Drago Mlinarec

Drago Mlinarec, born in Zagreb on 14 December 1942, is a Croatian singer, songwriter and composer, one of the first authors of Croatian rock. In the autumn of 1962 he and his friend, keyboard player Brane Lambert, started a band called Sputnjici, soon renamed Vampir and finally Jutarnje zvijezde, while Mlinarec worked as a chemical technician and studied.

In 1966 he founded Grupa 220. Two months later they recorded "Osmijeh", which he had written in Jutarnje zvijezde; it became a hit across Yugoslavia and is called the first original hit of domestic rock. The next single, "Petar Pan", reached number two on the Yugoslav charts, between Engelbert Humperdinck and The Beatles.

He went solo in 1971 with A ti se ne daj, recorded with Husein Hasanefendić, Ivan "Piko" Stančić, Nenad Zubak and Brane Živković; "Ja sam feniks" and "Pop pjevač" were its favourites. Pjesme s planine (1972), written in the mountains, was a progressive record with a ten-minute title track and the almost twelve-minute "Dijete zvijezda". Rođenje (1975) brought "Helena lijepa i ja u kiši", "Pjesma o djetinjstvu" and "Kule od riječi".

Much of his work was written for the theatre, above all for Ivica Boban's company Pozdravi, with which he toured Europe and Latin America. Latin America inspired "Caracas" on Negdje postoji netko (1977), and in April 1977 he gave a solo concert at the Lisinski hall with Arsen Dedić as his guest. He also appeared with Time in Zagreb and with Ibrica Jusić at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. Sve je u redu (1978), Tako lako (1979), recorded in Sweden, and Pomaknuto (1983) followed, and he produced the debut album of Azra.

In the 1990s he released the cassette Analog with Aldo Ivančić of Borghesia and the career box Krhotine, which won a Porin in 1997. He also received Vjesnik's Josip Štolcer Slavenski award (1987), the Stari mačak for his contribution to Croatian rock (1998) and the Porin for lifetime achievement (2005). Croatia Records gathered all his remastered studio albums in the box set Kolekcija, which is the playlist here.