Forever The Forces' Sweetheart, Goodbye Vera Lynn

Vera Lynn has passed away. She is one of those people who you think will stay around forever but at 103 the curtain falls. Rest In Peace and sing with the angels.

Our Vera clearing up the mess after the blitz.

Vera Lynn was born in the First World War and started to record in 1935. Signature song We'll Meet Again was first recorded in 1939. It became a song of hope in the dark days of the war and later a song of remembrance. And again in 2020 her song played its part in the celebration of 75 years of freedom in the grim time of a worldwide pandemic. 

The song gave its title to the popular 1942 film starring Vera Lynn herself.

Vera Lynn sang for the British and Allied forces all over the world on many occasions during the Second World War. She had her own radio show in which she sang songs requested by British soldiers serving abroad and messages from their families were broadcast.
Other popular Vera Lynn hits of the (pre charts) war years were The White Cliffs Of Dover, Yours and You're In My Arms. In the 50's she scored hits with Forget Me Not, Auf Wiedersehn, Homing Waltz and My Son My Son (a U.K. #1). Her last U.K. hit from the era was Travelling Home in 1957.

Vera Lynns career started long before Eurovision and unlike Anne Shelton she didn't participate in any of the early British preselections for Eurovision. But she was on the selection committee of the 1959 U.K. selection. 

She recorded an English version of the 1964 Eurovision winner Non Ho L'eta as This Is My Prayer.

Read more in this Eurocovers post about Vera Lynn when she turned 100. 

For the latest Eurovision related release news follow our Facebook.

Sanremo 65 - Tutte Le Vincitrici

Sanremo is 68 by now, but I just noticed this 4CD album with coverversions of all 65 winners from 1951 up to 2015 of the Mother Of All Songcontests, the Festival Della Canzone Italiana di Sanremo.

The first Sanremo festival was in 1951 and Nilla Pizzi won with Grazie Dei Fior.
Sanremo quickly became a successful stage for Italian singers and songwriters.
The Eurovision Song Contest which premiered in 1956 was modelled on the Italian music spectacular.
The Sanremo festival became closely connected to Eurovision straight away: The winner of Sanremo went on to be the Italian Eurovision entry from 1956 to 1966.

In 1967 things changed. Sanremo winner Non Pensare A Me by Claudio Villa was disqualified because the new Eurovision regulations ruled the song had been released too early. It was replaced by Non Andare Piu' Lontano after the Eurovision rehearsals started.
After that the actual Sanremo winner only went to Eurovision on four occasions.
Sometimes the Sanremo winning artists would pick another song or someone who ended lower on the Sanremo table represent Italy in Europe. In the 70's and 80's the Eurovision choice was often Sanremo unrelated.

To celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Sanremo contest a 4CD was released by Azzurra Music in 2016. It includes all Sanremo winners recorded by new, young and upcoming artists. 15 of the 65 songs are Eurovision entries.
The 4CD is still available at Azzurra Music, but for you digital youngsters, it's also available through your favorite mp3 outlets, or if you're broke, Spotify.

These are the Eurovision songs on the Sanremo 65 Tutte Le Vincitrici 4CD:
(For the full tracklist see picture below)
Year     Title  - original artist - artist on the Sanremo 65 4CD

1956 Aprite le finestre - Franca Raimondi - Serena Carpi

1957 Corde della mia chitarra - Nunzio Gallo - Marco Tascone
1958 Nel blu dipinto di blu - Domenico Modugno - Swinger Twinger
1959 Piove (Ciao ciao bambina) - Domenico Modugno - Blues Coffee Trio ft Teresa
1960 Romantica - Renato Rascel - Animarma ft. Eniko
1961 Al di là - Betty Curtis - Carlotta ft. Olly Vincent
1962 Addio... addio - Claudio Villa - Michael Vaiasinni
1963 Uno per tutte - Emilio Pericoli - Kabaré Voltaire
1964 Non ho l'età (Per amarti) - Gigliola Cinquetti - Francesca Beccaria
1965 Se piangi se ridi - Bobby Solo - Mercoledi Notte
1966 Dio come ti amo - Domenico Modugno - Luca Bui
1972 I giorni dell'arcobaleno - Nicola Di Bari - Errequatro

