Bruno Petrali

Brainchild of composer Mario Kinel, Bruno Petrali (b.1925) happened to be young radio presenter with fine voice that Kinel needed for his ideas.
Post-WW2 Yugoslavia was not exactly the best place for pop music (considered "opium for masses") and re-building of war-torn country was considered far more important task than entertainment, however people at Radio Rijeka used their proximity to Italy to translate than-popular hits from San Remo and Italian repertoire to Croatian language and in process they not only promoted some local artists but also got some serious home-grown discography at the time when not many people even owned gramophone.

Complete Petrali's discography (1955-56) is collected here on this compilation CD and he was actually very good - less wooden than more known Ivo Robić and Zvonimir Krkljuš, Bruno Petrali was a fine crooner with a tender, masculine voice who was clearly inspired with Italian singers popular at the time (Alberto Rabagliati and Ernesto Bonino) and their repertoire, he even sings in excellent Italian language and his songs sound surprisingly well when compared with originals. Most of them were note-for-note covers with lyrics translated by Mario Kinel who was lifelong admirer of Italian sound and used all his energies in promoting it as popular music, often completely ignoring what was popular in US at the time (consequently, rock music would arrive to Yugoslavia dressed in Italian covers). Petrali himself later turned to theatre and journalism, since singing was not considered a proper job. his 1950s work mostly forgotten until CD release unearthed this chapter of his life.