Morningtown Ride - Matka aamun kaupunkiin

Erkki Liikanen started his recording career in the 60's, but his single releases were not very succesful at the time. This "Matka aamun kaupunkiin" (The ride to morningtown) was his 6th single and was released in 1967. The Finnish lyrics were done by Jussi Raittinen, a popular pop/rock artist, and the arrangements by Aarno Raninen, also a singing artist in his own right. The original song was a lullaby written by American folk legend Malvina Reynolds (finnpicked earlier, see here) in 1957. However she didn't record it herself until 1970. The first recording was made by the folk group Limeliters in 1962 for their live album "Through Children's Eyes". It was later recorded by The Seekers and released on their 1964 album "Hide and Seekers". For some reason, it wasn't released as a single until 1966, when it became international hit for them. You can see them perform the song, here.

Just 25 Finnpicks to go.

Here's the triplet:

Little Boxes - Laatikkoon, laatikkoon

Brita Koivunen and Eino Virtanen were both popular as solo singers in the 50's and at the start of 60's, but they also recorded several successful songs together as a duo called Brita & Eikka. This "Laatikkoon. laatikkoon" (Into the box, into the box) was on their sole album "Brita & Eikka" released in 1966. They were absolutely not part of the protest song movement of the time, but this song has pretty sharp lyrics provided by Pertsa Reponen (yes, him again). For some reason this song has been credited to Eino Virtanen, but he did only the arrangement and the original was written and performed by American folk legend Malvina Reynolds in 1962 It became a small chart hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963. The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes. It refers to suburban housing as "little boxes", all made out of "ticky-tacky", and which all look just the same. The "ticky-tacky" is a reference to the material of inferior quality (but designed to simulate better quality material) used in the construction of houses. Brita & Eikka probably got their inspiration from the version of their Danish counterparts Nina & Frederik, who were quite popular in Europe and in Finland at the time.

Here's the triplet: