Seventy to eighty years ago the majority of Finns were still living in rural communities and in general only had six years of school education. Most Finns spoke only Finnish and listened to Finnish-language songs. As a result, popular music was generally in Finnish and foreign hit songs were often translated into Finnish. Even today, Finnish audiences place a special emphasis on their mother tongue, and this helps to explain many aspects of the development of popular Finnish music.

Up to the early 1950s, popular Finnish music was very much dominated by local artists and songwriters such as Georg Malmstén. Despite this, popular Finnish singers of the 1930’s and 1940’s such as the Harmony Sisters also performed Finnish-language versions of popular foreign hits.

Here, the Harmony sisters sing Finnish-language versions of two popular foreign songs – the first (Liisa Pien) is a Finnish version of Lili Marlene, the second, the very popular Kodin kynttilät (When it’s lamp-lighting time in the Valley)

But by the mid-fifties, Finnish horizons were expanding. World War 2 was over, the standard of living was rising, in 1952 the Olympic Games were held in Helsinki, bringing with them large numbers of foreign visitors, and Coca-Cola arrived in Finland for the first time. Imported records were available in record shops and sold well. Foreign best-sellers in 1954 were ‘Moulin Rouge’ (Percy Faith Orchestra) and ‘Istanbul’ (the Four Lads). In 1955, Finns sent sales of Rosemary Clooney’s ‘Mambo Italiano’ and in 1956 they did the same with Louis Armstrong’s ‘Mack the Knife’ and Lys Assia’s ‘Arrivederci Roma’. In 1957 the top-selling foreign songs were Renato Carosone’s ‘Maruzzella’, Domenico Modugno’s ‘Lazzarella’, and Giuseppe Fanciulli’s ‘Guaglione’.

Introducing the golden era of Finnish-language covers

Translator and song-writer Sauvo Puhtila

By the mid-1950’s, Finnish record companies had come to understand the growing taste for foreign hit songs. Their solution was to make Finnish-language versions of these hits so that the listeners could follow the lyrics. The golden era of cover versions began in the late 1950s, and for decades to come it made life easy Finnish record companies. They would wait for an international hit to start becoming popular in Finland, buy up the local publishing rights, commission a Finnish translation of the lyrics and bring in to the studio a popular singer such as Olavi Virta or Laila Kinnunen. They would then have a sure hit on their hands. The thriftiest producers even bought ready-made tapes of backing music for the songs from foreign recording companies, and would have their singers record the sing using this pre-recorded backing music. The biggest Finnish hit of 1957, ‘Poika varjoisalta kujalta’ by Olavi Virta, was a translation of ‘Guaglione’. In 1958, the greatest successes were ‘Sävel rakkauden’ (Maladie d’amour) and ‘Lazzarella’ (Laila Kinnunen’s first big hit). The unsung hero behind these hits was the translator and song-writer Sauvo Puhtila (Saukki), who wrote hundreds of memorable Finnish lyrics for songs that were originally English, French, Italian, or Spanish hits.

During his career, Puhtila worked with many of the leading names in the Finnish Music industry, including Laila Kinnun, Jaakko Salo, Annikki and Olavi Virta. He mostly translated pop songs, especially the popular Italian hits of the 1950’s. Sometimes he rejected the original song and wrote his own lyrics to the foreign tune. Throughout his career, he translated around 9,ooo songs.

‘Lazzarella’ (Laila Kinnunen’s first big hit)

‘Poika varjoisalta kujalta’ by Olavi Virta

Rock Music First Appears on the Finnish Music Scene

In the 1950s, rock music had little impact on the Finnish music scene. Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was a big hit in Finland in 1955, but Elvis Presley never rose above number 6 in the Finnish charts over the 1950’s. But by the 1960’s, times were changing. Groups such as the Shadows and the Ventures had a strong influence in Finland, with a large number of local imitators. These Finnish imitators always had two electric guitars, an electric bass, and drums, and a name that was an English noun, examples being the Esquires, the Scaffolds, the Hounds, Topmost, etc. The most successful Finnish beat group was the Sounds, and they paved the way for the Finnish success of British groups such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who arrived in Finland in 1963. By the mid 1960’s, pretty much every teenager in Finland had a poster of John, Paul, George, and Ringo in their bedroom.

