"Godine Nisu Važne - 50 Pjesama" by Nikica Kalogjera

In his time, Croatian composer Nikica Kalogjera was one of the most successful people in business - pop festivals catapulted his hits, he was behind best selling records, biggest artists clamoured for his attention, it could easily be said that he defined our pop music trough 1960s and 1970s. Still, as rock music replaced ubiquitous schlager, new generations - conditioned to reject everything previously done - neglected not just Kalogjera but the whole mainstream crowd associated with Sunday TV shows, so when this compilation was originally released in 2002. the greenhorn music critic assigned the job to review this project bemoaned the task, apparently bellow standards of someone who deals with more important, preferably foreign, music.

As expected, in a long run Kalogjera's commercial success backfired - kids have no idea that it took years of apprenticeship on the 1950s radio before he was even allowed to participate on festivals, where his versatility as composer and arranger made him distinguished presence. If initially he joyously roamed trough various genres, at the end of 1960s he struck gold with irresistible pop ditties that sold in truckloads but pointed at the road of no return: no matter how much hit singles he served on international markets, Kalogjera's biggest fault (in the eyes of recently born music critics) is that he ignored rock and decidedly followed schlager route, so beloved trough continental Europe. No wonder he found warm welcome in Germany, where this kind of music is traditionally accepted and cultivated. 

Out of two CDs planned as retrospective of Mr.Kalogjera's songbook, the first one is by far more interesting, perhaps because it follows his earliest work with variety of experiments in all sorts of genres, from children's songs to quasi-Mexican, folk and even girl group sound, guy was ever eclectic and I only wish there was space for his work in chanson since he was right there when poets and people in theatre collaborated in early 1960s. From 1970 and "Čibu Čiba" the material dangerously veers towards lightweight, decision that was obviously carefully planned and it paid off but in hindsight CD two didn't age very well and what were his golden commercial years sounds thin now. For lots of middle-aged listeners this is, however, the soundtrack of another era and as such it reflects socio-economic atmosphere where radio hits were supposed to be simple, uplifting and sunny.