This week Orchestral genius André Rieu releases a double album with one disc dedicated to the ultimate legends of pop: ABBA.
It includes Eurovision winner Waterloo but the absence of Dum Dum Diddle is a missed opportunity of philharmonic proportions.
The ABBA CD includes the following tracks:
Chiquitita
Mama
Mia
Fernando
Money,
Money Money
The
Winner Takes It All
Waterloo
I
Have A Dream
Arrival
Dancing
Queen
The
Way Old Friends Do
Thank
You For The Music
Thank
You Abba
The other CD features timeless classics like Yesterday (Beatles), I Don't Know How To Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar), La Vie En Rose (Edith Piaf, Grace Jones), Arriverderci Roma (Renato Rascel, Mario Lanza) and Hymne A L'amour (Edith Piaf)
André Rieu and his orchestra have recorded a few other Eurovision covers in the past. Volare (Italy 1958, with Russel Watson) on CD Zauber der Musik 3 from 2003. Zwei kleine Italiener (Germany 1962) on 2009 CD Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren Puppet On A String (Details wanted)
Jan Johansen loves Kedvesem (and so do I).
In case you missed it, ByeAlex finished 10th with Kedvesem (Sweetheart)in saturdays Eurovision final in Malmö, singing for Hungary.
Jan Johansen is the singer of the 1995 Swedish entry Se På Mig (3rd place in Dublin).
Kedvesem at the Malmö Collection has all the details and links to the versions of the lovely ByeAlex song. There's even one with a bit sung in Swedish by ByeAlex himself..
Also check out everything about these Hungarian entries: 2014 - András Kállay Saunders at the Copenhagen Collection 2013 - ByeAlex at the Malmö Collection 2012 - Compact Disco at the Baku Collection 2011 - Kati Wolf at the Düsseldorf Collection 2009 - Adok Zoli at the Moscow Collection
You'll find versions, CD info, charts and other trivia
Update: Jan also recorded an English version She's The One, lyrics by Gabi Knoll.
Eisenhauer also covers ByeAlex' Eurovision hit.
cdsingle
Above video is a coverversion of the Hungarian 2013 entry Kedvesem by ByeAlex
It's sung in English by Eisenhauer and is titledOne For Me.
The track wass released in May 2014 in Germany. The cdsingle includes four versions of the song.
One For Me - single version
One For Me - Thomas Lizzara mix
One For Me - "One Love" remix
One For Me - Karaoke
Out on Rhingtön (Universal Music), also available at your usual digital outlets.
Kedvesem ended 10th in the final in Malmö.
Read all about the original song and its versions here at the Malmö Collection.
For a coverversion by Swedish Eurovision singer Jan Johansen go here at Eurocovers.
Special thanks to Ivor Lyttle.
And here's a Swedish version by Mona Ersare
Here's a new Swedish coverversion of Kedvesem.
The singer is Mona Ersare. The track is released as a digital single.
Bought A 4th Chinese version of 1967 Eurovision winner Puppet On A String by Sandie Shaw.
I'm a bit clueless here. The girl is called Rose (something) (玫瑰 = Rose) and the song seems to be titled 女 Yan Kee (Nu Yan Kee). I haven't been able to find any info on the net searching by record label and all that and off course I'm rubbish at Chinese characters. And is it Mandarin, Cantonese or another Chinese language?.
Po-Lo records MEP 3070. Please E-mail me for ♫or if you can help.
Here's Anggun performing Puppet On A String in the 2011 Eurovision presentation show where the 2011 French entry Sognu by Amaury Vassili was introduced.
It was just announced that the same Anggun will represent France in the 2012 contest in Baku. Find out more about next years French bid here at the Baku Collection.
I remember having this Reggy van der Burgt single in my collection for many years before I found out that the b-side is an actual Eurovision cover. Teddybeer, the a-side, I remember from my childhood. A much told tale about a young girl whose hormones are raging and she's ready to trade her stuffed cuddly for a real man.
The b-side is De Tijd Staat Niet Stil(Time doesn't stand still) which is a coverversion of the 1966 German entry Die Zeiger Der Uhr (The hands of the clock) by Margot Eskens. She ended 10th.
Reggy van der Burgt also covered the 1967 Eurovision winner Puppet On A String. Find out more about that one in this 2007 Year Of The Puppet post at Eurocovers.
Düsseldorf 2011
For the latest news on the releases, versions and charts of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, please check out The Düsseldorf Collection.
It’s been a bit quiet at Eurocovers lately. Too much work, recession depression, some PC problems and all kinds of personal excuses, you know the tune.
But I received a bit of release news from Erik of Sweden I didn’t want to keep from you as it includes the magic words ‘Previously Unreleased’ and ‘Italian Version’.
Siw Malmkvist, Eurovision singer, Swedish National Final repeat offender and beloved Eurocovers artist has given her memoires to the world in a Swedish book called Tunna Skivor Av Mig.
It was written with Carl Magnus Palm who is most known as the best ABBA historicus. (His fantastic ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (1994) is unrivalled).
Tunna Skivor Av Mig (Thin slices of me) is a take on her 1960 single Tunna Skivor which is a coverversion of Connie Francis’ Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool. Skivor is also Swedish for records.
Siw Malmkvist entered Eurovision in 1960 with Alla Andra Får Varann (for Sweden) and in 1969 with Primaballerina (for Germany) and she recorded coverversions of several Eurovision songs (see * below). This new release adds two more to the list.
Augustin, April April
Siw Malmkvist also entered (and won) the Swedish national selection several times and two of those appearances are linked to the Eurocovers on the Tunna Skivor bonus CD.
In 1959 Siw Malmkvist sang Augustin in the Swedish selection even though it was already known that Brita Borg would represent Sweden at Eurovision.
Siw recorded Augustin in Swedish, German, Danish, Norwegian and Italian and it’s the Italian version that is released here for the first time.
In 1961 Siw won the Swedish selection with April April, but Swedish TV decided that Lill Babs would go to Eurovision because Siws performance wasn’t quite satisfactory. ** April April features on the CD in a previously unreleased Danish version.
The CD included with a limited number of the book includes 17 tracks of which only the last one was previously released. One track is a new recording; Du bist der Anfang und das Ziel, recorded with her son Henrik. The other 15 tracks are mostly different language recordings of well known Siw songs.
Less great news is that the CD is only available with the first 1000 copies of the book, which is of course not a very fan-friendly marketing strategy.
The Tunna Skivor Av Mig edition with the CD is only available at Bokus, who dont ship to everywhere, but to most European countries and some beyond. (Best inquire first to get the right edition)
Tunna Skivor tracklist:
1 Ten Thousand Miles - 1965
2 Am Platz von Tegelbacken - 1964
3 Amore Scusami (German) - 1964
4 Augustin (Italian) - 1959
5 Bring Back My Love - 1965
6 Du spricht immer von Paris - 1959
7 Du är bäst - 1964
8 Frosty der Schneemann - 1964
9 Goodbye Charlie - 1965
10 Hej Mr Banjo - 1955
11 Lejonburen - 1964
12 Någon gång någonstans - 1964
13 Rosorna i Portugal - 1959
14 April april (Danish) - 1961
15 Du bist der Anfang und das Ziel - with Henrik Ohlsson - 2010
16 Introduction recorded in the studio for Vackraste paret i världen
17 Vackraste paret i världen - Duett med Svante Thuresson - 1968
* Sprattelgumma, Puppet On A String at Eurocovers has a discography of Siws Eurocovers
** I haven’t read the book yet, so I don’t know if there’s anything about this historic Swedish Eurovision debacle in it.
Here's a sweet 'n' lovely version of Sandie Shaw's Puppet On A String. I bought this curiosity via the bay on a whim because it had some strange appeal with hardly anything being known about it.
In my imagination it could have been an undiscovered recording of a mega famous superstar, but I'm not recognizing any pre-fame voice here. Elaine Baker, who is she? The name is common enough to hit 25.000 at google, and that didn't lead to anything conclusive. There's an opera singer, an actress or radio DJ with the same name here and there, who knows....
The single has no recordcompany label on it. All the label reads is monaural (= mono), the artists name, the composers and some numbers.
So dating the record is up to us. It must be later than 1967, the original puppet year, as the other track My Love, My Love's The Same has a distinctive early disco feel about it. 1972?
The version of Puppet On A String is a bit of an odd blend of romantic Jamaican rhythms and horns with the singer taking a few detours in the original melody and lyrics. Puppet could easily be one of the many versions recorded in Jamaica, but the other track is so un-Jamaican that it makes it a bit doubtful.
Another fact that could point to Jamaica is the misspelling of songwriter Coulter as Coulteer. That occurs on a few other Jamaican coverversions.
The fact that there's no record label is also a point towards Jamaica.
I discarded the possibilty of the record being a cheap pop-tops style copy as the other song is composed by the singer herself and Puppet is far from a plain copy.
A romantic idea that appeals to me is that Elaine Baker just wanted to make a record, spent a few pennies / cents on it and 23 copies were pressed for friends and family. Elvis did it, so why can't Elaine?
All in all, I know nothing, which is great really. So, Elaine Baker, wherever you are, if you read this, just drop us a comment. (anyone else that knows something more is very welcome too)
Puppet On A String was already featured a zillion times at Eurocovers in 2007. If you use this link you get the posts which feature versions from all over the world.
Eurocovers has not fully collapsed yet under the heat, but lazyness prevents indepth analysis of the high standards you are used to from yours truly. I didn't even tie in with the footie and the vuvuzela madness, for which you probably are thankful
But here's some found food and bits and pieces people have been sending.
Perla
Remember Perla? In this Eurocovers post (UPDATED in 2021) you can read all about the beautiful Brasilian pop singer and her covers of your favorite Eurovision songs. There was one version missing which now can be found in this YouTube. It's the Spanish language version of Mia Martini's 1977 entry Libera.
It's one of 90 Perla songs you can listen to on the Perla Radio Youtube channel. Thank you Perla Radio!
Leon Calvert
Easy listening blog Detour features an LP Captivation by Noel Trevlac including an instrumental version of Puppet On A String. Not only is this a must hear track because it is exceptionally good, it's also interesting because Mr. Trevlac is actually Leon Calvert, acclaimed British jazz trumpeteer who probably didn't want to have his name attached to some cheap covers LP. But the quality of the arrangement and the trumpetering betrays him. Thank You Detour Blog!
South Africa
Music news from South Africa is a bit slow at the moment. Several Eurocovers are on the brink of release (or not, as postponing is the word of the day). You can find one little teaser for a forthcoming release at the Jasmyn website.
You can hear a part of Iemand Soos Jy, a coverversion of the ill fated Barbara Dex song that ended last in 1993. Jasmyn will also have two other Eurocovers on her album, but there's not much info on her website yet.
Another anticipated but overdue album is Die Enigste Manier (The only way) by Lee Scott (of Hi-5). It includes Wonderland, an Afrikaans version of Fairytale, last years winner and Wens Ek Kon (2009 runner up Is It True? from Iceland). You can listen to excerpts from the album tracks including the Eurocovers at the Lee Scott website. update: There's also a cover of Chiara's Malta 2009 song titled Vandag. Moniqe Foxx tackles the forgotten Malta entry Believe 'n' Peace by Times 3 (1999) as Ek Glo for her new album.(very short clip at the Moniqe Foxx website). The album will also include a version of Secret Combination (Greece 2008). The album will be out on Markon records. Lea Le Roux covers the luscious Andorran 2009 entry La Teva Decisio (Susanna Georgi) as Ek Es Gereed on her album due in november. (small clip at Rea Le Roux website).
A lot of small excerpts which are of course useless to the Eurovers fan, so I'm pleased to end this shortlist of Afrikaans covers with two full versions:
It's Henk Grimsell with his interpretation of Soraya's La Noche Es Para Mi (Spain 2009). The song is titled Vanaand Is Net Vir My from his new album Dis Tyd (Southern Buzz records). And the girls love him!
South African Bachelor Of The Year Stefan Ludik also has an album out. Burn This Town is out on CD in South Africa and also digitally available at Play.com, We7 and MusicMe. It has one Eurocover, Lose Control, last years clubby Finnish entry by Waldo's People. It's in English and a bit louder than the original.
At MusicMe you can listen to the full tracks of the album.
Totally Off Topic Extra Bit Of Afrikaans Info Cooler As Ekke by Jack Sparow is heading for a massive hit in the Netherlands. It's a soft hippy hoppy track of which I don't understand a word (maybe just as well) but it can be considered quite cool in a Borat kind of way. It's the first Afrikaans language hit in the Netherlands since Thembi took a medley of discofied Afrikaans folksongs to the top 10 in 1976. (Take Me Back To The Old Transvaal)
2010 coverversions
Currently at #4 in the German charts is Schland O Schland by Uwu Lena. The football hymne to the tune of Lena's 2010 Eurovision winner Satellite was released on cdsingle after some initial hesitation. The number 4 is a lucky number for the Germans. #1 next week?. (update: erm, no , #5)
There's also a Finnish version of Satellite, it's called Kiertokuu by Charlotte Kero.
