And I'll Be There - Tässä olen vain

On the B-side of the 1970 hit "Kesäaikaan" (finnpicked here) of the group Ernos was this little ditty called "Tässä olen vain" (I'm just being here). It was a duet performed by the lead vocalist Erno Lindahl and band member Kati Borg, and credited to them as Erno ja Kati. To my amazement I found out that this was the second Finnish cover of the nearly unknown US psychedelic/sunshine pop group Peppermint Rainbow. Actually this was the first one, becouse the other one by Markku Suominen (see it finnpicked, here) was done on the following year. These both songs and the famous "Green Tambourine" (finnpicked here) were written by Paul Leka. (And perhaps the most famous one "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is yet to come.) So his writing really appealed us Finns. This "And I'll Be There" was on the B-side of Peppermint Rainbow's Top Ten single "Will You Be Staying After Sunday" in 1969.


Here's the pair:

In The Summertime - Kesäaikaan

Many people consider this song as the definitive summer pop song. Well, maybe it is. But the Finnish version is not played so much anymore. Kai Hyttinen recorded "Kesäaikaan" (In the summertime) in 1970 for his album "Tuulen tie". The recording was done in tongue-in-cheek style, as you can hear. In the fake ending was inserted an adapted version of an old Finnish song "Mökin laittaja" (Cottage builder) written by famous Finnhish composer P.J. Hannikainen. Perhaps Kai was building his summer cottage at the time ... In the same year was recorded also the more popular Finnish version by pop group Ernos. It used the same lyrics (done by Tuula Valkama, who wrote also lyrics to yesterday's finnpicked summer song) as Hyttinen's version. It was released as a single and had considerable success at the time. Ernos was quite popular band in the end of the 60's and in the beginning of 70's. It made 3 albums and handful of hit singles. Major part of their material was written by the band leader Erno Lindahl, who also published solo records. The original summer song was of course "In The Summertime" by British rock group Mungo Jerry. The song was written by the lead singer and front man Ray Dorset. It was released in 1970 and at some point many years later, it became the world's most-played radio song and the most successful summer song ever. You can see a rare promotional video of the song, here.

Here's the triple: