Beatniks - Music for Sunday Date # 23

- Ah, say there Brutus, like, where is this King's pad?

Hello everybody, hi all! This is Karel and Radio Manzerock is on the air!

We've talked about Sputniks, and now it's time for Beatniks. After discovering the great gem by Nero & The Gladiators, I inspired to choose something similar from all over the continent. Bad boys playing bad music. Here's the result, it's good or bad - you decide.

As you might know, Peer Gynt is a half-folk, half-real character from Norwegian fairy-tales. Writer Henrik Ibsen and composer Edvard Grieg made him popular back in the late XIX century. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" sequence is from Greig's suite, describing Peer Gynt sneaking into the Mountain King's castle.
Nero and The Gladiators recorded it back in 1961. It was an original band, very stylish. Ah, and that great guitar play of Joe Moretti here!

Irish writer Abraham "Bram" Stoker wrote novel "Dracula" in 1897. Dracula is a vampirish aristocrat, who now is well-known as the King of vampires.
ZZ en de Maskers from Amsterdam recorded song about him in 1966. I also have their English version, but I think that ZZ's Dutch vocal fits very well in this song.

I've aired Romanian big-beat band Sincron before, and here I go again. Their cool version of The Shadows' "F.B.I." became "Melodie", but with the full copyright credits on the Electrecord Records sleeve. And again, great guitar work by Alexandru Arion.

Not much known about Alye Parusa. They were a big-beat band from Soviet city of Odessa. Later, some musicians played in Korabely ensemble. The band's name probably taken from Alexander Green's novel with the same title, written in 1923. Or, most possibly, from the beautiful movie from 1961 based on the novel...
This track was recorded from the Russian radio station in the late 1960s or early 1970s. If you have any more info on that nice band - drop me a line.

Alec Palao has chosen this Los Bravos song when he was producing UK version of the "Nuggets II" compilation. Sounds very familiar to Palao’s early works from The Sting-Rays days: melodical garage, if ya can imagine such cocktail. If not - here you are!

The Tramps are a five-piece band from Antwerpen. They recorded a few singles on Fontana label. "Murder" was released in 1962. Before The Tramps, vocalist and solo guitarist played in another Antwerp beat band The Jokers.

Czech big-beat band Olympic from Prague were formed in 1962. The frontman is Petr Janda, one of the first Czech beat musicians and guitarists. The song "Dynamit" was written by Janda and Zdeněk Rytíř, and recorded in 1970 for Supraphon label.

Italian big-beat band The Meteors recorded instrumental version of "Peter Gunn Theme" in 1964, for their first LP.
Peter Gunn was a private investigator from the TV series with the same title, which aired from 1958 to 1961. The track was written and originally recorded by the great Henry Mancini.

The 5 Dorados are from Switzerland. "Tilt" was written by Franco Bussmann and Fredy Enz. Released in 1964 on Luzern label Layola. Nice piece with crazy screams and cool organ sounds.

The Rocking Ghosts are a four-piece band from Denmark. They were formed in 1962, and after two years they won the Copenhagen championship in Rock at Nora Bio, which lead to a record deal with Metronome Records and producer Jørgen Ingmann (you know this guy, don’t you?). One of their best known hits is “Belinda”. However, I decided on a great "Shakin' All Over" cover. This song was originally recorded by Johnny Kidd and The Pirates. Some Liverpool boys later named the Beatles, agreed that this is a very influential song from the early British beat music.

And the last track today is by the Swedish band called Bread. They are from the city of Malmoe. "Motortown Beat" is kinda a new dance for the bad boys and girls, represented by Bread in late 1960s. Philips recording company put a lot of money into this recording. And it was worth it. About 10 additional musicians were invited. It resulted in this funky song with soul flavor and simple but great, I like it!

Here's the complete track list:

Nero and The Gladiators In the Hall of the Mountain King (UK, 1961)
ZZ en de Maskers Dracula!!! (Netherlands, 1963)
The Tramps Murder (Belgium, 1962)
Sincron Melodie (Romania, 1967)
L’ensemble Alye Parusa Escape (USSR, ?)
Olympic Dynamit (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
I Meteors Peter Gunn (Italy, 1964)
Los Bravos Going Nowhere (Spain, 1966)
The 5 Dorados Tilt (Switzerland, 1964)
The Rocking Ghosts Shakin’ All Over (Denmark, 1965)
Metro együttes Nincs Kegyelem (Hungary, 1965)
Bread Motortown Beat (Sweden, 1967)

I'm a Bad Boy
I'm a Bad Girl

Rocking Cosmonauts # 2

Hello everybody, hi all, this is Karel and Radio Manzerock is on the air.

12th of April is coming, and so it's time for Rocking Cosmonauts. On this day, Bill Haley recorded “Rock Around the Clock” and Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth!

I just noticed that shortly after the first “Rocking Cosmonauts”, The European Space Agency (ESA) started an interesting competition. They asked young people from all over Europe to suggest the most suitable playlist for the astronauts living on the International Space Station.

After two months, the winner was chosen. It was Therese Miljeteig, 14 yo girl from Norway. Here’s Teresa’s playlist: Here Comes The Sun – Beatles, Come Fly With Me – Frank Sinatra, Rocket Man – Elton John , Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, Imagine – John Lennon, Flashdance – What A Feeling – Irene Cara, Walk of Life – Dire Straits, Fly – Celine Dion, Rockin' All Over The World – Status Quo, I Believe I Can Fly - R Kelly.

Other national winners mentioned on the web-site are: Aricia Planchenault from Belgium, Luisa di Valvasone from Italy, Sebastiaan Van Doornik from Netherlands, Lucìa Aparicio from Spain, Frederik Heimark from Denmark, Adam Viaud from France, Erik Guenther from Germany, Jean-Philippe Green from Sweden and Andrew Hale from Switzerland.

I dedicate this sampler to all the ESA winners, maybe some day they will be cosmonauts! Wish I was one of the competitors :-)

First track is simply called “Spoutnik”. This little gem was written by Belgian accordeon player Hector Delfosse, and recorded by Hector himself with two unknown (to me yet) musicians on lead and rhythm guitar in the late 1957.

Hector Delfosse was a successfull composer, he played with his ensemble, accompaniate to Belgian and French singers, received several golden discs, toured all over Europe, especially in France.

The second track is called “Teach You to Rock”. It was written by Freddie Bello, an Italian-American singer. Freddie recorded it in 1958 with his band The Bellboys.


The same year the song was recorded on the other side of Pacific by Peppino Di Capri and his band Rockers. Note space guitar solo by Mario Cenci in the middle of the song!

“Red Sputnik Rock (Red Planet Rock)” arrived from Great Britain. It was written and recorded by Don Lang in late 1957. Don Lang’s real name is Gordon Langhorn. When Rock’n’Roll movement has started, he was already a professional jazz musician.

After touring over Europe he decided to form his own combo. In 1956, Don Lang and His Frantic Five were chosen to be one of the cornerstones of the BBC teenage show “The Six Five Special”. And for two years they appeared as resident accompanist and in their own right.

Instrumental number called “Orbit” was recorded in 1963 by The Hurricane Strings – four-piece big-beat band from Rotterdam. Very nice melody with spacewomen backing vocal.


Russian “Rocket” was recorded by Aleksandr Vladimirtsov orchestra from Leningrad and written by K. Martiyanov, as it states on the EP sleeve from 1961.

Vladimirtsov formed his first orchestra in the early 1940s, and in the 1960s became official band leader of the Leningrad Radio orchestra. “Rocket” is an instrumental orchestra number, with cute swingin’ flavour.

The song “Satelliitti Kahdelle” (“A Satellite for Two”) has Finnish roots. It was recorded by established singer Kai Lind for Finnish National Final in the early 1964. As you know, the winner of the National Final would proceed for Eurovision contest.

However this song received only the 2nd place in National Final. But, if it was a Spacevision contest, I guess it will proceed ;-)

Serbian big-beat band Detlići (translated as “Woodpeckers”) play driving “Moonshot”. Originally , it’s a “Gunshot” written by The Fireballs. Thanks to The Spotnicks, this track became known as “Moonshot”. Detlići’s version was recorded for Novi Sad radio in 1965.

Next moon track comes from Spain. Gelu sings the song called“La Luna, el Cielo y Tú” (“Moon, Heaven & You”). Being written by Italian-Spanish composer Torrebruno in 1961, it first appeared in a movie “Horizontes de Luz” (“Horisonts of Light”).

Looks like the song became popular in Latin world soon, as I have more versions, like Brazilian. But I like Gelu’s version most of all – outstanding vocal, arrangement, lyrics. Everything is here in one bottle, err… rocket.

When it comes to romantic songs, one of my favorites is a Czech song “Orion” (you can see these stars if you’re in equator). It is about girl who’s talking to the stars. Female singer Judita Čeřovská recorded it in 1962.

Another romantic song is “Kosmos–Maa” (“Cosmos–Earth”) comes from Estonia. It was written by composer Alex Rasmussen and Estonian songwriter Heldur Karmo, who’s been writing both for jazz and light music. Vocals are by experienced musician and singer Kalju Terasmaa, and female singer Anu Anton-Õunapuu. The song was recorded for radio in 1966. Accomponiation by Emil Laansoo ensemble.

“Echo Boogie” was written and recorded by Danish guitarist Joergen Ingmann in 1961. It’s interesting, that the A-side of this 7” inch is “Apache” – a version that appeared to be a competitor to the Shadows "Apache" back in those days.

Joergen was one of the first and famous Danish electric-guitar players. He was also popular on the pop-scene, but I like his instrumental solo-works most of all.

And last, but not least, French girl Dani (or Danièle Graule, as her real name) sings a song called “Partir Pour la Lune”.

Have a space week!

Space Intro (Manzerock)
Hector Delfosse Spoutnik (Belgium, 1957)
Rockin' Intro (Manzerock)
Peppino Di Capri Teach You to Rock (Italy, 1958)
Don Lang and His Frantic Flive Red Sputnik Rock (Red Planet Rock) (UK, 1957)
The Hurricane Strings Orbit (Netherlands, 1963)
Aleksandr Vladimirtsov et son Orchestre Raketa (USSR, 1961)
Kai Lind Satellitti Kahdelle (Finland, 1964)
Detlići Moonshot (Yugoslavia, 1965)
Gelu La Luna, el Cielo y Tú (Spain, 1961)
Judita Čeřovská Orion (Czechoslovakia, 1962)
Anu Anton-Õunapuu ja Kalju Terasmaa Kosmos-Maa (Estonia, 1966)
Jørgen Ingmann Echo Boogie (Denmark, 1961)
Dani Partir Pour la Lune (France, 1965)

Beep-Beep!

P.S. Big thanks to Dima, Andrej, Max, Misha and Si for the big help with this one.

Music for Sunday Date # 22

Hello everybody, hi all! This is Karel and Radio Manzerock is on the air. Today we’ll surf through nice cover songs and great originals from the 1950s and 1960s.

De Strangers were formed as a vocal quartet in 1952 from Gust Torfs , Alex Boeye , Pol Bollansee and John De Wilde. They started to make funny cover versions of the hits of the day. At first they sang mainly in English, and then switched to covering songs in Antwerp dialect.

So, “Casetta in Canada” became “T.V. Truut”, which they recorded in 1960 with Jean Vanhoren ensemble. Nice song, even funny if you understand the dialect ;) with Eurovision vocal intro and outro. That was also their first Antwerp record. Dialect records made them very popular between Flemish people.

Edoardo Lucchina is Italian composer, band leader and accordeon player. The song “Geppyna” is written by Mogol Mangeri. This record was made in the best traditions of Italian 1950s combos. Everything is great here.


Vocal quartet Four Cats is from Helsinki, where they first appeared in Autumn 1958 as Esa Laukan kvartetti. Three members of the quartet started The Four Cats in 1960 as Pentti Lasanen, Esa Laukka, Kai Ruohonen and new member Kaj Lindberg. In the 1960s The Four Cats recorded many successful songs and appeared in a few films. This song was recorded in 1961 for their first solo EP.

Die Montecarlos (a.k.a. Die Blauen Jungs) was an Austrian vocal quartet formed in 1955. Members were Jörg Maria Berg, Leo Hoppe, Rudi Resch and Rudi Kreuzberger. With song “Andrea” The Monte Carlos had their first success in 1956. The following year of 1957 the song “Warum Strahlen Heut' Nacht die Sterne So Hell” got to the 9th place. Originally it is called “Singin’ the Blues” written by Melvin Endsley in 1956. The song was made popular by Croatian-American singer Guy Mitchell, soon followed by Tommy Steele and Marty Robbins.

Not much known about the following Monaco Danceband: where they’re from or who are the members. If you have any info – drop me a line.

The same goes to Swedesh female singer Maj-Britt Asp. Have no much info. Exept her song “Slut, Slut, Slut” (Final, Final, Final) was released on Swe Disc Records in 1965. Accompaniation by Lars Samuelson orkester. You can see the sleeve on the left. Some say, this fury song reminds them an outstanding version of "Shout". Well, just a bit ;) Also, this frenzy song is 1:50 lenght only, so don't be surprised!

The song “I’m Sorry”, which Ronnie Self wrote for Brenda Lee, became “Roň Slzy” in Czech language. The new text was written by Jiří Štaidl and recorded by 16 yo female singer Yvonne Přenosilová. I like this "blues" performance very much.

Stjepan Stanić, nicknamed “Džimi” or “Jimmy”, is one of the greatest Croatian singers of evergreen and jazz. Here is a cover version of a song “Bernardine”, that was written by Johnny Mercer for the film with the same title. Released on Jugoton label in 1959 or 1960 with Croatian lyrics.

Swiss singer Lys Assia was born in a big family, youngest among 12 brothers and sisters. At the age of 16 she debuted as a ballet dancer, in 1942 recorded her first 78 rpm as a singer. Here’s a song from 1959, when Lys was on the top of her fame.

There are more nice songs for today, like famous duo of Gitte Haenning and Rex Gildo singing love song “Sweet Hawaii”, Geoff Stephens’s novelty hit “Winchester Cathedral” sang by John Carter with The New Vaudeville Band formed by Geoff, and Belgian “Bon Appétit” by the great Al Verlane and his so-called Villa Montebello orchestra.



That’s all for now, see you soon. Have a nice weekend!

De Strangers T.V. Truut (Netherlands, 1960)
Edoardo Lucchina Geppyna (Italy, 1959)
Four Cats Si Si Si Napoli (Mais Oui) (Finland, 1961)
Monaco Danceband Something Different (?)
Die Montecarlos Singin’ the Blues (Austria, 1957)
Maj-Britt Asp Slut Slut Slut (Sweden, 1965)
Yvonne Přenosilová Roň Slzy (Czechoslovakia, 1963)
Stjepan “Jimmy” Stanić Bernardine (Yugoslavia, 1960?)
Lys Assia Caballero (Switzerland, 1959)
Gitte und Rex Gildo Sweet Hawaii (Denmark/Germany, 1964)
John Carter Winchester Cathedral (UK, 1966)
Al Verlane Bon Appétit (Belgium, 1964)

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