If Ivo Robić and Rajka Vali stand as a respectable pioneers of post/WW2 pop music in Croatia and the roots of the family tree that later sprouted new branches, these venerable ancestors inspired the second generation of singers who came right after them, on the wave of than-popular local variations of San Remo: almost everybody who started in the late 1950s were crooners who, at various degrees grew up idolising American pop singers and emulated whatever they could.
It took me awhile to warm up to Beti Jurković because she sounds so sunny and ebullient - eventually I accepted that this was her trademark and not unlike her Slovenian counterpart Marjana Deržaj, Jurković basically built her repertoire from swing and dixieland covers (they often worked with the same people and even recorded several duets). Gifted with cheerful voice, clear diction and bright disposition, on her first EP recording (released on Belgrade's PGP RTB as a part of their series of dance music recordings) she swings trough collection of international covers and is backed by elegant orchestra that never strays too far from the melody. Considering this was the era when international pop artists were already singing rock, this tame little recording might sound as a throwback to previous decade - nothing wrong with the singer who chirps and croons as she was told, but apparently local discography was still in early stage when certain rules had to be followed and anything individual was strongly discouraged. For the rest of the decade Jurković focused on pop festivals and later slowly disappeared from view as the music business changed.
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