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September 18, 2021 10:59 am  #1


Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

In the seventies we had a radio program in Czechoslovakia called "The Foreign Correspondents' Notebook".
This is the jingle of that program:

https://soundcloud.com/user-715225765/unknown-instrumental-version-of-if-i-had-a-hammer

It's an orchestral version of the song "If I Had A Hammer". (Doc Severinsen played it similarly, but this is a little different.)
Do you know who recorded the version used as the jingle?
Maybe it was an European orchestra - hard to say after all these years.
I hope I wrote it clearly. 


 

 

September 18, 2021 6:58 pm  #2


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

As usual, your writing is very clear. It's an interesting version of this song, and I decided to try seeing if I might find it on YouTube by searching on "If I Had A Hammer" "jazz" and "instrumental", but none of the versions that came up were this one. I also tried doing the same with the song's alternate title, "The Hammer Song", but still didn't find anything. 

 

September 19, 2021 7:19 am  #3


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Lorne,
Also recorded as "The Hammer Song" - that's a good mention! 
It is probably a recording of a European orchestra and was once released only on a vinyl record, not on a CD.
Therefore, it cannot be found on the Internet. 

     Thread Starter
 

September 19, 2021 7:44 am  #4


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Yes, I wanted to make sure that you knew that it has also been recorded as The Hammer Song. That was actually the original title when it was first recorded by The Weavers. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer
As for the issue of vinyl recorrds, sometimes I have seen people show that they are playing them on a record player when they upload them to YouTube. But if it wasn't a hit, but just an album track for a European orchestra that has never been on CD, that would certainly reduce the chances of finding it on the internet. Another aspect of this possibility is that the title could have been in another language. There are versions and adaptations of the song with the title in other languages at
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/9560/all#nav-entity

 

September 19, 2021 8:46 am  #5


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Lorne wrote:

As usual, your writing is very clear. It's an interesting version of this song, and I decided to try seeing if I might find it on YouTube by searching on "If I Had A Hammer" "jazz" and "instrumental", but none of the versions that came up were this one. I also tried doing the same with the song's alternate title, "The Hammer Song", but still didn't find anything. 

I tried searching "Hammer Time", but that took me down a different path altogether.

 

 

September 19, 2021 8:57 am  #6


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Roman wrote:

Lorne wrote:

As usual, your writing is very clear. It's an interesting version of this song, and I decided to try seeing if I might find it on YouTube by searching on "If I Had A Hammer" "jazz" and "instrumental", but none of the versions that came up were this one. I also tried doing the same with the song's alternate title, "The Hammer Song", but still didn't find anything. 

I tried searching "Hammer Time", but that took me down a different path altogether.

 

Why do I suddenly have the urge to buy Command hanging strips?
 

 

September 19, 2021 10:49 am  #7


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

i don't know how far into the seventies, or the eastern bloc such existed. did you ever encounter bootleg records etched into x-ray film?

 

September 19, 2021 11:19 am  #8


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

gopher wrote:

i don't know how far into the seventies, or the eastern bloc such existed. did you ever encounter bootleg records etched into x-ray film?

This was done in Czechoslovakia in the second half of the fifties and the first half of the sixties. Especially in the case of original rock'n'roll recordings,
which were rare in our country at that time.

But "western" radio stations (AFN Munich, R.Luxembourg) were probably listened more and recorded on tape recorders as soon as they were available. 
 

     Thread Starter
 

September 19, 2021 3:05 pm  #9


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Radio Free Europe able to spread rock to the Soviet Block nations?

 

September 19, 2021 3:27 pm  #10


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Little Rich wrote:

Radio Free Europe able to spread rock to the Soviet Block nations?

Good question ! And I answer - YES.
The Czechoslovak broadcast of RFE began broadcasting regular afternoon music programs of rock and pop in February 1965.

 

     Thread Starter
 

September 20, 2021 3:34 am  #11


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

mroldies wrote:

Little Rich wrote:

Radio Free Europe able to spread rock to the Soviet Block nations?

