Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Calling Dr. Casey - Kutsukaa tri Casey


In the first part of the 60's the televison really made a breakthrough in Finland. In with the television came the TV stars, and specially two TV doctors made an impact; Dr. Casey and Dr. Kildare. They (rather, the actors who played them) became the first true TV celebrities. Subsequently, it was no wonder that a song was made about them. In 1963 Erkki Pohjanheimo made his breakthrough with the single "Kutsukaa tri Casey" (Call Dr. Casey). Erkki won a singing contest arranged by the youth magazine 'Suosikki' in 1961 and things started to happen. At he same time he was working for the Finnish Television as a camera man, and when he dropped his singing career in 1967, continued as a succesful TV-director and -producer. The original song "Calling Dr. Casey" was written and performed by legendary American singer-songwriter John D. Loudermilk in 1962, as a B-side of his single. John started his music career in his native North Carolina under the pseudonym Johnny Dee. He didn't have a great success as a singer, but after reassuming his birth name and moving to Nashville, his commercial success specially as a songwriter earned him a place in the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Hall of Fame. His best known composition is the classic "Tobacco Road".

Here's the pair:

3 comments:

Nick Motown said...

Hey there! I'm absolutely over-excited having found your blog as I'm a huge fan of Finnish music from the 1950's and 1960's. I just love Brita Koivunen and enjoy listening to singers like Pirkko Mannola, Ann Christine Nyström, Eila Pellinen, Vieno Kekkonen, Helena Siltala etc. I even went to Helsinki for my honeymoon to buy a pile of records!
So tonight I probably will download every single song you posted by now!
Maybe you wanna have a look at my blog in which I featured some Finnish stuff as well: http://globalvintage.blogspot.com/
I haven't posted anything in quite a while as my computer crashed some months ago and all my mp3-files were gone. But by now I re-built quite a new collection - so I'll be able to return to blogging soon.
If you have the time (and are willing) you could also recommend some Finnish stuff to me? If you wanna have a look at what I like: http://www.lastfm.de/user/nick-motown

DM said...

Hey Nick,
Nice to have you visiting in my blog. I remember visiting your Finn Faves -blog a long time ago, and wondering why did it disappear. After visiting your Global Vintage -blog I see you have really global taste for vintage music, and a strange affection to Finnish music, too ;-). I've also tried to pick Finnpicks 'globally'. Not (just) the big hits that everybody around the world has covered, but the more obscure ones, that perhaps have left unnoticed everywhere else but in Finland ... You will find more examples of fine Finnish female soloists here in the future Finnpicks. And as you have probably noticed, in addition to singers, also the arrangers are often of special quality.

Anonymous said...

Poor Mr. Motown,
You're probably divorced by now.
Having so many affairs with those
singers, hah!
Some special missus you've got if she's tolerating that stuff.
Cheers!