Race With The Devil - Kilpa-ajot perkeleen kanssa

The next five days Finnpicks is rocking! We present some covers from the rockier side of Finnish pop. And we start with a bang. Kontra has been finnpicked before (see previous entry). The group - led by legendary Mauri "Moog" Konttinen - was famous for its almost word-for-word covers of UK/US rock singles. One of those is "Kilpa-ajot perkeleen kanssa" (Race with the devil) released in 1977 on the group's "Ei kontrollia" (No control) album. The original song was done by UK band called The Gun . The title was also "Race With The Devil" and was written by the group's lead guitarist/singer Adrian Gurvitz. "Devil" was issued as a single already in 1968. A fan of this hard rocking song, Jimi Hendrix performed it at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, although no recordings exist. The Gun was originally billed as a "psychedelic/crossover" band, and "Race With The Devil" was just an experiment, with a mixture of orchestration and hard rock and roll. Gurvitz later teamed up with Ginger Baker to form The Baker Gurvitz Army. But perhaps Gurvitz is mostly remembered for his 1982 worldwide hit ballad "Classic".

Here's the pair:

Piangi con me - Onhan päivä vielä huomennakin - Melodia - Se päivä tulee kerran

Yesterday was Friday, this day is Fredi Day. Even if for no other reason that here Fredi performs two songs with a word 'day' ('päivä' in Finnish) in its title. There are also other similarities; both are international hits and originate from Italy. "Onhan päivä vielä huomennakin" (There's a day tomorrow, too) was recorded in 1968 and "Se päivä tulee kerran" (The day will once come) in 1969. The first one was originally called "Piangi con me" (Cry with me) and performed by band called Rokes. They were a British band that moved to Italy in 1963 and became very popular there. The song is better known with its Englis title "Let's Live For Today" which was a big hit for US band Grass Roots. The second cover was originally performed by our old Italian friend Jimmy Fontana (see previous entry). But we remember it of course as "The Way It Used to Be" sung by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Here are the pairs:

It Takes Two to Tango - Tuu jo tangoon

The Frederik Friday strikes again! Frederik recorded "Tuu jo tangoon" (Come and do the tango) in 1978. It was released as single and was a considerable success. The original song "It Takes Two To Tango" was performed in 1978 by an almost-forgotten British singer and musician Richard Myhill. The song was co-written by him and the famous producer Phil Wainman. The title of the song is an English idiom. A conflict is not the fault of just one person or the other; they are often both to blame, because "it takes two to tango".

Here's the pair:

Le telephone pleure - Ääni puhelimessa

We conclude this series of Finnish duet covers with an extraordinary duet. Juhani Markola and Lilli performed the song "Ääni puhelimessa" (Voice in the telephone) in 1977. Juhani is a singer and educator in singing. He's especialy known for his high-pitched tenor voice. He started his career in the 60's and his hey-day was in the 70's. The girl voice of Lilli in this song is unfortunately a mystery to me. As appropriate for the theme of the song (lyrics by Juha Vainio), she appears to be very very young. She might have been Juhani's own daughter, who knows ... The original song "Le telephone pleure" (The telephone cries) was done 1974 by the French singing legend Claude Francois. The girl in his song is probably named Frederique Bankrofft. You can see them singing together on this page. A little bit of trivia on Claude: he died in 1978 while standing in a filled bathtub, tried to straighten a light bulb that wasn't straight, and was accidentally electrocuted. On March 11, 2000, on the 22nd anniversary of his death, Place Claude-François in Paris was named in his memory, right in front of the building where he died.

Updated on 11.10.2009: added US version (1974) by country star George Jones and his daughter Tina.

Here's the pair:

Perhaps Love - Se on rakkautta oikeaa

We continue this series of Finnish duet covers with the song "Se on rakkautta oikeaa" (It is real love) recorded by Arja Koriseva and Tapani Kansa (see previous entries here and here) in 1991. It was released on Arja's 2nd album "Me kaksi vain". Arja was very popular artist at the time and the album went platinum. This song was never released as a single, which is a pity becouse it's one of those hidden gems of love songs, and should be played in all weddings :-). The original song is called "Perhaps Love" and is written by late John Denver (b. Henry John Deutschendorf) . Denver originally recorded it in 1975 as a duet with Placido Domingo. It was not expected to be a commercial success, but as one radio station played it on the air, and the call-in response from listeners was overwhelming, they were convinced to release it. Annie, Denver's first wife and the Annie of "Annie's Song" once said that "Perhaps Love" was her favorite of all of the songs John wrote. So there must be something special about it ... Here we present John Denver duetting with - not Placido Domingo - but Danish songstress Lene Siel. This is perhaps how it should have done in the first place ...

Here's the pair:

Something Stupid - Kuin pieni tyhmä

Jarkko and Laura was a succesful pop duo in the end of the 60's. Jarkko (Jarkko Antikainen) and Laura (real name Laura Antikainen, b. Ruotsalo). They first had their break in 1966, with Laura's composition "Meidän laulumme". They were Finnish representatives in the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Kuin silloin ennen". They released many singles, along with a few covers of international hit songs. One of them was "Kuin pieni tyhmä" (Like a little fool) in 1967. The covered song was "Something Stupid", a smash hit for Nancy and Frank Sinatra. The original version was however done by the author of the song Carson C. Parks (brother of country singer Van Dyke Parks) together with his wife Gaile on their album "San Antonio Rose" (credited to Carson & Gaile) in 1966. It earned little attention, but a friend of Parks played the song for Frank Sinatra, who in turn played it for daughter Nancy's record producer, Lee Hazlewood. "I love it, and if you don't sing it with Nancy, I will," Hazlewood reportedly responded, and the father-daughter duet went on to top the charts all over the world. Here we present the rarely heard ORIGINAL "Something Stupid".

Here's the pair:

How do you do - Vai niin vai niin

Danny and Eija Merilä (see previous entry) joined forces in recording one single track in 1972. It was called "Vai niin vai niin" (Oh really, oh really) and was put in the B-side of Danny's single 'Maantieltä taloon' (see previous entry). The original song "How do you do" was a big Euro-hit for Dutch duo Mouth & McNeal. They were formed in 1971 when record producer Hans van Hemert brought together Mouth (b. Willem Duyn) and Maggie MacNeal (b. Sjoukje van't Spijker). Mouth had previously sung in a number of 1960s bands and MacNeal had had an unsuccessful career as a solo artist. The launched a succesful - but short - career and one their biggest hits was "How Do You Do" penned by producer van Hemert. In 1974 Mouth & MacNeal represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest placing third.

Here's the pair:

Zingarella - Kortit kertoo kohtalomme

Lea Laven was very productive in the recording studio in the 70's and 80's. As I've been stated before the major part of the recordings were covers. But it dooesn't really matter if the covers are good. As is this "Kortit kertoo kohtalomme" (Cards tell our fortune) recorded in 1988. The original was called "Zingarella" and performed by Enrico Macias (b. Gaston Ghrenassia). He was born in Constantine, then French Algeria but when the Algerian War of Independence was raging, Gaston (Macias) went into exile in mainland France. Arriving in Paris, he decided to pursue a career in music. He appeared on French television and became an overnight sensation. In 1964, he was transformed into Enrico Macias. From that time on, he has toured throughout the world, recorded hit songs in Spanish and Italian, and met great success on every continent.

Here's the pair: