Jussi Raittinen was born 1944 and despite being rather old, his involvement with Rockabilly within the last 66 years can be called little. But impressive. That's why he has to be mentioned here.
Jussi 1959
Despite having had his first records out in 1960 Jussi Raittinen became really known to the public in 1964 when his band 'Eero ja Jussi and the Boys' recorded and released Beatles songs in Finnish, following that by also doing Finnish versions of hits by other popular artists of the day, like 'Satisfaction' from the Stones or Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman'. During the first years Jussi was the band's singer and guitar-player, but in 1967 he switched to bass and kept on playing it ever since. Him and Eero are brothers, and in 1965 when Jussi wasn't in the band for about a year(Army?) Eero would start doing vocals as well. In '68 Eero left the band but returned 1980 to stay for another 19 years. If you are intererested, see all line-ups here: The Boys.
50s Rock'n'Roll was always part of their set, for example they had Fats Domino and Ray Charles covers (Hello Josephine, I Got A Woman) on their first LP and for their 2nd LP, released 1966, they covered Bill Haley(Skinny Minny) and Little Richard(Rip It Up). On later releases this would continue with covers by Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran. In the early 70s the band would have a 'Country' phase where they covered songs by Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Don Gibson and even Merle Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee' was recorded with Finnish lyrics. I really would like to see those. This would lead to a solo album by Raittinen released 1975 entitled 'Kantri & Rock'. 'Kantri' is the Finnish way to write 'Country'. They write how they speak, so it makes sense, in all its weirdness.
Also 1975 Raittinen went to the States and recorded at the Glo-Lite Studio in Memphis 'Blue Moon of Kentucky 'and 'I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone' together with Marcus Van Story on bass, Bubba Feathers on lead and Charlie Feathers(!) on rhythm guitar. He had run into them in Memphis, Feather's invited him to his house, at one point they started jamming and Feather's suggested to book some studio time and record a bit. Great idea! Raittinen also cut two songs in New Orleans but those sessions musicians don't say anthing to me. The Memphis songs were released the same year as 45 on Rock & Country Records in Finland and later re-released together with the Orleans songs and other recordings on the Jussi and the Boys LP 'Mennään Melomaan'. 1976 he returned to the States and recorded a whole LP in Nashville, simply called 'Nashville', with the help of Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, Bob Moore and the Jordanaires. Not bad, not bad at all! An even bigger surprise than the musicians might be the fact that there wasn't a single cover-version on the album. All songs were written by Finnish songwriters! While in the USA Raittinen recorded in New Orleans again AND at Ronny Weiser's Rollin' Rock Studios! There he had Billy Zoom on lead-guitar. As result of the trip a LP came out in Finland in 1977, title 'Rollin' The Rock'. Side A consisted of the Orleans session, side B of the Rollin' Rock session and this time all songs were cover-versions.
In the years to come Jussi kept on recording Rock'n'Roll and Country songs but he would also play the very Finnish styles of 'Isekelmä' und 'Rautalanka'. When I saw him perform just some months ago the band's set actually was mainly those styles plus their 60s hits and 2 Rockabilly songs, 'My Baby Left Me' and 'Honey Don't'. Those they played with so much drive and power, it would have put many 'authentic' bands to shame. With a pretty decent Finnish authentic band Raittinen recorded in 1990, with Hal Peters and his Trio. They did 4 cover songs that were released the following year as 12"EP on Goofin' Records.
Jussi and the Boys - live in Lahti 2010
Jussi Raittinen has done much, much more than I could mention here. As I had never heard of him before I moved here I figured same would go for most non-Finns, so maybe some of you got curious now and want to discover his music, with or without the boys. Here he is with Charly Feathers and the others(Thanks to Markowee over at You Tube). Dig it!
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