"Zdenka" by Zdenka Vučković (1970)

Croatian artist Zdenka Vučković bursted like a supernova trough 1960s and she was interesting not only as huge teenage star but also as a perhaps first genuine female pop singer of the times. Like most of her contemporaries, Vučković had to go trough pop festivals and lots of international covers which was rule of the day - however, all these EP and singles recordings are still joy to hear, thanks to her attractive, instantly recognisable voice and there was something really endearing about her music personality. 

Curiously, 1970s were not kind to Vučković - her recording company "Jugoton" (now "Croatia records") supported her hit singles but gave her only one shot at than still new medium of LP album, self-titled "Zdenka" that went nowhere. Since Vučković was well-proved hitmaker of the first calibre during previous decade, you would expect that some bigwig would come up with idea, project or theme for such artist, instead letting her languish on pop festivals year in and year out, until it became clear that her commercial appeal lost its momentum. Not that Vučković lost it - far from it, at the age of twenty eight she sounded better than ever and her clear voice gained beautiful colour, but she lacked hit material. At the time, "Jugoton" preferred LP albums as compilations of previously released work, so it comes as surprise that she went with re-recordings, perhaps to show off her new, mature voice - "Veče Obećanja" from festival Zagreb '70 was sensational, as was her cover of "To Love Somebody" and Alfi Kabiljo musical number "Divni dani" but seems that gap between grown up teenage star and audiences was getting bigger and bigger. Instead starting a new chapter of Vučković as a LP artist, this album was beginning and the end - she never recorded another LP - and for remainder of her career she was left with a handful of pretty singles (worth searching for) and highly publicised EP with children's music "Zeko i potočić" that effectively killed her reputation as a pop artist. Even so, someone at "Jugoton" could at least explore this direction, since it was obviously very successful commercially - with her little sister image and vocal talent undiminished, Vučković could have created the whole list of interesting thematic LP albums, instead of being left to wither away along with other contemporaries. At least, her subsequent singles could have been compiled instead of letting her completely neglected.