Anki: Ei toivu milloinkaan (I’ll Never Recover)

Valto Laitinen participated in the Finnish song contest, ”Syksyn sävel”, in 1972 with no less than three compositions, all of which contained Saukki’s lyrics. This very beautiful and melodic song, ”Ei toivu milloinkaan” (I’ll Never Recover), was one of the three. Anki’s fragile interpretation of it is haunting.

Valto Laitinen osallistui vuoden 1972 Syksyn sävel -kilpailuun peräti kolmella sävellyksellä, joissa kaikissa oli Saukin sanoitus. Hyvin kaunis ja melodinen ”Ei toivu milloinkaan” oli yksi kolmesta. Ankin herkkä tulkinta siitä on unohtumaton.

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Ei toivu milloinkaan (I’ll Never Recover)
Sung by Anki (artist name of Agneta Lindqvist)
Music by Valto Laitinen
Lyrics by Saukki (pen name of Sauvo Puhtila)
Arranged by Jörgen Petersen
Recorded in 1972 (soundtrack for television), Helsinki, Finland

Photograph: iStock

ANKI, whose real name was Agneta Lindqvist (1945–2007), was a very musical Finnish singer and songwriter, and also a skilled drawer. She plyed the piano, accordion, clarinet, guitar and banjo. Her first single called ”Neiti yksinäinen” (”Miss Lonely”, originally ”Little Miss Lonely”), accompanied by The Savages, was recorded in September 1962.

Anki worked in different genres of music, including folk, blues, country, jazz and pop music, but she was at her best when she performed folk and blues music, and ditties. Her mother tongue was Swedish. She sang mainly in Finnish, Swedish and English, but one of her album called ”Idylli” (”Idyll”) contains a songs in 15 languages. It was released in Germany under the title ”Anki” in 1971.

VALTO LAITINEN (1926–2004) was a Finnish composer and pianist, who spent most of his life in Paris. He started his career in Finland after the Second World War playing the piano with various jazz and dance bands. In 1949, he participated in the piano competition, which was held at the Paris jazz festival, and achieved third place. Valtonen moved to Paris permanently at the end of the 1950s. There he met the orchestra leader Quincy Jones, who urged him to compose. Valtonen criticized French music industry. ”Too much useless music is written here every day”, he complained.

Valtonen was a respected composer in France, and participated successfully in the French music competitions. His well-known songs include ”C’est toute une musique”, ”Monsieur l’amour”, ”C’est drôle un grand amour”, ”Deux enfants reunis”, ”L’amour s’en va trap tôt”, and ”Quand tu n’es pas là”. The singers who have performed his songs include Georgette Lemaire-Sellers, Anthony Perkins and Mireille Mathieu.

SAUVO PUHTILA (b. 1928) is one of the most eminent post-war lyricists today, both in terms of original lyrics and adaptations. His life’s work as a lyricist has been singularly complex and broad-ranging. Although he has produced a huge number of original lyrics, Puhtila is even better known and more esteemed for his adaptations, which his knowledge of languages has allowed him to produce from the originals written in various languages. He has adapted lyrics for operas, operettas, musicals, choir songs, solos, various hits, pop and rock songs and ditties, as well as gospel, Christmas, children’s and folk songs.

Puhtila’s extensive production of original lyrics includes, for example, hits, ditties, songs for various representatives of Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest and songs for musicals, films, choirs, children and church services.

His career extends from the 1950s to the 80s, and we can safely assume that Puhtila is the most productive lyricist in Finland, with the largest body of work and the broadest spectrum of genres. More than 2,500 of his lyrics have been released on disc, while the number of his individual lyrics is roughly double that. [He himself reported that he had written the lyrics to over 6,000 songs.]

Sauvo Puhtila has always been – and continues to be today – highly regarded and respected among both experts and colleagues due to his superior technique and rich expression, as well as his unique style, which permeates his work throughout.

(This article about Sauvo Puhtila is part of a wider article titled ”Sauvo Puhtila receives Honorary Award for a life’s work”, and was published in issue 3/2002 of the Selvis magazine. – English translation of the article: Taina Pemberton, 2017.)

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

I’ll Never Recover

I’ll never recover
being wounded by love.
I’ll never be
the same again.

I’m turning a new leaf,
this story will be history.
I’m turning a new leaf
but I miss you.

There’s no joy in my laughter;
I look at the world
through different eyes.

I’ll never recover
being wounded by love.
I’ll never be
the same again.

Stored safe somewhere
teardrops from our last night together.
I’ll never recover
being wounded by love.

I’ll never recover
from your love, from your love.
Never.

By Saukki
Engl. transl. by Taina Pemberton © 2017