Il paradiso della vita - Paratiisi

In our recurring series 'Both Sides Now' we know present the flip side of Bamboo's 1978 single finnpicked yesterday. It was called "Paratiisi" and, like the other side, didn't gain any greater popularity. Lyrics for this - as for the flip side song - were crafted by Pertsa Reponen. The original song was of Italian origin. A group called La Ragazza 77 recorded it as "Il paradiso della vita" (Paradise of Life) in 1968, but had no hit with it, neither in Italy nor elsewhere. But in 1968 famous Welsh pop group Amen Corner did an English version ("If Paradise Is Half As Nice") of the song, and it became number 1 in UK, and an international success. The peculiar name of the band came from 'The Amen Corner', a weekly venue at the Victoria Ballroom in Cardiff, Wales, where every Sunday night DJ would play the best soul music from the US. BTW, the Italian singer Patty Pravo heard the tune in Britain and as she didn't know of it's Italian origin, made her own Italian version ("Il paradiso) of it. And this time it was a hit - of course. We present here both the original version and Amen Corner's version. You can see A.C. perform the song, here.

Here's the triplet:

Ebony eyes - Lumottu oon

Bamboo, often called as 'the first Finnish boy band', recorded "Lumottu oon" in 1978. There was an aggressive campaign in the mid 70's for this new band consisting of four teenage boys. Even TV commercials were used, which was quite uncommon in those days. Well, Bamboo was not such a big success that it was meant to be. But it recorded some interesting songs. Most of them were in English, but this "Lumottu oon" in Finnish. The original song as written and performed by American musician Bob Welch. Welch had played in various marginal bands in the 60's, but in 1971 he was invited to join Fleetwood Mac, that had recently lost two of its members, Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. Along with another new recruit Christine McVie, Bob helped to steer the band in a more melodic direction. In 1977, Welch released his first solo album, "French Kiss". This release brought Welch his greatest success, selling two million copies and yielding three hit singles, one of which was this "Ebony Eyes". You can see rare promotion video of the song, here. And here you can se him perform it with another 'Mac', Stevie Nicks.

Here's the pair: