It's Frederik Friday again!. Frederik recorded "Sheikki Ali Hassan" in 1980. It fit like a glove for him and became a moderate-size hit. The lyrics - made by Juha Vainio - tell about mischievous Sheik Ali Hassan in an unnamed country. Not politically correct these days, I guess. The original song was from the pen of the German songsmith Ralph Siegel. His compositions have been frequently covered in Finland - at least about 30 of those. The original song was titled "Hadschi Halef Omar" and performed by disco stomper group Dschingis Khan. "Hadschi Halef Omar" is not a Sheik but a character in the adventure books written by Karl May, and his whole name is Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gossarah (whoah!). He's the side-kick of the German adventurer Kara Ben Nemsi ('Karl, the Son of the Germans' in Arabic) . Dschingis Khan was a group that was created for 1979 Eurovision Song Contest. Their entry was also called "Dschinghis Khan". It placed in 4th and the group gained some cult status among ESC fans. The group had some succesful singles, but they disbanded in 1985.
Here's the pair:
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