Read more about all the Satellite Eurocovers at Lena's page at the Oslo Collection. More news on the Keistad Street Organ CD (with a cover of the Dutch entry) can be found at the Oslo Collection Sieneke page.
More Mostly Off Topic Great News Samantha 'Touch Me' Fox and Sabrina 'Boys Boys Boys' Salerno have teamed up for an ace coverversion of Blondie's Call Me(Youtube). Welcome back girls, the world just wasn't the same without you.
The cdsingle is only released in Italy so far, but the digital release is widely available. I bought my cdsingle at favorite shop Juno, who also stock a picture disc 12" inch.
Sam Fox's old band Sox once tried to go to Eurovision with Go For The Heart, but they ended 4th and Love City Groove went on to the contest somewhere in Ireland.
O Vento Mudou - UHF
After all that schlager and pop it's time for a bit of Rawk. Portuguese rockers UHF have recorded the Portuguese 1967 entry O Vento Mudou (Eduardo Nascimento) for their new album. And it's great!
You can listen to the song at the UHF MySpace . Thanks Ed!
Perdon Cariño Mio
Two versions of the Italian 1971 entry L'Amore è Un Attimo can be found at the website of Pino Lucciano. One in Spanish (Perdon...) and one in Italian. Eurocovers loves that song, so that's why it's here. There's also a version of Volare if you scroll down a bit on the site.
Another Tex Mex version of the song by Los Reyes Del Camino can be found in this Eurocovers post from 2007.
Just one day until the first semifinal of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.
If you are one of the unlucky Eurocovers readers without any TV channel broadcasting the contest onto your couch, no problem. It's quite easy to catch the broadcasts this year. Just go to the Streaming TV page of the official Eurovision site. There you will be able to catch all three evenings of Eurovision extravaganza. Needs an octoshape install, but that doesn't hurt.
In the meantime here's just a few of the golden oldies recorded in Norwegian over the years. Some by Norways greatest stars and others by the lost and forgotten. And there's some links to Norwegian treasures featured previously at Eurocovers.
1958 Italy - Volare (Domenico Modugno)
Already featured in 2008: Anno Domenico, Norwegian versions of the Italian Classic by Nora Brockstedt and by Inger Jacobsen with the Monn Keys (Original post)
1959 Netherlands - 'n Beetje (Teddy Scholten)
- Det Kommer En Sommer - The Monn-Keys - 7" (Triola TN 165) & EP
The Monn Keys were a Norwegian vocal outfit founded by Egil Monn Iversen and Sølvi Wang. In fact it was some kind of supergroup with different well known Norwegian vocalists joining the group off and on. (including Eurovision singers Inger Jacobsen, Nora Brocktedt and Arne Bendiksen).
Their recording career started way before Eurovision was invented but they picked up on a few of your favorite Eurovision tunes, dressed them up in Norwegian sweaters and even scored a few hits with them. The Monn Keys lasted from 1948 to 1964. They toured Scandinavia, most of western Europe and also America.
The b-side to the Det Kommer… single is Syng Lille Sangfugl, a cover the the U.K. entry Sing Little Birdie. (Still looking for that one though)
source: More about the Monn Keys (in Norwegian) at Balade.no where I also nicked this picture sleeve.
1960 France - Tom Pillibi (Jacqueline Boyer)
- by the Monn Keys with Sølvi Wang - on 7" (Triola TN 202)
1962 Germany - Zwei Kleine Italiener (Conny Froboess)
- Anita Thallaug - Tina Og Marina - on 7"(NorDisk NOR 67)
Anita Thallaugs place in Eurovision history was earned in 1963. In Eurovision she performed Solhverv (Solstice) which became Norways first nil-pointer. Thallaug was appointed to go to Eurovision even though two other artists had performed the song in the national final (Jan Høiland & Nora Brockstedt). Anita Thallaug never released the song. Zwei Kleine Italiener, probably the biggest hit from the 1962 contest, was already widely covered in this Eurocovers post.