Good question ! And I answer - YES.
The Czechoslovak broadcast of RFE began broadcasting regular afternoon music programs of rock and pop in February 1965.

 

when i think of radio free europe, i think shortwave. given that they provide access to the world, i wonder, did the government make it difficult to obtain shortwave radios, or were they widely available? i imagine, too, that certainly at night a.m. frequency broadcasts from the west could also have been heard, am i guessing correctly?
 

 

September 20, 2021 5:16 am  #12


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

That's a long talk ...
I had a hobby throughout the seventies and eighties - shortwave DXing. I tried to catch  stations from around the world on short waves. I also corresponded with them and the stations confirmed my receipt with their QSL cards. I have hundreds of them. My friends and I also tried to establish a Czechoslovak DX club. Of course, state security noticed this and we had minor problems. The Czechoslovak DX Club still operates today and publishes its monthly bulletin. Of course, it has its own website.
Electron and transistor radio receivers could always be bought in Czechoslovakia. In the 1970s and 1980s, they were Soviet-made receivers from Riga.
(VEF 204, VEF 206, Selena, Spidola 252, ... it is possible to see them on the internet) 
I also had a Grundig Satellit 1000 receiver.
And I must point out that reception on short waves depends not only on the alternation of day and night, but also on the state of the ionosphere. When it comes to RFE reception, we had an advantage. RFE shortwave transmitters were in Portugal and higher frequency jammers were in Ukraine...  Therefore, in larger cities in Czechoslovakia there were also local shortwave jammers. 
Through short waves, I got into popular music. I remember, for example, the amazing music programs of Radio Kuwait. 
Is it enough written like this? Or do you want to know something in more detail?

     Thread Starter
 

September 20, 2021 11:52 am  #13


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

The Polish, Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian stations RFE also had their own pop and rock music shows. They were very popular in those countries.
The DJ of the Romanian station Cornel Chiriac suffered for its popularity.
I put it as a new topic.

     Thread Starter
 

September 20, 2021 12:37 pm  #14


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

I'm not sure how many other people remember this commercial for Radio Free Europe, but when I was a kid, it was on American TV all the time. I think the reason it stuck in my memory all these years was due to the DJ's infamous intro to The Drifters' "On Broadway."

Prior to finding it on YouTube, I hadn't seen it in decades. If you recall this, it's truly a memory flogger. 

 

September 20, 2021 1:00 pm  #15


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Hungarian RFE DJ Cseke László, real name Géza László Ekecs (24/03/1927 Budapest - 13/11/2017 Munich), is probably in the RFE commercial.
The audience addressed him "Uncle Laci" in letters. 
I also listened to his program. 
His show was called "Délutáni randevú". You can hear that in that ad.
 

     Thread Starter
 

September 21, 2021 10:02 am  #16


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

aflem wrote:

I'm not sure how many other people remember this commercial for Radio Free Europe, but when I was a kid, it was on American TV all the time. I think the reason it stuck in my memory all these years was due to the DJ's infamous intro to The Drifters' "On Broadway."

Prior to finding it on YouTube, I hadn't seen it in decades. If you recall this, it's truly a memory flogger. 

don't remember that commercial but i do remember the voice of america, and its postage stamp which is affixed to my hallicrafter desktop unit, which i listened to extensively as a teen in the late 60's.

it used to boggle my mind when i'd tune into radio havana at the beginning of a castro speach, split for a coulple hours of little league ball practice, come home to find him still yappin'. i was convinced there must have been some trickery involved.

 

 

September 21, 2021 12:56 pm  #17


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Yes, there were such cases. A few hours of political speech.

     Thread Starter
 

September 23, 2021 9:19 am  #18


Re: Unknown instrumental version of "If I Had A Hammer"

Lorne wrote:

As usual, your writing is very clear. It's an interesting version of this song, and I decided to try seeing if I might find it on YouTube by searching on "If I Had A Hammer" "jazz" and "instrumental", but none of the versions that came up were this one. I also tried doing the same with the song's alternate title, "The Hammer Song", but still didn't find anything. 

 

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