1997 Fiumi di parole - Jalisse - Ibrevidiverbi

2013 L’essenziale - Marco Mengoni - Proclama
2015 Grande amore - Il Volo - S.Ma.C.K (Stefania, Carlotta, Karol)

More at Eurocovers about: Aprite Le Finestre, Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu, Piove, Romantica, Al Di La, Addio Addio,  Uno Per Tutte,  Non Ho L'eta,  Se Piangi Se Ridi, Dio Come Ti Amo.

Vega: Oh My Dio, it's Elvis!

Dio Come Ti Amo, frequent Eurocovers readers know that it's one of my favorite Eurovision songs.
Here's a new version that has a really famous person featuring.

Vega is a Spanish singer who recorded 5 albums in Spanish since 2003. Her new album, Non Ho L'eta, is in Italian and features 11 classic Italian tunes including three Eurovision entries. (see detailed tracklist)

For her Dio Come Ti Amo she get's a little help from non other than Elvis Costello.
Dio is the third (digital) single from the album.
The album was released in March on LP (!), Cassette (!!), CD and digital through La Madriguera Records / Subterfuge Records.

Before you buy you can listen to all the songs at Vega's Youtube channel. (see links and sources below)

Oh, before i forget, it's fab!
(I'm not a very good reviewer, but after Dio you should check out the video for Ma Che Freddo Fa)

Non Ho L'Eta - Vega tracklist

1.   Ma Che Freddo Fa

- Sanremo 1969 - Nada and the Rokes

2.   Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)

- Sanremo and Eurovision 1958 - Domenico Modugno

3.   Dio Come Ti Amo - ft Elvis Costello

- Sanremo and Eurovision 1966 - Domenico Modugno, Gigliola Cinquetti

the LP!

4.   Centro Di Gravitá Permanente

- Franco Battiato (1981)

5.   Cittá Vuota

- Mina (1963)

6.   L'Appuntamento

- 1970, originally by Roberto and Erasmo Carlos, Ornella Vanoni recorded an Italian version in 1970.

the Cassette!! / MC / K7

7.   Tu Vuó Fa L'Americano

- 1956 song by Renato Corasone and re-introduced to the dancing audience by Australian DJ’s Yolanda B. Cool as We No Speak Americano (2010)

8.   Non Ho L'Eta

- 1964 Sanremo and Eurovision winner by Gigliola Cinquetti

9.   Se Bruciasse La Cittá

- 1969 single for Massimo Ranieri

10. Azzurro

- An international hit for Adriano Celentano in 1968. Written by Paolo Conto who recorded it in 1985

11. Il Mondo

- 1965 hit for Jimmy Fontana

                                                                                             

Links and sources
Vega Website, facebook, Youtube channel
Spanish people can buy it at Fnac, other will have to work harder, make Spanish friends or get it at e-bay. Digital is available worldwide.
Discover more Eurocovers posts with Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu), Dio Come Ti Amo and Non Ho L'eta 

the CD

100! Forces' Sweetheart Vera Lynn - This Is My Prayer

Happy 100th Birthday Vera Lynn!

Below is a Eurocovers post from 2009 about Vera Lynn who turned 100 on March 20..
A remarkable anniversary for a remarkable singer who means more to many people than I can ever imagine.

Vera Lynn, Dame Vera Lynn to the Brits, is internationally the best known Sweetheart Of The Forces.
As promised in the Eurocovers post about another Forces' Sweetheart, Anne Shelton, here's a Eurovision coverversion by the singer most identified with the Second World War and
all commemorative ceremonies ever since.

