How the most famous song "Klen" appeared and became a legend of the Soviet pop music of the 70s

Soviet pop music is full of sensational hits masterfully performed by favourite vocal and instrumental ensembles. How many years have passed, but the lines of favourite Soviet songs are still spinning in the heads of many compatriots. But the words "And love, like a dream, has passed away." became incredibly popular; some critics even say they symbolised the era! And the very same song "Maple" performed by Bluebird VIA impossible to forget or throw out of your heart after listening just once.....

It's no secret how popular this song is, and people have heard it on the radio many times. But, however, they might not have even realised that the song "Maple" could simply get lost among obscure songs or not be released at all! Who performed it and what way did this song go before becoming the nation's favourite hit? Let's talk about everything in order...

Who "gave birth" to the romantic lines?

In fact, the authorship of "Maple" does not belong to Bluebird at all. But one should not underestimate the huge contribution to the history of composition by this wonderful group of musicians! Nevertheless, the author of the original lyrics to the song was the songwriter who wrote them 15 years before Maple was published.. His name was Leonty Shishko. In a poetry collection called "Ryabinovaya Autumn" his poem dedicated to his departed love was published. The original version had four more lines.

Why are you following me like a shadow again?
It's been a day without you at times.
If you only knew how I've been waiting for you.
I'm tired of waiting, and the love is gone.

The most interesting thing is that in terms of meaning, the narrative in the poem was intended to be told in a female person! Shishko decided that the words would make a good lyric for a song, and 4 years after writing them, he sat down and created the melody himself. The singer Lyudmila Zykina decided to perform it. At that time in her performance there were no common features with the future hit of the 70s....

Having performed "Klen" during one of her film concerts, Zykina most likely expected success. It wasn't followed for one reason: the folk singer herself removed it from her own repertoire and never performed it again. It could be that someone from the Soviet elite did not like the song, or maybe Zykina herself did not like the touching love lines or Leonty Shishko's music for them.

A second life for the Maple

Anyway, nobody remembered about this song until the mid-70s. And they wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the guys from Bluebird. couldn't come to terms with the fact that such a wonderful poem is passing into oblivion of the Soviet musical variety. Thanks to them, today's listeners are not deprived of the opportunity to recall their favourite words with nostalgia and tender awe:

My heart is so sorry for what happened,
Autumn is chasing cranes away.
To the four winds I'll give away my sadness and sorrow,
This summer will not come back to us again.

In 1971, the lines of a future hit song caught my fancy Yuri Akulovwho at the time was a member of a vocal-instrumental ensemble. "Kalinka.". From 1955 he worked at Moskontsert and gained fame as a fairly successful songwriter. He even managed to work with such pop giants as Maya Kristalinskaya, Nina Brodskaya and Alla Pugacheva. And it is to him that fans should give credit for reviving the song "Where the Maple Tree is Noisy".

However, at that time he could not even think that he had undertaken to reincarnate a future hit of all-union level. He simply liked the song, and from time to time at Kalinka performances he would come out with his guitar and delight the audience with a rendition of "Maple", which was not in the main repertoire of the ensemble. Today it would be called a bonus track. This is despite the fact that its members themselves undertook to record a song about departed love. At the time, it didn't "go off" either, but the recording itself, performed by Alexandra Smorchkova и Ludmila Chizhevskaya left behind.

Rising from the ashes

But even then the song was on the verge of being forgotten somewhere "on the shelves". A real second life was given to it by the musicians from the Blue Bird VIA! They toured with "Kalinka" together in one city, where quite by accident heard Akulov playing "Maple" on his guitar backstage. Leonid Yakovlevich came up to Yuri and asked him to give him the sheet music for "Maple", just in case.

Already later in the studio "Bluebird" was recording one of their records for the future album of 1975. There was only time no more than five minuteswhen everyone had finished their work. I didn't want to leave, and someone said: "Let's record this song about maples and love!" At that time Sergey Drozdov was the vocalist of the ensemble. He needed only one take to record it - nobody took the song seriously. And for nothing.It was with this song that the band became incredibly popular! As the musicians recalled later, the audience simply begged them to perform "Maple" one more time, then one more, and one more!