1962 Finland - Tipi Tii (Marion Rung)
- by Jan Høiland, release details wanted
1966 Yugoslavia - Brez Besed (Berta Ambroz)
- Uten Ord - Karin Winje on 7" (Triola TN 487)
1967 U.K. - Puppet On A String (Sandie Shaw)
- Sprellemann - Benthe Aaseth .
Already featured in The Year Of The Puppet post Sprellemann
1967 Luxembourg - L'Amour Est Bleu (Vicky)
- Blå, Blå, Min Kjærlighed - Åse Kleveland - on 7" (Polydor NH 66 814)
1969 U.K. Boom Bang A Bang (Lulu)
- Anne Mette in this post.
1973 Spain - Eres Tu (Mocedades)
Inger Lise (Rypdal) - I Mitt Liv on 7" (Talent TS 009). See comments
By all means of transport, ashclouds permitting, the 2010 Eurovision stars are arriving in Norways capital city Oslo for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest.
While the new Superstars and main contenders are working their pretty little arses off drinking at parties, spending their allowance on overpriced souvenirs and other important promotional activities, Eurocovers reminisces on the gone old days.
Since the Finweeks in 2007 Eurocovers dives into Eurovision history with the popular songs and artists of the host country.
I Voted For Nora!
A few months ago there Norway Post was having a bit of a internet vote on who should be the 4th Norwegian Eurovision entity to be honoured with their face on a stamp. Three stamps were already decided to be graced by Norways Eurovision winners Bobbysocks!, Secret Garden and Alexander Rybak, and the public was to vote for another one. I voted for Nora Brockstedt, but in the end the people decided to give Jahn Teigen the honour. Bless him.
I'm sure it must have been a very close call, as Nora Brockstedt is one of the lovely superstars of early Eurovision.
She sang with the popular Monn Keys in the early 50's and scored some popular tunes before she set foot on the Eurovision stage like En Liten Pike I Lave Sko and Eurocover Augustin (see below) .
She represented Norway on their first two Eurovision entries and after that Nora tried four times more in the national finals, the last time being in 1977.
In the 21st century Nora is still singing, she released her latest CD For Swingende in 2008.
You could have seen Nora Brockstedt live in action on May 28 at the Byporten shopping centre in Oslo. Bobbysocks! and Maria Haukaas Storeng also joined. (Byporten info). update BeaRecords happened to be shopping in Oslo and recorded this footage of Nora Brockstedts performance of Voi Voi for Youtube. BeaRecords YouTube channel is here.
Voi Voi
The first Eurovision entry for Norway was the brilliant Voi Voi by Nora Brockstedt. It ended 4th and still remains a popular tune in Norway. Nora recorded Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and English versions of the song. Voi Voi was a # 5 hit on the Norwegian charts (9 weeks on the list)
In 1988 a new version was released by Nora and the original singer can also be heard on some coverversions.
A very 21st century rappy coverversion is by Superstars who use the original version of the song. See the videoclip here at YouTube.
Follow up Sommer I Palma, also by Nora, ended 7th at the contest but was picked up by two French Eurovision singers Isabelle Aubret (the 1962 winner for France) and Jean Claude Pascal (1961 winner for Luxembourg) both recorded the song as Si Mon Amour.
Finnish Eurovision legend Laila Kinnunen recorded the song in Finnish and Swedish.
Nora Brockstedts own collection of Eurocovers starts in 1957 with Norwegian and Swedish versions of the Danish entry Skibet Skal Sejle I Nat.
Below is a list of all Nora's Eurovision songs including all the Eurocovers I know of. There's many details missing, especially label info on the Norwegian releases. So if you know more, just let me know. I'm also looking for a complete picture sleeve scan of Sommer I Palma.
Nora Brockstedt Eurovision and Eurocovers Discography.