Vera Lynn was born in the First World War and started to record in 1935. Signature song We'll Meet Again was first recorded in 1939. It became a song of hope in the dark days of the war and later a song of remembrance. The song gave its title to the popular 1942 film starring Vera Lynn herself.

Vera Lynn sang for the British and Allied forces all over the world on many occasions during the Second World War and she had her own radio show in which she sang songs requested by British soldiers serving abroad and messages from their families were broadcasted.
Other popular Vera Lynn hits of the (pre charts) war years were The White Cliffs Of Dover, Yours and You're In My Arms. In the 50's she scored hits with Forget Me Not (a U.K. #1), Auf Wiedersehn, Homing Waltz and My Son My Son. Her last U.K. hit was Travelling Home in 1957.

Vera Lynns career started way before Eurovision and unlike Anne Shelton she didn't participate in any of the early British preselections for Eurovision. But she was on the selection committee of the 1959 U.K. selection.

Eurovision 2020: The Rotterdam Collection is (still) on!

Pic from Discogs

This Is My Prayer
As far as I know Vera Lynn recorded one Eurocover and it's the 1964 winner Non Ho L'eta (Italy, Gigliola Cinquetti). Vera Lynns English version, This Is My Prayer was released on a single in 1964 (HMV POP 1287). It didn't reach the charts and now is a hard to find collectors item. It was re-released in 2007 on the 2CD The Singles Collection (EMI Gold)
Here's an audio tube

This Is My Prayer was recorded by several artists in the 60's, but original singer Gigliola Cinquetti didn't release an English version until 1974, when she included a new recording on her album Si, coinciding with her second Eurovision appearrance. Cinquetti released Non Ho L'eta in Italian, French, German, Spanish and Japanese in 1964. Contrary to popular rumours, Cinquetti never recorded an English version in 1964, so her 1974 version is actually a coverversion of a coverversion of her own song. (...)

The Veterans Sweetheart
Vera Lynn never repeated her 40's and 50's hit successes but always remained a high profile guest on war remembrance ceremonies and TV shows. Her most successful albums later have always been reworkings of 40's songs like the 1962 LP Hits Of The Blitz.

For the largest part of her 70 year career, Vera Lynn has been a remembrance singer, always representing the good old days and the bad old days.
No disrespect intended, but it seems a bit sad that her career has always been stuck in the war. Record buying audiences just couldn't accept her work as that of a contemporary artist having a recording career with new songs.
In 1979 she has a go at ABBA's Thank You For The Music (released on single PYE N 108), which perfectly illustrates the mood of always looking back.


Update 14-09-09: Congratulations are in order. In the week that 11 Beatles albums enter the top 40, Dame Vera Lynn scores this weeks #1 in the U.K. Album Charts with the compilation We'll Meet Again - The Very Best Of Vera Lynn.
The new compilation (on Decca) has 20 tracks including all the evergreens. (but not This Is My Prayer)

The album is available in the U.K. shops and at all major internet outlets, including digital.

links and sources:
We'll Meet Again RAF performance (YouTube)
Vera Lynn at 92 article in The Guardian
This is my prayer at Discogs
Vera Lynn Wiki
Anne Shelton at Eurocovers.

Check this Eurocovers post for This Is My Prayer by Dana Valery and this post for more versions of Non Ho L'Eta, # 7 in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs.



CD Tip: Twangvision
Here's one I missed back in the days.
After (or rather before) Caramba Samba from Norway and Greek Bossavision from Brasil here's Twangvision. Twangy guitars, think Surfari's, Telstar, Apache.

Twangvision is a CD released in 2007, coinciding with the Helsinki contest.
It features instrumental guitar versions in Twang style of some popular Eurovision hits and a host of classic Finnish entries. All newly recorded by Finnish guitar bands.

I've been trying to find some audio clips on the net, but I haven't found any yet, so you'll have to make do with the tracklist.
The CD is available through many Finnish webshops including the recordcompanies own site Twangsville.


