Showing posts with label Johnny Logan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johnny Logan. Show all posts

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Shay Healy - What's Another Year - The Stable Sessions

Shay Healy, Irish songwriter and broadcaster passed away. Eurovision fans know him best from Johnny Logan's What's Another Year, the Irish winner from 1980.
This video is from a CD/DVD release Stardust: The Stable Sessions recorded in 2016.
I could reprint all kinds of wiki's about his achievements or his ordeal with Parkinson's but I'll just leave you with this video. 
What's Another Year is a heartbreaking song by itself but you won't hear a more moving version of the Eurovision classic that is here on earth forevermore. 
The CD/DVD is available from Tradnua where you can find a bit more about the recording sessions. Also via other stores (incl Amazon, Essential Irish, Bol). You can also listen to the album on your favorite streamers.



Sunday, December 13, 2020

What's Another Year: R.I.P. Charley Pride (1934-2020)

Only a week ago I watched a Country music documentary which included a story about the remarkable history of Charley Pride. It prompted me to dig up his wonderful version of What’s Another Year
And now I read that the man is not getting another year thanks to that damned you know what.
So sad and poignant. Have a listen below. 

Pride’s What’s Another Year was released on his 1991 CD Classics With Pride. (Not to be confused with the 1996 album with the same title).

Charley Pride recorded over 40 albums and scored over 70 hits in the US Country singles charts, of which 30 went to #1.
Find out more about Charley Pride's groundbreaking achievements at his website and facebook.
What’s Another Year is Johnny Logan's 1980 Eurovision winner for Ireland.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Nicki French 2015: The Eurovision EP

Digital release image
Nicki French, much loved British Eurovision chanteuse, releases a new remix EP including new mixes of her 2000 entry Don't Play That Song Again and a few Eurovision covers.

Don't Play That Song Again ended 16th in the 45th Eurovision Song Contest (in Stockholm).
Hold Me Now is the winner of the Brussels contest of 1987. It was Johnny Logans 2nd victory for Ireland.
One Step Further, originally by Bardo, ended 7th in Harrogate (1982)
And then there's Ding A Dong, the winner of 40 years ago. The Dutch entry by Teach In won the contest in Stockholm en became a European hit.

Update 2019: Nicki French released another Eurovision EP, more info here.

Nicki French shot to fame with her dance coverversion of Bonnie Tylers Total Eclipse Of The Heart. 
It was already the third time Nicki released the song but the 1995 version became a worldwide hit.
It was a No. 5 in the U.K. and a No. 2 in the USA. It went to No. 1 in Canada, Japan and Brasil.

Eurovision EP Tracks:
1. Don't Play That Song Again 2015 (Andy Haldane Remix)
2. Hold Me Now (Andy Haldane Remix)
3. One Step Further (Matt Pop Mix)
4. Ding A Dong (John Springate Mix)
5. Don't Play That Song Again 2015 (Matt Pop's Golden Anniversary 12inch)
6. Hold Me Now (Matt Pop Mix)
7. Don't Play That Song Again 2015 (Andy's Karaoke Mix)
8. Hold Me Now (Andy's Karaoke Mix)
A CD single is released on May 15, still available at the Energise Records shop.
The digital release is out May 23. (but discontined now)

Earlier this year the album One Step Further was released including Matt Pop remix versions of the four Eurovision songs mentioned above.
Another recent release is the album Nicki French: The Singles 1997-2015.
Energise Records also offer a 4-disc (though CD-r) release with the albums One Step Further, The Singles 1997-2015, a Megamix CD and a 4th album Total Eclipse Of The Heart including two previously unreleased demo's.



