What are you listening to now ?

The somber basso profundo.

Or the Soviet era twist. It was, obviously, missing the shouting, but otherwise was welcomed at the various dance halls.

"The Black Cat" (1965)


"You will be mine" (cover, the original came out in 1968)


"The last train". (cover, the original, 1968)


"The beauty queen" (original, 1965)


"Our new neighbor" (1969, original video)

 
Eduard Khil took it to another level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f_Vjz66gh8

If I am not mistaken, there were, at least, three different vocalists who did this song, including Magomayev (above in the "Beauty Queen" and Obodzinsky (from a few pages ago).

For those still mildly interested, the song composer Abram Ostrovsky had an argument with his long-time lyricist Lev Oshanin and had to use another poet for this song. The poet thought it had a sort of a country&western beat and came up with the appropriate verses but, when they went to record it - and that was done virtually live - the most powerful and very pro-government orchestra conductor said, "We don't want to do these these foreign words. Just do the melody".

Ostrovsky had connections too but the wordless version stood. Probably because he didn't have to share any royalties.

Abram also wrote one of the rare songs that found its way across the Soviet borders. It was a children song in the USSR.

 
So, while surfing the net - both Google and Yandex - I found a recent Bradley Cooper appearance on some French talk show. In France. In French. Which Cooper seems to speak quite fluently, although he was wearing an earpiece. The host asks, "So, what music do you listen to you these days?" Then they both break out in laughter and, over the PA system, we hear classic Soviet children tunes. I watch it in amazement. then Cooper explains that he and Irina Shayk have a (now 2 YO) daughter and she listens to those songs whenever she's awake and he knows those songs by heart.

And so do I.


And here's Mr. Tro-lolo Eduard Khil himself with "2x2=4"




PS. All of the above songs were written by Vladimir Shayinsky, who passed away in December, 2017 in San Diego at the age of 92. This was probably his biggest hit, "Cheburashka", also a kids tune. And very likely to be indelibly entrenched into Bradley Cooper's psyche soon enough.

 
Some more Soviet twist. Vadim Mulerman (1938, Kharkov - 2018, New York) lip-sync'ing to his own 1969 hit in 2014.


Cover of Mulerman's 1969 hit.


And Mulerman's main competitor from that era Eduard Khil, covering the song made popular by Vadim. "It's good to be a general"


From a recent Russian reenactment show, an intended copy of a 1966 "Song about the Polar Bears".


Colorized version of the 1965 "Penguins"


Soviet answer to the "Beach blanket" films. "Odyssey"


"Slick ice"


Cover of the "Island of bad luck"

 
I like the some of the Russian tunes above. Very cool. We never get those ones on the radio here. lolllllll. Thank-you.
I like this song played by some locals here too. -Beerskies.
 
I like the some of the Russian tunes above. Very cool. We never get those ones on the radio here. lolllllll. Thank-you...
The reason you see a lot of film clips here was because most of those songs were off the various comedy soundtracks. Twist itself was banned, then allowed, then banned again, as the Soviet hierarchy changed. That said, the top of the hierarchy was far more open to the foreign dance music rather than to heavy metal/hard rock.

"Life in stripes" (lyrics banned for several years)


And here Eduard Khil is mugging in front of the camera to a rambunctious version of his biggest hit forty years after the original release.

"Man steps out of his house"


And one of the darlings of the 60's-70's Soviet dance pop Maria Pakhomenko.



And another top star from the mid-1960's and a current Northern California resident Veronica Kruglova, "I don't see nothing" (official English subtitles)

 
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