Ivo Robić: "Morgen"

September 28, 1959 (2 weeks)

So, 1959 is beginning to wind down and it is time to start taking stock of what the year has had to offer in terms of Canadian number ones. Not much as it turns out. Things got off to a very good start with The Platters and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" before it all seemed to fall apart with The Chipmunks and their travesty "Alvin's Harmonica". Only three number ones up to this point would I say are especially good: the afformentioned "Smoke...", The Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me" and recent entry Phil Phillips' "Sea of Love", a song which I liked very much but admitted to not really wanting to hear again — and this is meant to be one of my favourites. What a sad state of affairs.

Well, I have good news and bad news to share at this time. Let's start with the good news. I'm happy to say that things will soon turn around somewhat, with one monster of a banger right around the corner, a strong one to finish the year off and two that are both more than good enough. Yes, four of the last five CHUM chart toppers of 1959 are better than average which is encouraging considering what a grim year it has been. Which brings us to the bad news: there's still one more rough one we've got to get through first.

Let me first cop to the fact that I like that "Morgen" managed to become an international hit at all. Ivo Robić hailed from Croatia in the former Yugoslavia, an Iron Curtain-adjacent country whose cultural imprint on the West had otherwise been minimal. But while he spoke Croatian (as well as, presumably, the Yugoslav lingua-franca Serbo-Croat), he sung his breakthrough hit in the rather less exotic language of German. This being a time when it was still possible to have an international hit recorded in an European dialect that wasn't English, "Morgen" stood a chance, especially since Robić was aided by easy listening giant and future CHUM number one artist Bert Kaempfert.

These facts are all nice and interesting but I can't get into the song itself. I was unimpressed at first but figured it would grow on me eventually but I am still waiting for that to happen. It isn't exactly boring — though it's hardly thrilling — and there is something moving about Robić's vocal delivery but there's little to say about anything else. It seems to combine the worst elements of fifties' easy listening — a patently unnecessary chorus to accompany Robić, syrupy arrangements — with traces of country and western — and the hokey kind at that.

"Morgen" ended up doing respectable business in both the US (number thirteen) and UK (number twenty-three) but Canada proved to the market which was most receptive to it, which is why I'm having to deal with it now. I imagine my homeland's many emigrants from Europe liked it a lot but it must have had more widespread appeal for it to end up topping the charts for two weeks. Maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate it but since I can't go back to investigate, its appeal will remain a mystery to me.

So, that does it for mediocre-to-lousy CHUM chart toppers (at least until we get to 1960). The rest from '59 should all get scores of a least a 6. I think it's time for something special: a great tune, beautifully sung, an earworm that doesn't drive you nuts, the sort of think you could listen to on a perpetual loop and never tire of. I think I've got just the thing.

Score: 4