Le telephone pleure - Ääni puhelimessa

We conclude this series of Finnish duet covers with an extraordinary duet. Juhani Markola and Lilli performed the song "Ääni puhelimessa" (Voice in the telephone) in 1977. Juhani is a singer and educator in singing. He's especialy known for his high-pitched tenor voice. He started his career in the 60's and his hey-day was in the 70's. The girl voice of Lilli in this song is unfortunately a mystery to me. As appropriate for the theme of the song (lyrics by Juha Vainio), she appears to be very very young. She might have been Juhani's own daughter, who knows ... The original song "Le telephone pleure" (The telephone cries) was done 1974 by the French singing legend Claude Francois. The girl in his song is probably named Frederique Bankrofft. You can see them singing together on this page. A little bit of trivia on Claude: he died in 1978 while standing in a filled bathtub, tried to straighten a light bulb that wasn't straight, and was accidentally electrocuted. On March 11, 2000, on the 22nd anniversary of his death, Place Claude-François in Paris was named in his memory, right in front of the building where he died.

Updated on 11.10.2009: added US version (1974) by country star George Jones and his daughter Tina.

Here's the pair: