Crveni koralji

Crveni koralji (the Red Corals) were a rock band from Zagreb, formed in late 1962 and remembered as one of the pioneers of rock music in Croatia and the former Yugoslavia. The founding line-up was Jelenko Miran Perković on vocals, Miroslav Lukačić on lead guitar, Rudolf Šimunec on rhythm guitar, Davorin "Dino" Sarajlić on bass and Josip "Medo" Badrić on drums. Within a few months Boris Babarović "Barba" took over as singer, and he stayed the voice of the band for most of its long history. Like many groups of the time, they started out under the spell of Cliff Richard and the Shadows.

The band first played in public on 28 March 1963 at the Zagreb club Varijete. In May 1964 they appeared at Vatromet ritma in Belgrade, considered the first large rock concert in Yugoslavia, and the same year their debut EP, Najljepši san, came out on PGP-RTB. Its song "Rekla si: volimo se" became their first hit, and the record sold more than 100,000 copies at a time when only about 120,000 households in the country owned a record player. They also won a battle of the bands at Zagreb's Šalata, and the magazine Ritam named them the best Yugoslav band in 1964 and 1965.

More EPs followed, with "Napuljska gitara", "Dolazak", "Zvjezdana noć", "Otiđi od nje" and "Volim je", a Croatian version of the Beatles' "And I Love Her". Crveni koralji were also the studio band of many popular singers: they recorded "Crvene ruže" with Ivica Šerfezi and a string of records with Karlo Metikoš, played on records by Gabi Novak, Ivo Robić and Zdenka Vučković, and backed Tereza Kesovija, Lado Leskovar and Jimmy Stanić on stage. In 1966 they spent seven months playing clubs in West Germany.

In 1968, with a new rhythm section, they had another big hit with "Da sam drvosječa", a version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter", and at the first Festival of Yugoslav Pop Music in Zagreb the audience voted their "Moja gitara" the best song. In 1970 they recorded "Mnogo značiš za moj život, draga". As new styles took over, the band's popularity faded. Babarović left and came back more than once, the line-up kept changing, and after their last single in 1974 Crveni koralji played only now and then, without ever officially splitting up.

In the mid-1980s Babarović, Lukačić and Šimunec got the band going again. They released Rock 'n' roll zbirka (1963–1966) in 1985, with new recordings of their early songs, then Najbolje izvedbe in 1986 and Ja sam tvoj čovjek for their 25th anniversary. Later came Po trnju i kamenju – Bože moj! in 1991, a record of traditional religious songs, Prvih 40 godina in 2002 and 21 karat in 2006. Miroslav Lukačić died in 2014 and Josip Badrić in 2019. In 2010 the Serbian band Kristali recorded "Da sam drvosječa" for the film The Woman with a Broken Nose.