LA MUSICA ESPANYOL Y EUROVISION

Artist: LOS STOP; Title: TRES COSAS (SALUD, DINERO Y AMOR); Label: BELTER; 

Format: 7"; Cat. No.: 07-396; Year; 1967; Country: SPAIN

Seeing as tonight's the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest - thought I'd focus on this 1967 offering from Catalonia's finest Los Stop.  The group tired their luck on a couple of occasions to represent Spain - and on their last attempt in 1970 got pipped at the post by a certain Julio Iglesias.

On to the music then.  The A Side gives you "Tres Cosas (Salud, Dinero Y Amor)" which is an archetypal bit of mid 60's euro-pop cheese - great if you like that sort thing - but one that really doesn't do it for me.  Which didn't stop it getting to No.1 in the spanish charts - which lead to their attempts to try and represent their country in Eurovision.  Partly as a result of that failure lead to the group going their separate ways in the early 70's.

The better prospect is the B Side (and the reason that it's even being posted, and why it's still in the collection rather than landing in the nearest charity shop) "El Remo", which is pretty good Hammond-based tack.  And although still a bit on the cheesy side it's far better than A Side - and if it puts me in mind of anything it's Dusty's old group The Springfields.  Imagine 'La Bamba' with a hammond riff and you're pretty much there!

That's pretty muc on this apart from saying - enjoy Eurovision!

FRANCOISE SINGS THE SHIRELLES (AND BURT)!

Artist: Francoise Hardy; Title: L'Amour S'En Va; Label: Vogue; Format: 7"EP; Cat. No.: EPL. 8076; Year: 1963; Country: France

Kind of sticking my neck out on this one a little bit - but if I'm wrong then so be it!  Today's post is this 1963 EP from la belle Francoise.  The lead track is "L'Amour S'En Va" ('Love Goes Away' for the non-french speakers out there) and is the song that she sung when she represented Monaco in that year's Eurovision song contest, and the thing that stands out is that her voice is stronger with the jazz-flavoured backing and production of Marcel Hendrix. Good, but not as excellent as the subsequent UK recorded material with Charles Blackwell - which Francoise rates as her best work of the 1960s.  Side One's rounded off with "Je Pense A Lui" - English title 'Wonderful Dream' and again with the french translation penned by FH herself.

Side Two opens with the track that's the focus for this post - the excellent "L'Amour D'Un Garcon".  Written by Bacharach and David as 'The Love Of A Boy' and released by Dionne Warwick (B Side to her 2nd single issue in the UK on Pye International) this version sounds like Francoise's being very close attention to the work of The Shirelles, and her phrasing is pure Shirley Owens (lead Shirelle).  And here's my problem - after doing some digging I'm unable to come across a released Shirelles version of it - so whether they only cut a publishers demo, which Francoise subsequently heard (which would be ironic as Dionne Warwick famously started out doing demos for the bulk of Burt & Hal's tunes) is the best solution I can come up.  The last track on the EP is a Francoise original "Comme Tant D'Autres".