Amor con amor se paga - Sydän rakastaa

"Sydän rakastaa" is fine track from Anita Hirvonen's eponymous album released in 1977. This album was released in CD -form in the 90's and it's possible that the version we present here is re-recorded for that album. Anyhow, it's an enchanting love song and Anita's performance is one of her best. The touching lyrics are by Chrisse Johansson. The original song was called "Amor con amor se paga" (Love's paid with love) and it was written and recorded by Ricardo Ceratto. Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, Ricardo was succesful artist nationally in the beginning of the 70's, but became known internationally when he moved to Mexico and developed an intense artistic activity, recording and composing tunes that were hits in Spanish language world. Later he turned to recording Christian music. We present here also the version that Anita possibly covered, namely the one by Jose Velez, recorded in 1976. Jose won the Sopot Music Festival in 1977 and represented his home country Spain in Eurovision Song Contest in 1978.

Updated on 10.10.2010: Replaced Anita's 1990 version with her 1977 waltz version.

Here's the triplet:

Dum Dum - Dum dum

We start now a mini-series that will pop up every now and then. It's called "Both Sides Now" and in it we present both sides of a particular single. On the flip side of yesterday's Finnpick "Piiri pyörii" Johnny performed another early disco song "Dum dum". The lyrics were done by Pertti Reponen and arrangements by another 'old-timer' Esko Linnavalli. The original came all the way from Argentina. An Argentinian beat group called Kingston Karachi had South American hit with "Dum Dum" in 1971. The song became also a hit in Spain, both in original and in Spanish cover versions. I guess it was frequently played in tourist resorts and gradually the popularity of the driving song spread all over Europe. The song has Afro influences and at least partly sung in some African language.

Here's the pair:

Acuarela Homosexual - Tra la la

As you have noticed, the Finns prefer to cover European songs, but every now and then we widen our perspectives and pick up something completely different. Let's go to the 80's for awhile and listen to a song made by Finnish comedian, actor, singer, screen writer and director Pirkka-Pekka Petelius. He had a quite successful recording career in the 80's, and one of the most popular songs was "Tra la la" released in 1985. It tells a story of a boy that vehemently denies being a gay, although everybody else think he is one. The word "gay" or similar other expressions are not explicitly said in the lyrics but replaced with "Tra la la". The original came all the way from Argentina. A very popular rock group called Los Twist, famous for playing satirical songs, recorded it in their "Cachetazo al vicio" -album in 1984 and for some reason found its way to Finland. The original title of the song was "Acuarela Homosexual" (Homosexual Watercolor).

Here's the pair: