JOHNNY RODRIGUES - Hey Mal Yo / O MALHÃO
1974 JOHNNY & ORQUESTA RODRIGUES / JOHNNY RODRIGUES - Hey Mal Yo - from the album Hey Mal Yo (O Malhão) - Number 1 hit in the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal.... megahit in 1975!
iTunes: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/nl/album...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6BLwJw...
Johnny Antonio Rodrigues, born on 12 November 1951 on the Cape Verde Isles, was drafted as an eighteen-year-old by the Portuguese government. Since the young man had no intention whatsoever to fight in a war in Angola, a Portuguese colony just like the Cape Verde isles, he fled to Philadelphia, USA, together with his parents, brothers and sisters. With his sisters, he formed the singing group Cabo Verde, and they performed every night in the restaurant their father had opened. They even had some recordings made, but these were not very successful.
During a holiday in The Netherlands, at the end of 1974, Johnny ended up in discotheque Belle Amie, which was run by Tee-Set singer/producer Peter Tetteroo and manager Theo Kuppens in Scheveningen. Somehow, he managed to wheedle a job as a disk jockey from them. Subsequently he also managed to convince his benefactors he was not a bad singer either. This put an idea into Peter Tetteroo's head. Back then he did some producing every now and then. He realised that this jittery bloke was quite attractive to the ladies and called in the help of his band members of Tee-Set. Together they recorded Hey Mal Yo, released by Negram. Everything that was recorded from then on under the name of Johnny & Orquesta Rodrigues was in actual fact played by the Tee-Set band members – Ferry Lever provided the bouncy mandolin parts.
That Tetteroo had hit the nail on its head with his protégé’s charisma was proven in 1975. When the influential disk jockey and record company owner Joost den Draayer aka Willem van Kooten heard the single and was ‘wildly enthusiastic’ about it, things accelerated overnight. In the discos, the number was an absolute smash hit, not in the least aided by Johnny’s accompanying simple yet striking little dance. It was soon embraced by the all the audiences. Hey Mal Yo was an arrangement of an old Portuguese folk song (Hey Malho) about a poor boy that loves to loaf about and dreams of marrying a rich girl. It became a massive number 1 hit in The Netherlands and Belgium (over 300.000 copies sold) and turned gold in both countries. Also, in many other European countries Hey Mal Yo reached the charts, with a total of over 900.000 singles sold, including a number 1 in Portugal. Numerous performances in Europe and on television followed. It is one of those typical songs of which you cannot remember the title, but to which everybody can sing along after the first few bars. Newspaper articles from those days report that Johnny Rodrigues was somewhat taken aback by his success. Rumour has it that he bought a nice car from his first royalties, which he subsequently totalled on the very same day.
Thanks to the enormous success of Hey Mal Yo Johnny was given the opportunity to record an album. In addition to the complete Tee-Set band members, the well-known backing singers Patricia Paay, Yvonne Keeley (Paay) and Anita Meyer were part of the line-up. On the album, you will find a great many well-known Cape Verdean traditionals, including Tente, Marangue, and African Woman with its hint of Fela Kuti. In July 1975, the second single Hasibaba was released, with its infectious chorus Ha-Si-Ba-Ba. This single reached number 19 in the Dutch Top 40 charts. Some two years later, Johnny’s final hit Uma Casa Portuguesa was released, which got stuck on the 31st place in the charts. This latter song is especially famous in the rendition of the Queen of Fado, Amalia Rodrigues, who died a few years ago. What has become of Johnny in the end is everybody’s guess. He is said to have been spotted every now and then in the vicinity of Alkmaar, The Netherlands in 1987, but has been forced to leave the country in the end because he did not have a residence permit. What a pity for this nice lad; with a little more luck, he might have had more than just three hits!
Release deluxe 4CD box TEE-SET - Mythology (99 remastered tracks)
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/myt...
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/1o9JoCD...
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