"Pjevaj srce moje" by Doris Dragović (1988)

By the late 1980 singer songwriter Zrinko Tutić has completely overshadowed his predecessors, composers who firmly ruled pop charts in previous decades. For better or worse, people like Đorđe Novković, Zdenko Runjić and Rajko Dujmić, each in his own way, established what it is that huge mainstream audience wanted as hit on a national level - easy listening pop music with memorable refrains, preferably a little bit of Greek or Mexican flourish to it and of course lyrics have to drip with tears so audience can cry in their beers. Sounds cynical, but close inspection to huge best-seller hits shows exactly same approach and as it were, formula worked wonders. It is business, after all and every single one of these composers eventually gave up youthful artistic aspirations (they all started seriously) once they realised what market actually wants. In fact, rare are musicians who decidedly stayed firmly behind their ideals - in Croatia they can be counted on fingers of one hand - majority will eventually embrace different path that promises mainstream success even if it differs from where they started.

Nothing wrong with either this album or Doris Dragović for that matter - it might be the best album she had recorded so far, since every single song sounds like sure hit. Cooks are all first class professionals (Marina Tucaković, Zrinko Tutić and Rajko Dujmić stands as a producer) and I guess its producer who gave it this particular golden glow, so in a way this is how singer would have sounded if she was a member of his classic pop band "Novi Fosili". With such juggernaut force behind her, young singer could simply not make a wrong step as project was destined to be a smash and indeed it was. As a young man, Tutić might have dabbled in rock and chanson, but here he serves Dragović with mix of everything from bouzouki to Mexican ballads, Spanish guitars and even traditional a cappella vocal band on the last song. It truly works like magic and the whole album might be the best thing she had recorded (it went platinum) because there is something for everybody, be it sad weepies or uptempo pop, almost like perfectly selected concert play list. It is easy to dismiss something that does not even attempt to be more than simply entertainment with no pretensions and as such it was created with utmost care to details - perhaps a little too calculated, but surely it sounds intoxicating and I dare anybody to come up with more memorable refrains. This album overflows with them.