Karlo Metikoš

Karlo Metikoš was a Croatian rock and roll singer, pianist and composer, born in Zagreb on 8 February 1940. In France, and then across Yugoslavia, he sang as Matt Collins, and he was one of the pioneers of rock and roll in Croatia.

He came from a musical family and started music school at seven, but in 1956 the first records of Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and Little Richard, and above all Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, changed everything. In 1957 he entered Prvi pljesak, the talent night at Zagreb's Varieté, alongside Zdenka Vučković and Ivica Šerfezi, and he later sang in the doo-wop quartet Regal.

In 1961 he went to Paris with almost nothing in his pocket. He sang in American army clubs in France, learned the language and became Matt Collins. In spring 1962 he beat some five hundred singers at an audition to stand in for Eddy Mitchell in Les Chaussettes Noires and got a record deal with Philips. His first EP, with "En écoutant la pluie", "King for Tonight", "What Kind of Love Is This" and "Il faut choisir", put him on the label's Teenage Party compilation next to Johnny Hallyday, Sheila, Claude François and Serge Gainsbourg; a second EP in 1963 carried his first own composition, "Pourquoi".

Back home he made two Yugoslav tours in 1964 and 1965, about a hundred concerts, backed by Crveni koralji, Bijele strijele and Delfini, and recorded EPs for Jugoton: rock and roll standards such as "Sick and Tired", "What'd I Say" and "Lucille", "Peggy Sue" and "Koliko dugo" with Crveni koralji, and his own "Praštam sve", "Molim te, idi", "Telefon" and "Jagoda". After 1966 he chose composing, working with lyricist Ivica Krajač; his songs "Znat ćeš" and "Tamara" have words by Arsen Dedić.

In 1971 he met Josipa Lisac, who became his partner in life and the singer he wrote for. His last recording as a singer was Presley's "Blue Christmas" in 1985. Karlo Metikoš died in Zagreb on 10 December 1991, at 51. In 1981 Jugoton gathered his early sides on 16 originalnih snimaka (1962–1966), and that collection is the playlist here.