Twangvision: Instrumental guitars from Finland play Eurovision Song Contest. (Twangsville Productions TWGS 3466)
1 Te Deum (Eurovision hymn) - The Regents
2 Light In The Window (Valoa ikkunassa Finland 1961) - The Lunaters
3 Tipi-Tii (Finland 1962) - Honey B. & T-Bones
4 Sentimental Song (Muistojeni laulu Finland 1963) - The Webasto
5 Non ho l´età (Italy 1964) - The Aftons
6 Western Sunset (Aurinko laskee länteen (Finland 1965) - Pekka Tiilikainen & Beatmakers
7 Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son (Luxembourg 1965) - Waikiki Kuks
8 Playboy (Finland 1966) - The Spectre
9 Waterloo (Sweden 1974) - Kaapo & Zetor
10 I Will Follow Starlight (Katson sineen taivaan Finland 1979) - The Webasto
11 Fantasy Dream (Fantasiaa Finland 1983) - The Regents
12 Ein bißchen Frieden / Valo yössä: Hold Me Now (Germany 1982 & Ireland 1987) - Toptones
13 Eurovision Theme - The Silver Hawks

Rocky Roberts - Yes Yes My Love

Reply Songs are (obviously) songs that reply to a big hit and it was Michael Jackson untimely departure that got me thinking. Bear with me, I'll explain.
Back in the days I loved Off The Wall and Billie Jean just as much as anyone else, and I still do. Just like any other popmusic fan I have been swept along in the Michael Jackson craze and I am fascinated by the charts being stuffed with Michael Jackson hits. All the sad events transported me back in time and had me reliving the 80's, which were pretty fantastic times for me.

Of course there's no Eurocover by Michael Jackson and it's not really possible to celebrate the King Of Pop within the confines of Eurocovers.

Reply Songs
In those Thriller days I used to DJ and a favorite cliché of mine was mixing Billie Jean with the reply song Superstar by Lydia Murdock (I'm Billie Jean And I'm Mad As Hell).
The question arose, has there ever been a reply song for a Eurovision song? (Any excuse for a Eurocovers post with a Michael Jackson tie).

I actually found one, and even though it's a song heavily featured in some recent Eurocovers posts it's here again. Researching it of course lead to finding more about the singer etcetera, Eurocovers style. And incidentally there turned out to be more Michael Jackson links than I expected.


Rocky Roberts (1941 - 2005)
An interesting CV for Rocky Roberts. Born in Miami, spent some time in the U.S. navy, was a welter weight championship boxer and got his first musical cudo's with the Airedales, recording in the U.S. and in France. In the second half of the sixties he moved to Italy where he recorded most of his songs (as a solo artist) and he was a guest in every other popular TV music show. His American accent didn't stop him from having a great hit with Stassero Mi Butto (amazing YouTube link restored), watch the footwork MJ fans) and he was well known for his energetic Italian language coverversions of Motown and Atlantic soul hits, live and on record. Reach Out I'll Be There (Four Tops, also recorded by the Jackson 5), Chain Of Fools (Aretha Franklin) and Same Old Song (Four tops)

Yes Yes Dear Dear, Perhaps Next Year, Or maybe even never…

It's with the Airedales that Rocky Roberts recorded a reply song (in English) to Gigliola Cinquetti's Non Ho L'eta (Per Amarti).
Yes Yes My Love from the French 10"inch LP Rocks Et Slows - T.Bird from 1964 (BARCLAY 92.107)

The original track by Gigliola Cinquetti is about being too young to love and Rocky Roberts, always a gentleman, is prepared to wait. I don't know if they ever got together…

Here's some lyrics excerpts from both songs:
Non ho l'eta (from Italian)
"I don't have the age to love
I don't have the age to go out with you
I wouldn't know what to say as you know so much more than me
If you want to wait for me one day all my love will be for you".