Energise Records website
More Eurocovers Ding A Dong posts are here, and various versions of Hold Me Now are here.
Original cdsingle

Also check out 2015: The Vienna Collection
Quick links to all countries:
Albania - Armenia - Austria - Australia - Azerbaijan - Belarus - Belgium - Cyprus - CzechRepublic - Denmark Estonia - Finland - France - FYR Macedonia -   Georgia - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Israel - Italy - Latvia - Lithuania - Malta - Moldova - Montenegro - The Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Serbia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - United Kingdom

Monday, May 09, 2011

Sjonni's Friends - What's Another Year

This years Icelandic Eurovision singers Sjonni's Friends have recorded a version of the 1980 winner What's Another Year (Johnny Logan for Ireland).
You can download the song here at the Sjonni's Friends website and watch the videoclip.

Their Eurovision song Coming Home was written by the late Sjonni Brink and his wife Þórunn Erna Clausen and will be performed in the Tuesday May 10 semi final.
Update: Til Hamingju Ísland!
Sjonni's Friends made it to the Eurovision final on March 14! After an exiting result-draw the last finalist announced was Iceland. Congratulations guys!

source: Coming Home - Sjonni's Friends website
More about Sjonni's Friends here at the Düsseldorf Collection.
More about Johnny Logans first winner at the Eurocovers post What's Another 30 Years: Here.

Ready Steady Girls
Yours truly is a guest editor at Ready Steady Girls, the website about all the gorgeous sixties girls singers.
With Eurovision round the corner I was invited to select my pick of the pops, six sixties girl tracks with a Eurovision connection. And write a bit about them too.

Please take a look here at Ready Steady Girls and vote for your favorite.


Düsseldorf 2011

For all release info, versions and chart adventures of the 2011 Eurovision stars, please check the Düsseldorf Collection.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Lena Zavaroni - What's Another Year


Here's Lena Zavaroni performing What's Another Year (The Irish 1980 winner), which I think is rather lovely.
Read more about this Lena at http://www.lena-zavaroni.co.uk/

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Johnny Logan: What's Another 30 Years.

Johnny Logan, you either love him or adore him, King of Eurovision, Three times Eurovision winner, you will probably know all the accolades.

30 Years ago he won the contest for Ireland with What's Another Year, Irelands second victory of many, 10 years after Dana.

What's Another Year became a huge European hit, Going # 1 in U.K., Sweden and Ireland and top 10 in most European countries.

Johnny Logan recorded the song in English, German and Spanish (see below) and also released a few re-recordings, including a spanking new 2010 version.

I don't know if it's rough being percieved as a one trick pony, always being associated with Eurovision, but it surely keeps Johnny Logan in a job.
It still results in many guest appearances as singer and jury in the Eurovision pre-season and also resulted in a fantastic tour with the Eurovision In Concert show with the Dutch Airforce orchestra.

Nature Of Love
Of course Johnny Logan has released many other records, and his latest albums The Irish Connection and Irishman In America (2008) was quite successful chartwise in Scandinavia.

He has now recorded a new album titled Nature Of Love. The album is a bit country rock tinged and for the Eurovision fans: There's new versions of his three Eurovision winners What's Another Year, Hold Me Now and Why Me?.

The first single from Nature Of Love is Last Days Of Beautiful. You can listen to the song at Tajmer, Johnny Logans management.
The album is out in Germany May 7 (Indalo/DA Music). Excepts from all tracks can be heard at Rebeat.
Nature Of Love is now available at Bearecords, as well as many other Johnny Logan releases.
update In Scandinavia the album is out on the Black Pelican label (SME-8869771-2602). It charts in the Swedish Danish and Norwegian album charts. 

Eurocovers
Most What's Another Year coverversions are from the Nordic countries and many are recorded in English but it was also a popular tune for orchestra's, Hammond players and other instrumental music magicians.
Eurovision stars that have recorded the song are Brotherhood Of Man, Geraldine Branagan, Noelle Cordier, Lars Berghagen, Ivo Linna and Jørgen Ingmann.

The most famous artists to record What's Another Year are Shane McGowan & The Popes (ex Pogues) and US country singer Charley Pride .
A personal favorite is by Australian singer Karen Knowles, one time (later) Seekers member. She recorded Logan's winner for her 2nd album Loves Us All in 1982. 

Que Es Un Año Mas
Now here's a glimpse in the weird & wonderful world that is Eurovision collecting.

