We continue in the company of Armi Aavikko. She recorded "Tanssi kanssani hiljaa" (Dance with me slowly) in 1981 as most of her solo output. It was only an album track, but deserves to be remembered. The arranger - as with almost all Armi's recordings - was Veikko Samuli, who is an excellent Finnish arranger and songwriter. The original was again done by Ottawan on their 1980 album and the song was written - again - by Vangarde and Kluger.
As the new year begins, I think it fits well in the mood to present an artist who will always be in the beginning of the alphabetic list of Finnish pop stars. Armi Aavikko was a beauty queen and singer. She was chosen as Miss Finland in 1977. Armi was best known for her duets with our old friend Danny (see previous entry), but she did have a short career as a solo singer. The popular opinion was that Armi can't sing, and she was herself admitting that. But what she might have lacked in technical ability was not so important when she introduced such a great amount of honesty and sincerity in her songs. As in this forgotten gem "Kaksi kulkijaa" recorded in 1981, and released as a B-side of a single. The original song "Shubidube Love" was performed by the Canadian disco duo Ottawan. And it was written by the French production team Vangarde & Kluger, as were surprisingly many of the "finnpicked" songs on those days.
Lea Laven (see previous entry) cut several disco records. One of them was "Mennäänks meille" (Let's go to my place) was released in 1982. The original is again coming fron the Frenchmen Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde (real name Bangalter) that produced and wrote this for Ottawan in 1982 as "Musique Magique". The song is of course worldwide known with the English title "Crazy Music".
Well, this is pure classic Disco. Mona Carita (real name Mona Hautanen) recorded "Anna kulta anna" (Let me, darling, let me) in 1981. It was destined to be big hit and it was. Mona Carita was picked up and recruited in pop business while attending Paula Koivuniemi's recording session. She and her girlfriend formed a duo named Cissy and made a single that didn't go nowhere. But Mona Carita continued as solo artist and broke through with the cover of Boney M's Rasputin in 1979. However it was probably hard to finad suitable material for her vocal abilities, and her career faded shortly after the disco boom. The original song "Haut les mains" (Hands up) was done by disco duo Ottawan. They were fronted by Martinique-born lead singer Jean Patrick and a girl named Annette, with Frenchmen Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde producing and songwriting. We have heard of Kluger-Vangarde before (see previous entry "Kun kohdattiin"). In addition to "Hands Up", Ottawan did also another absolute Disco Classic, "D.I.S.C.O". BTW, the band is said to be created to appeal especially to the gay section of the disco community. We present here both the French and the English versions of the song.
Updated on 01.01.2010: added another popular Finnish version from 1989 by Kikka.
Posts
