

unfortunately it's almost impossible to find any songs that are not included on the album, even though she recorded a whole lotta stuff. i only found two more tracks which were released on different compilations. the first song is called "our love it grows" and was written by ellie greenwich (at least i think so). it's from 1962 and can be found on the out-of-print album "on broadway: hit songs and rarities from the brill building era". the second song is called "parade of broken hearts" and was included on a compilation album called "follow me to the popcorn vol. 4". i'm not absolutely sure, but i think this song also was recorded in the early sixties.

listen:
myrna march - fandango (1961)
myrna march - parade of broken hearts
myrna march - our love it grows (1962)

violetta villas

i understand that violetta villas was one of the biggest stars in the polish entertainment circuit some decades ago. she gained international reputation as a singer and occasionally worked as an actor, on top of that she was seen as a sex symbol in her home country. well, even though she looks incredibly funny nowadays she had a certain similarity to shakira on some pictures.

anyway, this place is not about making fun of old people but about honoring their musical achievements - and i must say i'm pretty impressed with her voice. she wasn't called "the polish yma sumac" on coincidence - but because she had amazingly powerful voice with a wide range of tones.

if you want to learn more about her you'll find an wikipedia article even in english, there's a blog devoted entirely to her (with a lot of pictures), she's listed several times at eastalgia.com, if you want to buy her cd's you'll find a bunch of albums at polishmusic.ca and even amazon has two albums for sale: "zlota kolekcja" and "zlote przeboje".

but first have a listen:
violetta villas - dla ciebie miły (1961)

nancy & lee in turkish

about a year ago i downloaded gönül yazar's song "çapkın kız" from spiked candy - and this song ignited my interest in turkish music. ever since then i tried out a whole lot of turkish stuff from the 1960s and 1970s and found out a few things i didn't necessarily expect. one thing is the beautiful sound of the language i didn't notice before, another thing is the 'up to date'-ness in the beat- and disco-era i wouldn't have expected.

of course i dug through a big pile of shit (especially from the 1970s there are a lot of songs which sound like being recorded for soft porn movies) - but i spot out quite a few brilliant songs i wouldn't wanna miss anymore. even though i'm not that much into 60s beat i quite like ali atasagun, yabancılar and - most of all - mavi ışıklar. dario moreno, who often acts a little too clownish in his french songs, had his brightest moments when he sung in turkish. and then there are a lot of gorgeous girls to discover: ay-feri, rana alagöz, füsun önal and gönül yazar are just a few.

and as i'm a big fan of nancy sinatra (especially of her duets with lee hazlewood) i stumbled over rüçhan çamay & tanju okan who released a single together in 1968 which featured two songs originally recorded by nancy sinatra. the a side called "babam gibi" is their version of nancy and lee's classic "summerwine", for the b side they recorded nancy and frank sinatra's "somethin' stupid" (now called "yaşanmaz aynı evde").

of course i can't tell you anything about the lyrics - but that doesn't matter too much to me anyway.

also i'm not really able to give comprehensive background information, but i think that both of them were more famous for acting than for singing. if you wanna try your luck you'll find an entry about tanju okan at turkish wikipedia while rüçhan çamay is only mentioned there for being the mother of singer melike demirağ.

at least you can see rüçhan çamay makes a quite good nancy-replacement visually and also tanju okan isn't so terribly far away from hazlewood's look - though he doesn't look a thing like frank sinatra...

songs:
rüçhan çamay & tanju okan - babam gibi (summerwine) (1968)
rüçhan çamay & tanju okan - yaşanmaz aynı evde (somethin' stupid) (1968)

nora brockstedt week (day 2)

less talk today, let's get straight to the music: for the second day in the nora brockstedt week i picked a song from 1962 which is called "æille så nær som a ingebjørg". it was written by bjarne amdahl and alf prøysen and the title translates into something like "everyone else but ingebjørg". in a heavy rural accent nora sings about a wedding which everyone is extremely happy about - except ingebjørg. she doesn't dance with the crowd, doesn't believe the groom's promises and probably knows something that no one else would know about. so it's left to your fantasy which kind of relationship ingebjørg has with the guy...

song:
nora brockstedt - æille så nær som a ingebjørg (1962)

nora brockstedt week (day 1)

famous norwegian singer nora brockstedt will turn 85 this week - and in her honour you will find a big birthday special right here. from now until sunday (which is her birthday) you'll get at least one song a day.

but first you get a few facts about her life that i (who does not speak norwegian) was able to collect:

nora brockstedt, born nora berg on 20 January 1923, started her career back in 1942 in a prestigious oslo variete called chat noir. inspired by jazz and blues singers like ella fitzgerald and billie holliday she became one of the most successful artists in norway over the next 20 years, both as a solo artist and as a member of the pop group the monn keys. back then she did not only sing in norwegian but also in swedish, english and even icelandic. in 1960 and 1961 she represented norway at the eurovision song contest and during the 1960s she recorded a big bunch of pop and jazz songs, some translated versions of international hits and also quite a few children songs.

i don't know what she's been doing between the 1970s and 1990s - but in 2004 and 2005 she released two new albums. "as time goes by" includes jazz standards like "he's funny that way", "ain't misbehavin'" or "i get a kick out of you", the other album is a christmas record. she still performs live (at least she did only short time ago) - and judging by the most current pictures i guess everyone would love to have her as a grandmother. jan eggum, a famous norwegian singer who's been working on a norwegian music lexicon, calls her "the greatest norwegian pop music artist of all time".

personally i just love nora brockstedt's voice. it's not as big and full like ella fitzgerald's voice but it's still quite special and unique as it reflects so many different facettes. it sounds innocent and mature at the same time, happy and melancholic. even when nora brockstedt was already beyond her 40th birthday she could make you believe she was a young girl. and even though she did not always pick the coolest songs on earth you can tell by her repertoire that the lady's got taste.

the first song here is also her best known i think. it's her 1960 eurovision entry called "voi voi" which marked norway's debut at the eurovision song contest and became fourth. it's not a milestone of deepness but a pleasant little singalong which can put a smile on your face.

nora brockstedt not only recorded it in norwegian but also in swedish and english the same year, later she re-recorded it with bjelleklang and most recently there was a cover (or a song with an extended sample) by norwegian rap outfit the superstars. besides that i know about a different norwegian version by inger jacobsen and a finnish one by brita koivunen. but right now we'll leave it with the nora-versions. here we go...

songs:
nora brockstedt - voi voi (1960)
nora brockstedt - voi voi (swedish version, 1960)
nora brockstedt - big boy (english version, 1960)
bjelleklang feat. nora brockstedt - voi voi (2006)
superstars feat. nora brockstedt - voi voi (2005?)

knowledge:
"voi voi" lyrics (with english translation)
wikipedia
a detailed article @ mic.no (in norwegian)

videos:
"voi voi" live at the eurovision song contest
superstars feat nora brockstedt - voi voi

buy:
double cd @ enjoy.no
downloads @ musicfromnorway.com
downloads @ musikkonline.no