Recording your Eurovision tune in a host of languages is a time honoured Eurovision tradition and Johhny Logan is no exception. His german version Was Ist Schon Ein Jahr is well known and was released on a single in Germany in 1980. But there has always been this elusive Spanish version Por Un Año Mas that seemed impossible to find. Many collectors came home from holidays in Spain to find out that the mega rare 7"inch single found in a grubby backstreet thrift shop contained the English version of the song.

For a few years it was known that the Spanish version had to be released on a Mexican compilation LP, but no one had ever heard the song. Johnny Logans discography makes no mention of it either.
Discussions about its existence were the order of the month and some even dared to doubt the Eurovision Collectors Guide, oh ye faithless. But no more!

Now it has finally surfaced, in fact, someone YouTubed it already a year ago, but I, and many collectors with me, just failed to notice.
The title turns out to be Que Es Un Año Mas and the LP in question is Europa Canta En Español, a collection of European hits performed in Spanish by the original artists like Rafaella Carra, Umberto Tozzi, Joe Dassin and Vicky Leandros. (Released on Epic, Mexico)

We, the anoraks, are without purpose now. But people in Mexico, does any of you have the Katja Ebstein promo single Teatro (Spanish version of course) lying about. Just drop me a line.
Special thanks to André Vermeulen

Andrew Carrington
Andrew Carrington, not the son of Blake, has recorded a coverversion of Was Ist Schon Ein Jahr, the German version of What's Another Year.
It can be found on his new album Ich Leb Für Dich.
Australian born Carrington was a lead singer in the Ten Tenors.
His German language CD also includes coverversions of Rücksicht (German entry 1983) and Wer Liebe Lebt (Germany 2001)
Ich Leb Für Dich is out May 7 on Warner Music Germany.

Sources: Muziekfreaks weblog, thanks to Marion Minten
http://www.johnnylogan.net/

2010: The Oslo Collection
The place to go for all the latest release news of the 2010 Eurovision stars.
Denmark: cdsingle, album info *** Azerbaijan: Safura advance release info *** Israel: Harel Skaat Versions update ***  Moldova: Lounge, Pop Rock versions*** France: Jessy matador new release info *** Estonia: Siren cdsingle*** Slovenia: CD info *** Spain: Daniel Diges CD out now, Swing Jazz version *** Bosnia-Hercegovina: cdsingle out now *** Georgia: Sofia Nizharadze new website, promo update *** Iceland: Hera Björk in French *** Eurosong News Handbook out now

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Blog Tip: Favorites In Original - 杜德偉- 抱緊我

A blog I love to visit frequently is Favorites In Original.
Here you can find coverversions in Cantonese paired with their originals including picture sleeves.
It features originals from all over the world and if you browse around you'll find a few Eurocovers and some non-Eurovision songs by Eurovision stars like Patricia Kaas, Anna Oxa, Julio Iglesias, Celine Dion, Carola, Kirka, Nicole and Celine Dion.
One that I didn't know yet is by Alex To. 抱緊我 is a Cantonese (Chinese) coverversion of Johnny Logan's Hold Me Now, the 1987 Eurovision winner for Ireland.
Alex To already recorded it for his 1987 debut album Alex To (杜德偉). Great to find another Eurocovers treasure 22 years after its release. (the post is here) --


Eurovision 2009 - The Moscow Collection
The Latest News At The Moscow Collection Blog:
U.K. promo Spain promo
Lithuania: Sasha Song, Russian version online
Montenegro - Andrea's remixes
Macedonia - Next Time, English, Serbian versions.
Finland - Lose Control - Remix info, cdsingle Out Now
Romania: The Balkan Girls - CDsingle out now!
Armenia: Ինգա Անուշ Արշակյաններ, audio, video, dance!
Germany: Tracks cdsingle, Digital release, Spanish version
Switzerland: Lovebugs The Highest Heights, cdsingle out now!
France - Patricia Kaas - Kabaret CD, new version, Live CD Out Now!.