---
Norway 1960 - Voi Voi
- Voi Voi (norwegian) on 7"(Karussell KM12)
- Big boy (english) - as Norah Brockstedt on 7" (U.K.: Top Rank JAR 353)
- Voi Voi (swedish) on 7" (Sweden: Joker JK 4004)
- Voi Voi (danish) on 7" (Denmark: Karussell KD 5010)
- Voi Voi (1988) on 7" (Garlic Records GR-1)
- Voi Voi (2006) - Bjelleklang with Nora Brockstedt
---on CD Sokker I Sandaler (Big Box records BBRCD 012, 2006)
- Voi Voi (2006) - Superstars (pop-rap version with original sample)
---Two versions on cdsingle (Soundfarm recordings SFRCDS 0601)
Norway 1961 - Sommer I Palma
- Sommer I Palma (norwegian) on EP (Karussell TNEP 1062)
- Sommar I Palma (swedish) (Sweden: Joker JK 4014)
Denmark 1957 - Skibet Skal Sejle I Natt
---(Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler)
- Skibet skal seile i natt (norwegian) - (RCA, details wanted)
- Skeppet skall segla i natt (swedish) on 7" (Cupol CS 4521) --- & EP Höst i en park i Paris (Cupol SEP 105)
France 1958 - Dors Mon Amour (André Claveau)
- Sov i min favn (norwegian) on 7" (details wanted) ---and CD Tango For To, 50 Innspillinger Fra 50 År.
- Sov, min älskling (swedish) on EP (Cupol CEP 193) also includes I Det Blå.
Italy 1958 - Volare (Domenico Modugno)
- I dine blå øynes blå (norwegian) - release details wanted
- Augustin (norwegian) - 7" (RCA NA 1099) - a 5/7 hit in Norway
- Augustin (swedish) on EP (Cupol CEP 214, pic below)
Norway 1963 Solhverv
---(Anita Thallaug at Eurovision)
This song was performed twice in the Norwegian National selection, once by Jan Høiland and once by Nora Brockstedt. A different singer, Anita Thallaug, performed it at Eurovision and Jan Høiland is the only one to release the song (7" Columbia GN 1755).
Here's a re-hash of an older Eurocovers post, but I think the Moscow Weeks can't go by without mentioning Emil Gorovets, who recorded some of the great 60's Eurovision entries in Russian.
I know I promised a feature story about the Russian Jewish singer, but even after much research I wasn't able to write a coherent story that does his life story justice.
Emil Gorovets was born in Ukraine in 1927, moved to the US in 1970 and died in 2001 in New York.
So for The Moscow Weeks you'll have to make do with his Eurovision covers discography and the songs (♫) most songs are in Russian but there is also one from his rare Yiddish LP Emil Gorovets sings the worlds songs in Yiddish. Эмиль Горовец - Eurocovers discography Austria 1966 - Merci Cherie - Udo Jürgens
Мерси, Шери - on Russian Flexi 00019601-2
A Dank (in Yiddish) - LP (LPG 1003) Luxembourg 1967 - L'amour Est Bleu - Vicky
Тень и свет (Ten I svet) - on LP Poet U.K. 1967 - Puppet On A String - Sandie Shaw
Я не кукла (Ya ne kukla) - on flexi EP Melodija 0001183-4 U.K. 1968 - Congratulations- Cliff Richard
Сто поздравлений (Sto Pozdravleniy) - on flexi EP Melodija Д 00025771-2 Israel 1979 - Hallelujah - Milk & Honey
Hallelujah (English/Russian) - on CD Luchshie Pesni (1996)
The Russian compilation 2CD Emil Gorovets - Zolotaya kollektsiya retro 2004 features all 60's tracks in Russian.
A good discography of Gorovets' Russian work is here.
Eight winners of Eurovision Days Gone By have been recorded in Russian. (also see below) Ding A Dong, much loved, ridiculed by some. Of course the 1975 Eurovision winner is flowerpicking genius and the Russians agree. The song is covered by Russian artists and it's regularly performed on various CIS states Idols / Eurovision / Kids shows.
Teach In enjoyed some popularity in the Soviet Union in the mid 70's and in 1976 Getty Kaspers, Teach In's singer at Eurovision had a USSR #1 hit with I'm Alone.
Teach In are doing a bit of a re-union tour and they also visitied Russia, playing for 40.000 people at two sold out cencerts. The band will be performing at the opening show welcome party extravaganza in Moscow on the 10th of May.
Ding A Dong Russian coversAlena Apina & Murat Nasirov's version of Ding A Dong is titled Лунные ночи (Lunnye Nochi) and can be found on a 1998 CD The Best Of Alena Apina.
Assorti (Ассорти) gave it a shot in the Russian preselection with Keep On Shining in 2005 and their Динь-Дон (Din Don) from 2003 appeared on their website and various compilations. (pic right) (This one was already featured in this Ding A Dong Eurocovers post)
The most recent Russian version I know is from 2006 by Havana (Гавана) - Novy god v platie novom (Новый Год В Платье Новом). It was released on various Christmas compilations.
