Letkajenkka - History of The Music Genre Letkajenkka / Letkis

History of The Music Genre Letkajenkka / Letkis

The music genre that became popular and the dance craze was at its hottest during 1963-1965. The music genre is based on the idea of performing Jenkka music using non-traditional instruments. Traditional instruments for playing the Jenkka, a Finnish traditional music genre and dance, also described as folk dance, are instruments such as the violin and accordion. In the early 1960s some composers thought of writing Jenkka tunes for more contemporary bands with instruments like winds (more swing-like Jenkka) and amplified instruments like electric guitars, bases, and drums (a more Rock'n'Roll or Boogie Woogie-like sound). The form of the letkajenkka songs is consistent with traditional Jenkka, but where the music is distinctively Jenkka, the dance steps are not.

The first to introduce his Letkajenkka song was Erik Lindström with his song Letkajenkka. A Swedish band called the Adventurers recorded it, and it immediately made the charts in Finland. Later Jan Rohde, a Norwegian artist born in the United States recorded it with lyrics together with the bands the Adventurers and the Wild Ones. The Wild Ones made the charts in Holland, where the letkis craze had lifted four letkis songs to the charts simultaneously.

A half a year later Rauno Lehtinen followed with his song Letkis. This has become by far the most popular of all songs in the Letkajekka genre. It was first recorded by his studio orchestra Rautalanka Oy in August 1963, but was made popular in October the same year by a group called Ronnie Krank's Orchestra. His chart topper has been rerecorded approximately a hundred times, and at least 60 of the rights to his song are owned by Swedish publisher Stig Anderson. One well known recording of the song is by German musician Roberto Delgado. Rauno Lehtinen's song Letkis was then renamed Letkiss, Let's Kiss, Lasst uns Kûssen etc., for easier pronunciation in different languages. The name Letkis has nothing to do with kissing. The idea of kissing has been introduced by non-Finnish speakers, who heard the homophony and thought that the title of the song sounded like "Kissing." In Finnish Letkis is short for Letkajenkka, a diminutive or common name, formed by the beginning of the word and adding "is" in the end.

Lehtinen's Letkis made the charts in many European countries, in Latin America, and even in Japan. There are numerous translations including Russian, Swedish, and Japanese. In 1965, four instrumental versions of the tune reached number one in the Netherlands simultaneously. These were by Stig Rauno, Gudrun Jankis, a group called The Wild Ones and the Dutch Swing College Band. All four versions had the English title, Letkiss rather than the original Finnish title. It remained the only Dutch number one to have originated from Finland until 2000, when Freestyler by the Bomfunk MC's reached number one.