How foreign stars covered Russian songs (VIDEOS)
Covers for some songs became much more popular than their original versions, written by Russian and Soviet musicians.
1. ATC – ‘Around The World’ (2000)
One of the most popular disco songs of the 2000s was ‘Around The World’ by German pop band ATC. It held first place on the national German hit parade for a whole 6 weeks, also becoming the leader of other European music charts.
Sergei Zhukov.
It was authored by Sergei Zhukov and Alexei Potekhin – musicians from the Russian band ‘Ruki Vverkh’. The song was released in Russia in 1998, performed by one of the band’s singers, Elizaveta Rodnyanskaya; German producers heard it and made a cover that went viral around the entire world.
Ruki Vverkh – ‘Pesenka’ (1998)
Later, dozens of covers were made for this song and almost all of them became a hit. Among them were The Disco Boys (2012), Carolina Marquez ft. Flo Rida & Dale Saunders (2013) and Melanie C with the Berlin Orchestra (2018).
Recently, another cover for this song was released in Russia called ‘Pyatnitsa’ (‘Friday’).
DJ SMASH & Klava Koka – ‘Pyatnitsa’ (2023)
Read more about this song here.
2. The Cover Girls – ‘Don't Stop Now’ (1990)
At the end of the 1980s, on the wave of perestroika, U.S. and Soviet art workers began corresponding and arranging creative gatherings.
The Cover Girls.
That’s how American producers got interested in the song by famous Soviet composer Viktor Reznikov – ‘Domovoy’. New lyrics were written for his music, a dance arrangement was set up and the song named ‘Don’t Stop Now’ went on to conquer the U.S. music charts. And it was performed by ‘The Cover Girls’, a popular band at the time.
Viktor Reznikov – ‘Domovoy’ (1989)
3. SUS - ‘These Eyes’ (1991)
After the success of this song abroad, Viktor Reznikov and musician Dan Merrill founded the band SUS (Soviet Union-United States) in 1991. Reznikov made several “American versions” of his Russian songs; however, they only managed to record four of them. At the beginning of 1992, the composer died in a car crash in St. Petersburg.
The song ‘These Eyes’ is his ‘Priznanie’ (‘Confession’).
Viktor Reznikov – ‘Priznanie’ (1988)
4. Brazzaville - ‘Star Called Sun’ (2006)
The U.S. indie-band Brazzaville covered Russian and Soviet hits many times, but the song ‘Zvezda Po Imeni Solntse’ (‘Star Called Sun’) became probably the most famous.
Brazzaville.
Their 2006 album was also named after this track. The band performed in Russia multiple times and even recorded singles with Russian musicians.
Kino – ‘Zvezda Po Imeni Solntse’ (1987)
5. Vanilla Sky - ‘Zvenit Yanvarskaya Vyuga’ (2014)
The Italian band Vanilla Sky decided to not just make a modern cover for this Soviet song, but also to sing it in Russian. ‘Zvenit Yanvarskaya Vyuga’ was first heard in the movie ‘Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future’, performed by Nina Brodskaya.
Nina Brodskaya - Zvenit Yanvarskaya Vyuga (1973)
6. Deai - ‘Million Scarlet Roses’ (2019)
This song by Soviet composer Raimonds Pauls and poet Andrei Voznesensky is one of the most recognizable in Alla Pugacheva’s repertoire. Unexpectedly, it became incredibly popular in Asian countries. You can find many different covers of it from different years on the Internet in Japanese, in Korean and even in Persian. There were even speculations that, in reality, it was a Japanese folk song! But no, it really was a Soviet bard song.
Alla Pugacheva – ‘Million Alykh Roz’ (1983)
7. The Seekers - ‘The Carnival Is Over’ (1967)
Australian band The Seekers actually covered a Russian folk song about Stenka Razin. And it became a hit on the Australian and British music charts at the end of the 1960s!
It’s still performed in Russia, especially at folk music concerts.
Georgy Ots – ‘Iz-za Ostrova Na Strezhen’
