El Lute - El Lute

We have presented recently various Finnish female artists whose recording careers were short and unsuccessful. Well, here's another one. Jaana (real name Jaana Hermunen) recorded a couple of singles and although this "El Lute" was played frequently on the radio in 1980, the chart success avoided her. The excellent lyrics were written by Vexi Salmi. The original "El Lute" originated from Germany. The song that Jaana covered was a worldwide hit for Boney M in 1979, but the original German language version was sung by Michael Holm. You can see him perform the song, here. The "El Lute" of the song was a Spanish criminal Eleuterio Sánchez Rodríguez, who at one time was listed as Spain's "Most Wanted" criminal (much like *Ma Baker' in another Bomey M hit). He became a legendary outlaw who escaped several times from prison after being convicted and sentenced to 30 years for murder. While in prison, he learned to read, earned a law degree, and wrote a best-selling book. He was pardoned and released in 1981, at the age of 39. Although this happened in Spain under Franco regime, he was not a freedom fighter and his crimes were not of political nature. So, the lyrics in all of the song versions are over-romanticized in large scale. During a promotional visit in Spain, Boney M met him and gave him a golden record for the sales of the single. You can see Boney M perform the "El Lute" song, here.

Here's the pair:

Nachts scheint die Sonne - Maantieltä taloon

Danny (see previous entry) recorded "Maantieltä taloon" (From the road to the house) in 1972 It was quite a big hit at the time and you could hear the song all over the place. I guess Danny was covering the internationally known Chicory Tip version, but the original came fron Germany. And again the man behind it was Giorgio Moroder. He composed the song and the original lyrics in German for "Nachts scheint die Sonne" (The sun shines at nights) were done by the artist who performed it - Michael Holm. Michael is a well-known German singer, musician, songwriter and producer. Although he is generally known as a "Schlager" singer, he also created a band called Cusco that has succeeded in reaching a well-merited position in the alternative music with a distinctive style based on the folk roots of South America.

Here's the pair: