Do you ever learn something that makes you feel like your understanding of pop music has been shaken to the core? That's how I felt when I first found out that ATC's absolute classic "Around The World (La La La La La)" was actually a cover. Of course, I had to hear the original, and was intrigued enough to want to hear more from the group that originally created the song--if they could come up with this, what else had they done? As it turns out, the group in question, Ruki vverkh (Руки вверх, which translates to "Hands Up"), has done quite a lot, with a back catalogue running from 1997 to 2005. The group broke up in 2006 (I think--I don't speak Russian, so please correct me if any of this is wrong), but member Sergey Zhukov released a solo album in 2006. At some point, I do want to answer the "what else have they done?" question, but I think their original version of "Around The World" is a good place to start.Pesenka--or Песенка, which apparently means "Song" (though I've seen this referred to as "Song No. 1," probably because there are later "pesenka"s). I wish I could be like Pinkie and give you the history of how this song ended up being used by ATC, but I truly have no idea. What really surprised me the first time I heard it was how similar this version and ATC's are--save for the language, there's not much to distinguish between them (there are some things--the song's length, for example). Given that most people are so familiar with "Around The World" and (among any readers) are English speakers, I imagine this will probably mainly have novelty value for most people, but they definitely have more music worth listening to.
As usual, I have pretty much no idea where you can buy Russian music (any recommendations?), but you can buy some of Ruki vverkh's albums (though not Sdelay pogromche, or Turn Up The Volume, which this song comes from) from marketplace sellers on Amazon.
Next up: maybe France.
