This Finnpick is very 'up-to-date', simply because it's called "Tänään on sunnuntai" (Today is Sunday). Tuula Siponius recorded the song on 1960, and it was released on the B-side of her hit single "Tom Pillibi". The arranger and the conductor of the backing orchestra was Jaakko Borg. The Finnish lyrics were written by Reino Helismaa using one of his many pseudonyms, Rauni Kouta. The original song "Oh Lonesame Me" was written and performed by country legend Don Gibson, with Chet Atkins producing in 1958. The song topped the US country chart and reached number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was one of the all-time greatest, because on the B-side was "I Can't Stop Loving You", that became massive success for Ray Charles 4 years later. You can see Don perform "Oh Lonesame Me", here.
As I kind of promised yesterday, here's another FInnish cover of Barbara Evans' song. Tuula Siponius recorded "Matkamuistoja" (Souvenirs) in 1960. It was released as a single and on an epnymous EP. Tuula started her singing career very young, performing in the popular children radio programme of 'Uncle Markus' when she was five. She had a couple of hits in the late 50's but never really broke through. As in the original song, also the Finnish lyrics dealt with collecting memorabilia of the celebrities. On those days It was very rare to name the names of real living people in the lyrics of a pop song. The original Barbara Evans song "Souvenirs" was released in 1959 and although it never teached Billboard Hot 100 charts in USA, it became very popular in Europe through several local language versions.
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