Yes Yes My Love (original is in English)
"Yes Yes My Love, I know you're too young.
I'll wait for you
These tender years, I'll think of you
when the waiting is through, no more can I do
I'll watch the moon and the stars when I think of you
I'll wait with all my heart to be standing by you".

The track and album are from Rocky Roberts time in France where he mostly recorded French and American classics in English.
This Is My Prayer, the 'original' English version of Non Ho L 'Eta didn't have the being too young theme, which was just as well, as Vera Lynn from the previous Eurocovers post was well into her 40's when she recorded her version.

Volare
Yes Yes My Love is not the only Eurocover by Rocky Roberts. In 1970 he recorded Volare as an amazing soul ballad. Accept my apologies for overlooking that one in last years Anno Domenico posts, it's a Eurocover that is not to be missed.
Volare was a b-side to I Won't Think Hard Of You, released in the U.S. on the Chess label (Chess 2096). It can also be found on the compilation CD I Grande Successi Originali.

In 1969 Roberts entered the San Remo contest with La Belle Donne and in 1970 with Accidenti (together with Il Super-gruppo).
Rocky Roberts died in 2005, but his son Randy Roberts continues the family tradition, and hey presto, his MySpace features some nice acoustic Michael Jackson coverversions.


Rocky Roberts MySpace tribute.

One final link for the anoraks: The Airedales continued in the late 60's and 70's with band member (bassist) Wess Johnson as the new lead singer who took over from Roberts in 1967. And Wess is of course known from the 1975 Eurovision entry Era by Wess and Dori Ghezzi, which ended third for Italy and was a reasonable European hit. Contrary to popular myth only Dori is a Ghezzi.

Eurovision 2008 - Eurocovers from Icelands preselection stars

Iceland are still at it. After 12 weeks of pre- pre- semi semi's there's 12 songs left which will compete in a new series of heats to create a final final. You can hear all songs still in the competition at the RÚV website.

Last year there were some interesting Eurocovers by the Icelandic hopefuls (see this Eurocovers post), this year only two of the artists have recorded Eurovision songs.

This Saturday (19-1) is the first round and the third song, Lullaby To Peace, is performed by Ína Valgerður Pétursdóttir, Seth Sharp og Berglind Ósk Guðgeirsdóttir. Ína Valgerður who has recorded a Eurovision winner. It's Non Ho L'Eta, originally by Gigliola Cinquetti.
Valgerður's version however is a straightforward coverversion of the coverversion by Elly Vilhjálms, Heyr Mína Bæn, who recorded the Icelandic version in 1964. You can find Elly Vilhjálms' version in the Eurocovers post 10.000 coverversions: Non Ho L'Eta. (updated with gorgeous picture sleeve!)

Valgerður's version is from Icelandic Idols but her solo album hasn't substantiated yet. More details here.

The second Eurocovering Icelandic singers are Eurobandið (Friðrik Ómar and Regína Ósk). They have been featured recently at Eurocovers (here). Their song Fullkomið líf is in the third semi heat (02-02).
Their Myspace features a live Eurovision medley and they have recorded an Icelandic version of 1981 winner Making Your Mind Up (Bucks Fizz) titled Við Sigrum Að Ári. (also available for dowload at their MySpace)
-
No CD is released yet, but I'm hoping this year will the Eurobandið year! (starting with a few new promo pics??)

And Eurocovers readers may have noticed my personal campaign to promote Dr. Gunni. Well, it worked, and he has one song in the third round. Hvar ertu nú? by Dr. Spock. It won the wildcard round and it's loud!


UPDATE 19-1: - Lullaby To Peace by Ína Valgerður Pétursdóttir, Seth Sharp and Berglind Ósk Guðgeirsdóttir is eliminated.

10.000: # 7 - Non Ho L'eta (Per Amarti) - Gigliola Cinquetti (1964)

Here's the # 7 most covered Eurovision song of all time. A close call between # 8 and # 7 in the top 10 of most covered Eurovision songs.

# 7
- Non Ho L'eta (Per Amarti)
- Gigliola Cinquetti

- 187 versions listed

Eurovision fans know 1964 is the 'Lost Contest'. Until today all footage of the contest seems lost except for a few fragments. Danish TV (the contest was in Copenhagen) destroyed all light entertainment archives in the late 60's because they were branded uncultural and not worth saving. And somehow all the other TV companies have displaced their copies too.

Before the Eurovision victory Gigliola Cinquetti won the San Remo contest with Non Ho L'eta (Per Amarti) (written by Mario Panzeri & Nicola Salerno) together with Patricia Carli. (from 1957 to 1967 all San Remo songs were performed by two artists).

It was the start of a formidable career for Gigliola Cinquetti in Europe but also in South America and Japan. Non Ho L'eta was her breakthrough hit and she returned to Eurovision in 1974 where she finished second (behind ABBA's Waterloo) with Si. In 1991 she had the daunting task to restrain Toto Cutugno, her co-host in the chaotic Eurovision song contest at Cinecitta.
You can find a superb worldwide Gigliola Cinquetti discography at Big Cobra's site.

Too Young To Love?Several local legends recorded the song but the only worldwide superstar I could find is Vera Lynn, Sweetheart of the forces (47 at the time). Her English version was released on a 1964 single. (This Is My Prayer HMV POP 1287, 1964) which has just been issued on CD for the first time on a 2CD 'Vera Lynn - Singles Collection'.

Eurovision stars that have recorded Non Ho L'eta are Sandra Reemer (when she was 14 years old), Karina (at 20), Alice & Ellen Kessler (both 28), Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann (29 & 42), Mrs Einstein (Combined age 300), José Guardiola , Micky and Raquel Rastenni.

伊東ゆかり- 夢見る想い
A word.doc with all versions (Cinquetti's and covers) listed is here. Versions in 20 languages are there including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean.
One of the nine Japanese versions listed is sung by Yukari Ito - 伊東ゆかり who performed in the San Remo contest herself in 1965 with the wonderful L'amore ha i tuoi occhi.
HMV Japan stocks a nice compilation of Yukari Ito's hits including Non Ho L'eta and Dio come ti amo.

Тамара Миансарова - Дай помечтать мне
The Russian version Day pomechtat' mne featured here by Tamara Miansarova started out life as a Flexi-disc with the Krugozor magazine. (San-Remo-64 Krugozor 1964 N2 (12) - Flexi also has Cinquetti's own version. (CD pictured does not include this track)

조애희 -나이도 어린데
A Korean version was recorded by Jo Aehee - 조애희 in the 60's and there's a later re-recording too.
I don't have many details but I do know the first version was on a various artists LP with a title somewhat like this: 이금희,박재란 외 - 오아시스 하이라이트 (or....)

Elly Vilhjálms - Heyr mína bæn

The last version featured is by Ellý Vilhjálms (1935-1995) from Iceland.
Elly Vilhjálms was one of the most popular singers in Iceland in the 60's and 70's and she's still regarded as a national treasure. She earned her pedestal in the Icelandic music history gallery singing Jazz standards, Pop hits and national originals in Icelandic. A recommended CD compilation is Lítill fugl which includes Heyr mina bæn and Það er svo otal margt (A cover of All kinds of everything, Irelands 1970 winner)
The CD is available from various Icelandic CD shops and as a download from http://www.tonlist.is/ (English version is under construction though)

Vilhjálms Icelandic version has been covered at least three times, by Ína Valgerður, Paul Oscars sister Diddú (Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir) and by Ragnar Bjarnasson.

LOOKING FOR:
Actually I miss quite a few interesting versions of this song, most notably the one Tsin Ting (Jìng Tíng) 静婷- Aini Aini (Non ho l'eta) - Chinese on EP (Tae 142) from Hong Kong, probably sung in Mandarin.