Finnish group Topmost had a hit with Merisairaat kasvot in 1967. This was a Finnish cover of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” – here performed live by Topmost in 1992

Finnish record producers attempted to apply the old and well-tried methods to the new musical style. Finnish-language cover versions of many 1960’s foreign songs appeared – some of them more successful than others. This trend continued into the 1970’s, with singers such as Arto Sotavalta singing popular Finnish-language versions of foreign hit songs. Other popular groups and singers such as Mona Carita (Carita Virkkunen) and others continued to record successful Finnish-language versions of foreign hits into the 1980’s.

Mona Carita – Tee se vielä uudestaan (Finnish-language cover of “Do That To Me One More Time”)

The birth of Suomi Rock

For a while, it seemed like Finnish-language music was losing ground as teenagers, who now studied English at school, were following British and American rock singers and buying English-language recordings. Among older listeners, there was a move back to the more traditional Finnish popular music, and for quite a while the Finnish top ten was evenly divided between the Beatles and Finnish tangos. Finnish-language rock began to breakthrough into the popular market in Finland only in the mid-1970s, with Finnish singers such as Hector and Juice Leskinen making inroads and becoming both well-known and popular. From the mid-1970’s on, groups and singers performing original songs in Finnish have slowly achieved an ever-stronger position in Finnish rock. Conversely, in heavy metal, where Finnish metal groups such as Nightwish, H.I.M, Children of Bodom and others are both popular and successful internationally, the use of English is common.

Despite the success of Finnish rock, more traditional forms of popular music continued to have their devoted following, and the production of Finnish-language cover versions of international hits continued on a large scale. The Finnish-language theme from “The Godfather” was a huge success in Finland. So were ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’, ‘Make Me an Island’, and the Italian song ‘Alle porte del sole’. But by the late 1970’s, some bright accountants in London and New York were looking at their balance sheets and the royalties that their music publishing companies were paying to Finnish lyricists. Why not keep all this money and let the Finns listen to the original versions? Without the publisher’s permission, no more cover recording could be made – and from later in the 1980’s, the era of Finnish-language covers of foreign hits was largely over.

What follows below is a very small selection of Finnish covers of foreign hit-songs from the 1940’s through to the 1980’s. There are many many more covers than appear in this somewhat limited selection and I’ll be adding posts for individual singers such as Laila Kinnuen and others over the coming weeks and months. As I complete these, I’ll add in links to the bottom of this post. In the meantime, enjoy the selection of Finnish music here – and if you have suggestions for any that I’ve missed, please do let me know.

Preerian Keltainen Ruusu (Yellow Rose Of Texas) – Olavi Virta and the Harmony Sisters

Olavi Virta – Vihreät Niityt (cover of Green Fields)

Laila Kinnunen – Käy ohitsein – a cover of Leroy Van Dyke’s “Walk On By” from 1962!

The Sounds – 1963 – Manchurian Beat

Topmost – Näen mustaa vain from 1966 (cover of “Los Bravos, Black is Black”)

Laila Kinnunen – Niin paljon kuuluu rakkauteen (1967)

Another Laila Kinnunen cover from 1967, this time in English -Shenandoah

Anki – Päivän Vain (1967) – Finnish cover of The Seeker’s “Walk With Me”. In the late 1960’s, Anki and Katri Helena were Finland’s two most popular female singers.

Muksut – Silmät silmiä (1968) – OK, I have no idea if this is a cover or not but it sounded great and it’s a good example of 1960’s Finnish folk a la Peter, Paul and Mary or The Seekers

Kai Hyttinen – Nosta lippu salkoon (Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree)

Also from 1968, Danny and For Your Love / The House of the Rising Sun (1968). Quite an avant garde performance from Danny, who in the 1970’s was doing covers of Abba songs