"Noćas Si Lijepa, Ljubavi" by Miro Ungar (1978)

For somebody who started way back in 1958. it sure took a long time to get his first LP album - because he was present at the very dawn of popular music in Croatia, Miro Ungar likes to think of himself as some kind of rock pioneer, but in fact his connections to rock music are almost non-existent: in their earliest days, 4 M were covering international hits of the day like "Buona Sera", "The Great Pretender" and "Diana" but very soon this old-fashioned vocal quartet moved comfortably into easy listening waters of schlager pop festivals and variety TV shows, so basically they were novelty act. Chronologically they were amongst first Croatian artists who covered rock hits but this don't make them rock artists - even grandfather Ivo Robić recorded "Shake Rattle And Roll" and nobody thought of him as rock pioneer. Where people like Karlo Metikoš and Bijele Strijele actually pursued rock music, most of their contemporaries (including Ungar) chose different direction and went for what mainstream audiences wanted to hear - heavily orchestrated festival numbers and singles that recall German schlager music.

Ungar himself eventually forgot all about rock and his choice of covers ("Oh, Lady Mary", "Mamy Blue") shows conscious decision to embrace family audience. Handful of foreign-language singles show some international ambitions on French and German market but eventually he ended up neither here or there. Contrary to his famous ex wife who actually made it to the first league in France, I am not aware that Ungar left any mark internationally and at home he was just one of the many participants on ubiquitous pop festivals. "Noćas Si Lijepa, Ljubavi" is his late-in-the-game debut album as full-blown schlager singer and judged by merits of production and choice of material this is surprisingly solid, pleasant-sounding collection with intelligent lyrics (Maja Perfiljeva, Kemal Monteno, Ivica Krajač, Arsen Dedić) and some easy listening music by Đorđe Novković and Nikica Kalogjera. It is not bad by any means, but it brings nothing exciting or new, specially considering that guys like Ivica Šerfezi and Krunoslav Kićo Slabinac (not to mention Mišo Kovač) already covered the market and established strong music identity - Ungar had a nice, melodic voice and could probably do much more but judging by his recorded legacy, this was just pleasant easy listening radio fodder. Title song was already done by Vjekoslav Jut years ago.