Morgen

Ivo Robić began as a soloist with the Radio Zagreb Orchestra while still a student in the city, and over the following years he made more than a hundred records at home, mostly singles and schlagers such as Vraćam se Zagrebe tebi. When his career started he was the only Croatian artist whose records could be found in shops across Europe and beyond, and he recorded regularly for the German label Polydor. In 1959 that German connection produced Morgen, a bright, optimistic song whose title simply means tomorrow. It was his first collaboration with the bandleader and producer Bert Kaempfert. The record caught on in Germany first and then crossed the Atlantic: the German-language version went to number one in Canada and reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, sold more than a million copies and earned a gold disc. An English version with unrelated lyrics, One More Sunrise, sung by Leslie Uggams, only scraped to number 98 on the same chart, so American listeners preferred the original German. The success gave Robić a lasting nickname, Mister Morgen. He went on to work with Freddy Quinn and Dean Martin, and when Kaempfert's Strangers in the Night became a hit in 1966, Robić sang its German and Yugoslav versions. He kept up careers at home and abroad for almost half a century. Morgen remains the moment a singer from Zagreb first broke into the international charts, a cheerful song about tomorrow that opened the door for those who followed.