This morning it was -17 C. At night there will be -32. January darkness. We need to brighten ourselves with the sun, beaches and lightly dressed girls. Maybe life will be a little easier then. Or not. Looking at my last post, a new trend can be seen - LP covers as substitutes for porn magazines (or websites). Perhaps I should have a blog solely dedicated to such covers? It would certainly increase the number of readers.
I found this album in a second hand shop in Uppsala, Sweden, and I bought it only because I thought the cover felt quite bizarre. The price was around 3 USD which of course made the purchase easier. If you open the fold-out cover you'll find a number of vacation pictures from Spain with information on where they were taken, mostly Baleares and Costa Brava. This made me think this was some kind of promotional LP for Spain, perhaps issued by the Spanish tourism authority. Therefore it felt quite strange to see a couple of almost naked girls on the cover. But it was released in 1976 and I thought perhaps it was entirely appropriate and politically correct that authorities at the time did things like that.
I don't still think the Spanish tourism authority released this album, instead the hot girls of course are put there to attract buyers. Which obviously worked in my case. Why there are photos from Spanish tourist resorts on the inside I don't know, maybe the authorities sponsored the album. Exitos Del Verano seems to be a series of albums with covers of hits, many with album covers in the same style as today's. Why change a winning formula?
The music? There are a number of covers, summer hits if you should believe the cover, where my home country Sweden is represented by ABBA and the song Fernando. Most songs can be put in the trash can, but some nice tracks can be found. Fly Robin Fly by the German band Silver Convention is cool and groovy 70s disco (number 1 on a number of lists 1975). And I like the powerful Tornero by the Italian band I Santo California from 1974. The B-side's opening track La Ramona is also enjoyable, maybe not good, but funny. I don't know this song, and it is difficult to find information about it online. The only thing I manage to find is that a comedian by the name of Fernando Esteso had a hit with a song by that name, so maybe it's that one.
Again, these are covers, which generally doesn't sound as good as the originals. This is true also for this LP. I therefore see no reason to buy this album for the music, it's better to acquire the original songs. The only reason to buy the album would be for the cover, I suppose. But personally, I of course appreciate the record for its songs, just as I like the articles in Playboy.
Imagine my surprise when I noticed that it was sold on ebay for around 50 USD. Which brings me a lot of releif as I can also argue that this is a financial investment, which apparently has paid off quite well.
The Youtube links below are to the original songs, I didn't find this record's cover versions.
Tracklist
Side A
1. Bye, Bye Fraulein 4:04
2. Fly Robin Fly 5:32
3. Volare 2:49
4. Echame A Mi La Culpa 3:35
5. Save Your Kisses for Me 3:54
6. Quiero 2:50
Side B
1. La Romana 3:36
2. Viva America 3:55
3. Tornero 4:09
4. Paloma Blanca 3:16
5. Fernando 4:12
6. Abrazame 3:45
No comments:
Post a Comment