Seiji Tanaka -- O Marijana（オー・マリヤーナ）

By Pudelek (Marcin Szala) via Wikimedia Commons

The above is a photo of Šarengrad, Syrmia, Croatia. If I'm not mistaken, I believe my English circle of well-to-do ladies took a trip to Croatia some years ago for about a week and found it wonderful. 

But that wasn't the only reason for me to post this particular photo from Wikimedia Commons. The other explanation is that I'd wanted to write about this folk song which was originally created and recorded by Croatian (formerly a part of Yugoslavia) singer-songwriter Vlaho Paljetak (1893 – 1944).

Now, to be honest, when I first came across "O Marijana", I had half-jokingly thought that we had a "Kusuri wo Takusan"（くすりをたくさん）situation here. But no...this has nothing to do with a love of a certain notorious weed but ardor for a beautiful lass by the name of Marijana. Covered by Nara-born singer Seiji Tanaka（田中星児）as his 6th single from 1976, the singer himself provided the Japanese lyrics. In a way, Tanaka's rendition reminds me of some of the music from Bobby Vinton who was popular in the same decade. The song was used as the theme for a TBS morning information program of the time called "Hachi-ji no Sora"（8時の空...The Sky at 8 O'Clock）.