The Last Waltz - Viimeinen valssi

Thia ia the last waltz in Finnpicks. Harri Haka (real name Stig Hagström) recorded "Viimeinen valssi" (Last waltz) in 1967 but didn't succeed chartwise with it. It was the A-side to "Peltipurkki", finnpicked earlier, see here.  The Finnish lyrics were done by Jyrki Lindström, who was a popular lyricist and translator especially in the 60's, but his career as a lyricist was quite short. Pasi Kaunisto (see earlier entry) recorded the same song two years later for his debut album. The original song, "The Last Waltz", was written by English sonqwriers Batty Mason and Leslie Reed and it was s smash hit for Engelbert Humperdinck (b. Arnold George Dorsey) in 1967. You can see him perform the song, here.

Only 4 Finnpicks to go.

Here's the triplet:

Take My Heart - En kadu mitään

It's quite rare for an artist to cover both sides of a certain single on his own single. Well, Markku Aro did it in 1970. This song "En kadu mitään" (I regret nothing) was on the B-side of another Engelbert Humperdinck cover ("Winter World of Love"). The Engelbert's original - and the B-side to "Winter World" was called "Take My Heart". It was written by his manager, Gordon Mills.

Here's the pair:

A Good Thing Going - Menee mikä menee

The brothers whose first names vere Jouko and Kosti and family name Saari made their breakthrough in 1968 when their first single was a big hit. Their second single in 1969 was "Menee mikä menee" (What goes, goes). The singing style of the brothers was not far from other popular duos of the 60's - Walker Brothers and our Swedish neighbours Tom & Mick. It was quite unique in Finland those days and the Saari Brothers had considerable success in the end of 60's and in the beginning of 70's. Also a third brother Paavo joined them for awhile. However, the popularity diminished and they stopped gigging and recording in 1979. The original tune "A Good Thing Going" was an obscure track from Engelbert Humperdinck (b. Arnold George "Gerry" Dorsey). Gerry was born in India, but migrated to UK in the 40's. He started his recording career already in the 50's but rose to fame in 1967 when manager George Mills adviced him to adopt a more showy name of the famous German opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck as his stage name.

Here's the pair: