Our pick of the pops: March 2009

Our pick of the pops

Sylvie Patart

Les fleurs de boum

Nepotism was alive and well and living in Reims in 1967, it would seem. Our pick was the lead on the one and only release by Sylvie Patart. It was produced by Jean Patart – or Papa, as young Sylvie knew him. He had quite a long recording career throughout the 1950s and 60s, and it was through him that his daughter also found herself in the studio. The result is first rate – which makes it surprising that no further EPs were issued. Stylistically, the disc has drawn comparisons with Liz Brady’s French releases from the same era.

Kinita

Yo-yo ye-ye

Spanish doll Kinita cut six discs for the Philips label between 1965 and 1969, and took part in the Benidorm festival in 1966. Her first release, Ya te tengo, was a cover of Sonny and Cher’s I got you babe, which she quickly followed with a version of Cher’s Bang bang. Along the way, France Gall’s Sacre Charlemagne and Sheila’s Le folkore américain also came in for the Kinita treatment. But it’s this, her final 45, that has earned her a cult status. And the B-side is a version of British singer Lulu’s Eurovision winner, Boom bang-a-bang, retitled Bum ban ban ban. What more could you ask for?

Brigitt Petry

Kannst du verzeih’n?

Tinker, tailor, soldier, singer? East German singer Brigitt Petry’s life story reads like a plot in a Cold War thriller. In 1965 she fled her communist homeland, taking a route via Yugoslavia and Austria to end up in West Germany. As the singer who came in from the cold, she earned a certain notoriety – and a recording contract. But in 1971 she was killed in a mysterious car crash. Unsubstantiated rumours at the time suggested that her death was an act of retaliation by the Stasi, the East German intelligence outfit. Our pick is her fabulous take on US singer Sandy Posey’s I take it back, from 1967.

Elkie Brooks

He’s gotta love me

Salford lass Elkie Brooks may be dismissive of her 1960 recordings, but we’re not. Long before she became a big star with Pearl’s a singer in 1977, she was busily putting in the groundwork for a career in music. In 1964 she issued the first of three singles on the Decca label, before switching to HMV a year later for this, our choice. The song is said to have been written with the Eurovision song contest in mind, and it would be interesting to hear what Kathy Kirby, who performed all the songs in the 1965 UK final, would have made of it.

Iva Zanicchi

Un altro giorno verrà

Darlene Paul’s All cried out proved a popular choice with Europe’s girl singers. Britain’s Dusty Springfield recorded it, as did France’s Jocelyne, but our favourite has to be this version by Italy’s Iva Zanicchi. The song was issued as the B-side to her debut San Remo song festival entry, I tuoi anni più belli, in 1965. Though she failed to make it through to the final that particular year, she subsequently became the undisputed queen of the contest. Her chart breakthrough had come a year earlier and her soulful stylings made her one of Italy’s biggest stars of the period.

Hanne

Little country girl

Hanne was a girl from the little country of Denmark. She born Hanne Nielsen on 10 December 1947 in Naestved. When she was launched on the pop world, she was billed as Denmark’s answer to Brenda Lee. It’s easy to understand why. She became a teen favourite, and was voted as one of the top three Danish singers in the 1965 poll for Hits magazine. Issued that year, this track was written by Tommy ‘P’ Petersen, of Danish beat group Matadorerne. The group provided backing for the recording, and for the A-side, Hanne’s version of Paul Anka’s Train of love.