Yugoton

Yugoton was a one-off project. Poland's popular artists recorded their own versions of Yugoslavian hits, with Polish lyrics. The idea of the project came from Grzegorz Brzozowicz, a well-known musical journalist. Info from Wikipedia: Yugoton tribute album was released in Poland by ZIC ZAC Music Company and BMG Poland in 2001. It features cover versions of eminent artists from SFR Yugoslavia such as: Električni orgazam, Idoli, Bajaga i Instruktori, Haustor, Prljavo kazalište and Parni valjak. Most of these artists were formerly involved in the Yugoslav New Wave (Novi Val) scene. The songs including the main single from the Prljavo kazalište's Crno bijeli svijet album, are performed in Polish by the cover band Yugoton feat. Polish artists: Katarzyna Nosowska, Paweł Kukiz, Olaf Deriglasoff, Tymon Tymański and others. The CD also has CD ROM multimedia features for PC use. The album is a tribute to the former Yugoslav music scene. Even its very title is a nod to the Yugoslav record industry, specifically its largest and most prominent state-owned record label and chain record store Jugoton, which was very popular among the youths behind the Iron Curtain, including the Poles, who couldn't travel freely to western countries and thus had difficulties accessing western music. One of their solutions around this was going shopping to socialist Yugoslavia which was not an Eastern Bloc country, and as such more open to western influences. As a result, Yugoslav records gained a cult status around Eastern Europe and became a sort of symbol of the western popular culture. Another reference to the Yugoslav records and Jugoton can be found in the film Sonnenallee (which takes place in the former East Germany), in the scene with the record smuggler. Many of the former Yugoslav artists were touring Poland, which also had a vibrant music scene including punk rock and new wave music as well as other genres with large fanbase. In 1981 the former Yugoslav band Azra released the song Poljska u mome srcu (Poland in my heart) to boost the morale of the Polish people in the struggle of their worker's union Solidarity against the dictatorship of Wojciech Jaruzelski, while Električni orgazam released the album titled Warszawa '81 for Jugoton in 1982. Also a support to the Polish opposition was expressed by the British punk rock band Angelic Upstarts. The ties between the two scenes still exist. Vlada Divljan from Belgrade's Idoli and Darko Rundek from the Zagreb-based Haustor were invited as guests to the Yugoton project. They are featured on the photo on the CD cover of Yugoton together with the Polish artists. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.