Since I am something of amateur music historian enthusiast, it was just natural that after collecting ancient classical music recordings and best of 1920s Jazz and Blues, I stumbled upon archival recordings of pre-WW2 Croatia - I was delighted!
This particular compilation titled "The Golden melodies of 1930-es" is full of now forgotten music stars of that time. As liner notes point, we actually had first records released around 1926. in Zagreb and the company was called "Edison Bell Penkala Ltd." - first they had released foreign popular music but very soon they also added local flavor to their repertoire. Artists who recorded these first "hits" were singers from Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb like Margita and Dejan Dubajić and they also performed on than very popular dance contests in "Esplanade" hotel (Ivo Tijardović was conducting).
What is collected here - or should I say, unearthed from dusty archives - is priceless collection of music that was popular between two world wars. Tango, Charleston, Chanson, you name it - the most striking and instantly noticeable thing is how unusual these singers sound to our modern ears, since all of them follow a particular vocal interpretation fashionable back than - gasping pathos, canyon-wide vibrato and theatrics to the ceiling. The world has certainly changed since than. It all sounds quite ridiculous now and I love it dearly. Not for nothing I listened all those 1930s recordings from USA and Berlin, so I can guarantee Croatians could hold their own and their orchestras were just as fine. Some of the names, long forgotten now of course, were Milan Šepec, Aleksandar Binički, Nada Auer and future big radio star Andrija Konc. By far the biggest "evergreen" here is original "Marijana" as recorded by Vlaho Paljetak. Just wonderful.
Delightful sequel to "Zlatne Melodije 1930-ih/The Golden Melodies of 1930-s" this compilation now follows popular music of war decade and its music stars.
To be honest, it is not so radically different from 1930s except that singing style is not so ridiculously old fashioned anymore. Where 1930s singers sound completely alien to modern ears, 1940s vocals are kind of recognizable as crooners and chirping songbirds. Most of these artists were regularly employed in theatre as actors or in operetta so naturally they projected than-popular hits of the day, mostly composed by local songwriters like Nenad Grčević and up-and-coming Mario Kinel who regularly printed their notes and had their material often played on the radio.
Singers represented here are mostly forgotten now but I find them sweetly old fashioned precedents of later popular singers - there is absolutely nothing wrong with Rudolf Dugulin,
Miljenko Sutlović, Trio Delinski (where Rajka Vali started), great Andrija Konc or even early, young Ivo Robić also included here. Perhaps it is a stretch to call Nina Selak a jazz singer but hey, I guess her relaxed delivery was different than operetta. Since two of songs here - "Noćas" and "Zar ne znaš (da tebe obožavam)" were later included in all-time biggest Croatian movie classic "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" set in this time, I am sure many listeners are familiar with them and would find this compilation very interesting.
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