Showing posts with label Finnhits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finnhits. Show all posts
Friday, July 03, 2009
McCloud: 'Ain't That Just The Way' (1975)
McCloud: 'Park Avenue Pirates' opening credits (1975)
Barbi Benton: 'Ain't That Just The Way' (1976)
McCloud was an American TV show that lasted from 1970 to 1977, starring Dennis Weaver (who many remember from Steven Spielberg's 1971 debut, Duel) as a country marshal transferred to the crime-infested New York City; the basic premises of the series taken from Clint Eastwood's 1968 Coogan's Bluff. 'Ain't That Just The Way' by Barbi Benton (Hugh Hefner's former girlfriend) was heard in the 1975 episode 'Park Avenue Pirates'. Sheriffi McCloud being a popular show in Finland too, Benton's performance in the episode caught the attention of some local music biz people; with the subsequent translation version 'Näinkö meille täällä aina käy' by Virve Rosti becoming a big domestic hit in 1976.
Labels:
1970s,
crime fiction,
Finnhits,
nostalgia,
opening credits,
television
Friday, September 12, 2008
Topralli (1966)
Performances from Topralli:
Irwin Goodman: 'Aurinko, tähdet ja kuu' (1966)
Irwin Goodman: 'Kalteritango' (1966)
Eero & Jussi: 'Balladi kanuunasta' (1966)
Carola: 'Mä tahdon pojan' (1966)
Katri Helena: 'Lui' (1966)
Katri Helena: 'Polkkis' (1966)
The Renegades: 'Girls, Girls, Girls' (1966)
Topralli (1966) might be one of the strangest Finnish film turkeys ever made. Filmed entirely without a script on a shoestring budget and being more often than not technically insipid, it's a loose collection of musical performances from some of the day's hottest pop artists in Finland (and as international guest stars, The Renegades from England; totally unknown in their own country but extremely popular here), tied together with clumsy slapstick comedy ("Hot mjölk", anyone?) of a geekish record company executive's (played by the film's director Yrjö Tähtelä) efforts to organise a big musical show extravaganza in order to celebrate the record company's anniversary. Or something like that. Though offering countless embarrassing moments to make a dumbfounded spectator just cringe, there's also something undeniably charming in the overall innocent stupidity and apparent do-it-yourself amateur spirit of the film in these more calculated and cynical times of the music business overkill; many of these performances also remaining as rare visual documents from the pre-music video days.
Especially hilarious is the performance of the up-and-coming starlet Katri-Helena (now an elder stateswoman in Finnish iskelmä scene) doing with the late Irwin Goodman some dance steps to 'Polkkis' in the wintry landscape, apparently emulating the nervous movements of a person with a full bladder anxiously waiting behind the door of an occupied bathroom. Or maybe being just two lunatics awaiting their institutionalisation. Polkkis was obviously meant as a rivalling dance craze to the extremely popular Letkajenkka (or "Letkiss", as it was internationally known). Only in the 60s Finland...
Introduction in English @ Rokumentti
Irwin Goodman: 'Aurinko, tähdet ja kuu' (1966)
Irwin Goodman: 'Kalteritango' (1966)
Eero & Jussi: 'Balladi kanuunasta' (1966)
Carola: 'Mä tahdon pojan' (1966)
Katri Helena: 'Lui' (1966)
Katri Helena: 'Polkkis' (1966)
The Renegades: 'Girls, Girls, Girls' (1966)
Topralli (1966) might be one of the strangest Finnish film turkeys ever made. Filmed entirely without a script on a shoestring budget and being more often than not technically insipid, it's a loose collection of musical performances from some of the day's hottest pop artists in Finland (and as international guest stars, The Renegades from England; totally unknown in their own country but extremely popular here), tied together with clumsy slapstick comedy ("Hot mjölk", anyone?) of a geekish record company executive's (played by the film's director Yrjö Tähtelä) efforts to organise a big musical show extravaganza in order to celebrate the record company's anniversary. Or something like that. Though offering countless embarrassing moments to make a dumbfounded spectator just cringe, there's also something undeniably charming in the overall innocent stupidity and apparent do-it-yourself amateur spirit of the film in these more calculated and cynical times of the music business overkill; many of these performances also remaining as rare visual documents from the pre-music video days.
Especially hilarious is the performance of the up-and-coming starlet Katri-Helena (now an elder stateswoman in Finnish iskelmä scene) doing with the late Irwin Goodman some dance steps to 'Polkkis' in the wintry landscape, apparently emulating the nervous movements of a person with a full bladder anxiously waiting behind the door of an occupied bathroom. Or maybe being just two lunatics awaiting their institutionalisation. Polkkis was obviously meant as a rivalling dance craze to the extremely popular Letkajenkka (or "Letkiss", as it was internationally known). Only in the 60s Finland...
Labels:
1960s,
camp,
cinema,
Finnhits,
Finnish artists,
Finnish cinema,
Finnish culture,
garage rock,
humour,
iskelmä,
trash
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Finnhits
A Finnhits TV commercial from the 1970s
There's a new blog dedicated to Finnhits, popular Finnish iskelmä compilations in the 1970s and early 80s, today campy retro-pop nostalgia. Some Finnhits artists: Fredi, Danny & Armi (also responsible for the worst music video of all time), Freeman, Katri Helena, Frederik, Kirka, Irwin Goodman...
Labels:
1960s,
1970s,
1980s,
camp,
Finnhits,
Finnish artists,
Finnish culture,
iskelmä,
nostalgia,
retro
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