4.3.18

"Hiljade balona i poljubaca" (1961) EP


Together with "More, mandoline i muzika", this little four-song EP basically introduced current (1961) biggest hits from legendary Italian San Remo pop festival. In future, some artists would actually record the whole San Remo-themed EP recordings themselves, but for now "Jugoton" was content to release this kind of compilations. 

Where on "More, mandoline i muzika" stately ballads had new Croatian lyrics written by Mario Kinel and classy orchestrations by Bojan Adamič, the atmosphere here is decidedly upbeat (the back cover actually instructs listener which song is tango, rumba or cha cha cha) and arranger is another Slovenian, Mario Rijavec who makes everything sound very happy, cheerful and extremely enjoyable. This time, Kinel is not the only lyrics writer, a chance is also given to Đorđe Marjanović and Arsen Dedić (both budding singers themselves) while singers are very enthusiastic indeed: everybody savours uptempo, dance numbers, which must have been a complete change from weepy ballads of the day. Lively Marjana Deržaj and Emir Altić gave all their worth to emulate Mina and Adriano Celentano, while otherwise moody crooner Dušan Jakšić lets his hair down in genuinely irresistible cha cha cha. The best of all is the sound of 18 year old Zdenka Vučković who sounds as everybody's favourite baby sister and who will eventually became first homegrown true pop star of entire decade. It is a wonderfully eclectic, uplifting little recording and naturally completely forgotten today. Definitely worth searching for and it can be found as digital download in "Croatia Records" archives. 

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