90/917 François Deguelt: Dis rien (Monaco 1962)

The first years of Eurovision Song Contest is considered by many as an uninteresting cavalcade of dull French (or french sounding) ballads with really nothing else to remember them by than the winning entries. While I think this is partly true, I also once in a while try to highlight the great unsung and unremebered masterpieces from these early Eurovision years which I think there are plenty of. The 90th eurosong is not one of those. In fact the whole 1962 Eurovision song contest is one of the dullest and most unforgettable contests ever.

The french singing star François Deguelt had represented Monaco already two years previously with an excellent song Ce soir-là by Hubert Giraud (my review to this great song can be read here) resulting the third place in the final results list. In 1962 Deguelt managed to improve the rating with the 2nd place with 13 points. The winning song, Un premier amour by Isabelle Aubret (in my opinion one of the best songs ever in the Eurovision history) gathered twice the amount of points.

But unlike the result would suggest, Dis rien (penned by well known French singer Henri Salvador) is far inferior to François Deguelts earlier song. Lyrically the song consist mostly of cliches of a French love song and the melody is uninspired. The slightly jazzy arrangement does little to improve the overall impression, which makes me wonder what the juries saw and heard in this song that made them attribute their points to it. Even the singer himself looks like having trouble in keeping awake singins this dull ditty. Maybe the overall low quality of songs (except of the winner and one or two of the other songs) made the juries to follow the old formula. It is in french, it is a ballad, therefore it must be good. 

My points 2/5

89/917 Claudio Villa: Addio addio (Italy 1962)

Italy has been a prolific participant of the Eurovision since the beginning of the contest. Even though the Italians still prefer their local San Remo competition, the country has sent quality entries from year to year with only few mediocre entries and almost none real stinkers. During the first decades Italy sent also their biggest stars to Eurovision. Such was Claudio Villa who represented his country twice. The first one, the Eurosong number 89 took part in 1962. The song might be a good way to explain why Italy has not won the contest more often their quality of songs should entitle.

The song Addio addio (composed by Domenico Modugno) could be called a prototype of an Italian entry of the 1960's. A song that starts slowly, does not capture you at first but if you are patient enough the song will reward you with a rousing finale. And of course, the singer is first class. There were lot of Italian songs like this in the Eurovision, songs that need patience and probably several listenings before they give you the goodies they have to offer.

Unfortunately Eurovision does not work well for entries like this, at least not in the 1960's with no preview shows not to mention YouTube to check the song beforehand. The juries liked the Italian entries to some extent, the songs fit usually within the top 10 or close to it. However they could not beat the easier entries that got to you instantly during the first listening and before the second half of the song. So far, Italy has won the contest only twice and placed in the top 5 only 14 times during their 40 year run.

Claudio Villa placed 9th in the 1962 contest. His song has stood the test of time much better than rest of the song from that rather dull Eurovision year. This goes to show, that often the Eurovision scoreboard has nothing to do with the quality of the music itself.

My points 4/5.