The Moscow Weeks In a week the delegations of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest will be boarding their private jets for Moscow. Watch out for a few Moscow Weeks posts soon at Eurocovers. In the meantime getting Moscow 2009 sorted is taking up a lot of time, so today you'll have to do with some picture sleeves only. I found these over the years at the net, e-bay etcetera, but I don't have the records or even recordings. But I think they're worth having a look at so I though I'd share them to kill the time to 12 - 14 - 16 May.
The Moscow Collection As you have noticed by now, over at my other blog you can find all details on the releases of the 2009 contest. Versions, Picture sleeves, Release info, Charts, Links, it's all there and constantly updated. The latest updates include: Greece - Sakis Rouvas This Is Our Night Album info Moldova: Three remixes online at Nelly Ciubano Website Andorra cdsingle out now, remix Macedonia - English and Serbian versions online, promo info Ukraine: Anti Crisis Girl, Russian version Bosnia Hercegovina: Bistra Voda, download Russian and English Serbia, Cipela!, more versions: French, Russian, Greek, English, Hebrew & Finnish! Turkey: Hadise in the Belgian charts (and out again) Russia, new Eurovision version online Malta: Chiara promo
The picture seeves above feature coverversions of Puppet On A String (U.K. 1967), Yo Soy Aquel (Spain 1966), Congratulations (U.K. 1968), I Belong (U.K. 1965) and Sol De Inverno (Portugal 1965).
Eurocovers likes the world and the unlikely pairings of music styles coming from all over it.
One I could never have dreamt up myself is Swiss Lady by Them Mushrooms.
Pepe Lienhard and his band sang Swiss Lady back in 1977 and it was a bit of an horny affair, as the Lady in case is the ever popular folkloristic instrument from the Alps: The Alpenhorn. It was of course the Swiss entry and it ended 6th at the contest held in London.
Them Mushrooms are from Kenya and the band has been around since 1972.
After a good decade of hard work performing in hotels and clubs they have released 16 albums since 1980 (in various line-ups). They were (and are) a popular band, but superstardom in Kenya didn't mean immediate unlimited richess. They even had to borrow their instruments in the early years.
Their most popular song is Jambo Bwana (Hello Mister) from 1980. It was covered by many bands including Boney M., although Tha' Shrooms have never received a penny from Frank Farian for Jambo Hakuna Matata (insert the word allegedly at your own convenience)
The 2005 album Kazi Ni Kazi (Kelele records KE 31011) subtitles as Tribute To Bob Marley which is probably only because there is a track with that title on it.
It's this album that sports Eurocover Swiss Lady and it's an odd mellow journey from the Matterhorn to Mount Kenya, via Jamaica.
The band have ditched the name Them Mushrooms and go through life as Uyoga now. You can read more about them at Big Entertainment .
'When you play your music I'd like to be an Alphorn too': Swiss Lady is sung in English with a small part in Swahili. -
-
picture: Giant spliff prooves to be a hard draw.
Blog Tip
Treasure trove Faintly Blowing features an interesting LP. It's The Jet Liners at the Taj Mahal Bombay. The band is from Ceylon (Now Sri Lanka).
The LP has a gorgeous sleeve and there's 15 coverversions of popular songs like Zorba The Greek, Georgy Girl, This Is My Song (anoraks: written by Charlie Chaplin) and Eurocover Puppet On A String, the Sandie Shaw Eurovision winner from 1967.
(Avid readers know there's 1000's of Puppet On A String versions at Eurocovers).
Eurovision 2009 - The Moscow Collection
The Latest 2009 News At The Moscow Collection Blog: Serbia, Cipela, Dance version now at RTS. Albania:Carry Me In Your Dreams - promo sleeve Azerbaijan: Always, single release details, sleeve Bulgaria: download old & new versions, Deep Zone remixes Iceland: Is It True promo sleeve Spain: Soraya promo info. U.K.: Jade: It's Time For Remixes, promo info Lithuania: Sasha Song (!) Love to Moscow, Russian version Finland - Lose Control remix info, cdsingle out now, # 1 hit
Golden Oldie Are You Sure is one of the songs I knew by heart (although in my own invented variation on English) before I found out it actually was a Eurovision tune.
The Allisons (Brian 'John Allison' Alford & Colin 'Bob Allison' Day, not really brothers contrary to popular belief), the U.K.'s answer to the Everly Brothers, scored a European hit with their Eurovision runner up, the third U.K. entry in a row to finish 2nd.
Despite their European hit, world domination didn't really happen for the Allisons. They managed to get two more top 40 hits (but not top 30) and called it a day in 1963.
'Goodbye, Farewell.... Are You Sure?' they asked. I guess they weren't, as the Allisons reunited on several occasions and in the 70's recruited some new brothers like Mike Allison and Tony Allison.
John White, earlier member who left in 1959 is the real composer of their Eurovision Song. (It's credited to The Allisons)
Search engines aren't much use when you're browsing with a general term like "Are You Sure" but over the years I have found details on about 40 versions of the song and here are some of them.
My favorite first: The Chicks are a New Zealand sister duo formed by Judy & Sue Donaldson. (real sisters) The single was sent to me by Barry from New Zealand, long before the internet and all that and it has always been one of the treasured little gems in my collection. Are You Sure is the b-side to the 1969 single Miss You Baby (Polydor 425220). -
I could write/copy/paste the girls life story, but instead I recommend this excellent bio at New Zealand Music with gorgeous pictures and very detailed info.
Another sister duo, The Young Sisters (again, real sisters) from the Netherlands recorded AreYou Sure in Dutch.
Johnny, Kom Weer Hier (Johnny come back) was recorded in 1961 and released on single (Philips 318 552 PF).
The Young Sisters are Willy & Nelly De Jong, mom & aunt of Maxine. Maxine represented the Netherlands in Eurovision in 1996 with Franklin Brown (De Eerste Keer, 7th).
Even though the Sisters released several singles covering international hits, they never scored a chart hit. But they prooved to be a popular live act performing for Dutch soldiers abroad, often accompanied by the Jumping Jewels.
There is a short bio with some great pictures here at the West Brabants Rock 'N' Roll Archief (in Dutch).
German versions of the song are called Ahoi-Ohé and it is this version that probably was the inspiration Kalmer Tennosaar & Kalju Terasmaa to record an Estonian version. That version was covered by Estonian girl-folk-humpah band Seelikukütid.
The girls of Seelikukütid have been known to sport the Sebastien Tellier look and tackle popular songs as well as tradional songs on their many albums. Ahoi Ohee is from the CD Seelikukütid 4 from 1997. Seelikukütid also recorded Puppet On A String (as Hüpiknukk, on CD Seelikukütid 5)
A List of Are You Sures List of versions of Are You Sure . (e-mail me) This has release details on the Allisons versions and info on 42 coverversions of the song. (Word document uploaded with 4shared) (Updated November 2013)
Any corrections, additions and comments are of course very welcome.
2008, Beijing, Olympics, etcetera.
I'm not going to deep into the politics (or the sports for that matter) of it all here, I'm sure you'll find enough websites for that. Opening Ceremony was great, but I caught some zzzz's too.The square drummers at the start were totally amazing.
Unfortunately the TV forgot to include any televoting numbers when all the countries marched on, missed opportunity I say. -
But I did notice a complete absence of Chinese visitors to Eurocovers, when normally there is always a steady flow of friends from Beijing and Guangzhou visiting my blog.
I find it hard to imagine that a blog like Eurocovers should all of a sudden be branded dangerous to national interest, so I have to assume our Chinese friends are just to busy right now with watching the Olympics. Or relocating.
潘巧丹 - Michelle - All Kinds Of Everything (in English) - from 2005 CD Angel Of The Morning (pic. right)
区瑞强 - Albert Au - All Kinds Of Everything (in English)
- from CD Simple Folk (2000), Albert Au is a Hong Kong cantopop singer and DJ at Radio Television Hong Kong.
胭花四乐 - Rouge Hot - Love Is Blue (in Chinese)
- from the CD Oriental Instruments Vs Occidental Music, (pictured top left). Odd version, sounds more Barok than Oriental to me, but lovely still.
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The picture seeves above feature coverversions of Puppet On A String (U.K. 1967), Yo Soy Aquel (Spain 1966), Congratulations (U.K. 1968), I Belong (U.K. 1965) and Sol De Inverno (Portugal 1965).
