Music:"Balade" by Josipa Lisac (1988)

Big commercial succes of her album "Boginja" suddenly returned Josipa Lisac on top charts again big time and her recording company was quick in considering compilation that would collect her ballads - althought hard to categorise,since she often enthusiasticaly explored different music styles,Lisac was very effective on ballads so this albums has some of her most famous recordings + two new ones and two unreleased rarities.

As a point in her versaility,around the same time there was a concert celebration in Zagreb's famous "Lisinski" concert hall - three days of music celebration,a concert tribute to Gershwin ,a folk concert and a rock one.Josipa Lisac was the only singer who was invited to perform on all of them and she dazzled everywhere she decided to sing.She did "Summertime" on Gershwin tribute,sang bosnian folk song on folk concert and her own song on rock concert.I have also checked her jazz concert with Drazen Boic trio and again she was sensational in a smaller concert hall.

This compilation doesnt follow any chronological order: it mixes her ballads from 1970s (curiously none from her best album "Dnevnik jedne ljubavi") with 1980s material and Metikos-written "Ja bolujem" from pop festival "Meam 87" where she created sensation with theatrical stage performance.Since Zagreb was that year the offical host for international university sport games "Univerzijada",her recording of old 1960s song "Dobro mi dosel prijatelj" ("Welcome my friend" in english translation) was its anthem and often played on the radio.Croatian recording of "Whiter shade of pale" was previously unreleased studio recording (from probably same session that had "Imagine" and "To love somebody",unfinished cover project?) while "Crazy love" and "Soon as I touched him" were glimpses from her USA album recorded 1979 in Los Angeles but relased with croatian lyrics later in homeland.It was a strong compilation at the time and nobody could predict that in following years three compilations would fill the gap in her long recording silence.