Leonid Utyesov - Serdce (Heart) Tango from the film comedy “Weselyje rebiata” (The Jolly Fellows) (Mus. I. Dunayevsky), SovSong 1935 (USSR)
NOTE: Leonid Osipovich Utyesov (b. Lazar Weissbein in 1895, in Odessa) was a popular Soviet-Russian jazz-bandleader, singer and performer. Beginning in 1911, Utesov worked in various theaters of miniatures and appeared on the variety stages as well, mainly as a reciter. Later he performed in such theaters as the Moscow Terevsat (Theater of Revolutionary Satire) and the Svobodnyi Theater. Since 1929 he has led a variety orchestra that he organized himself, which promoted in Soviet Russia jazzy style of performing the popular tunes.
Known for his mellow, warm baritone, he also recorded as a singer. He was used by the Stalinist propaganda as their musical icon for the Western audience, proving, Soviet Russia is a “leading nation” also in jazz and film operettas. Therefore, enormous propaganda machinery assisted the worldwide promotion of the movie comedy “The Jolly Fellows” (1934) in which Utyesow and Lyubov Orlowa sing many beautiful songs, composed by Dunayevski, in that number one of the greatest international hits ever composed in the Soviet Russia - tango Serdce (Heart). This really cheerful and well-written comedy with great music (played in the film by a team of Leonid Utyosow) was supposed to be a propaganda cover for the atrocities taking place at that time in Stalinist Russia - such as development of the Gulag Archipelago, with millions of victims or provoked by Stalin famine in Ukraine, costing millions more victims who were dying in unspeakable agony. During World War II, Utyosov was mobilized and he performed for Soviet soldiers on the front. See the Soviet propaganda – song recorded by him in the Soviet-Army occupied Austria [ Ссылка ]
A darling of Soviet ruling elites, Utyesov was awarded numerous medals e.g. the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and many others. He died of heart attack in 1982, while he was relating a joke to some general in a Soviet resort.
