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Laléna

"Laléna"
Single by Donovan
B-side "Aye My Love"
Released October 1968
Format 7",45 rpm
Recorded September 1968
Label Epic Records
Writer(s) Donovan
Producer(s) Mickie Most
Donovan USA singles chronology
"Hurdy Gurdy Man"
(1968)
"Laléna"
(1968)
"Do You Hear Me Now?"
(1968)
"Lalena"
Song by Deep Purple from the album Deep Purple
Released 21 June 1969 (US)
November 1969 (UK)
Recorded January - March 1969 at De Lane Lea, London
Length 05:06
Label Harvest Records (UK)
Tetragrammaton (US)
Polydor (Canada)
Producer(s) Derek Lawrence
Deep Purple track listing
"Blind"
(2)
"Lalena"
(3)
"Fault Line"
(4)

"Laléna" (also spelled "Lalena") is the title of a composition by Donovan for whom it was a Top 40 single in the autumn of 1968, reaching #33 on the Hot 100 in Billboard.

In 2004 Donovan revealed that the song was inspired by the actress Lotte Lenya and that the song's lyrics, addressed to a societally marginalized woman, were Donovan's reaction to Lenya's character in the film version of The Threepenny Opera:

"Laléna" was recorded in a September 1968 session at Olympic Studios produced by Mickie Most, session personnel being Harold McNair on flute, Bobby Orr on drums, Danny Thompson on bass with the Royal Philharmonic strings; John Cameron was the arranger. Donovan was not working toward an album when he recorded "Laléna", having completed the tracks which would comprise his The Hurdy Gurdy Man album in April 1968; that album and the single "Laléna" both were issued in the US in October 1968 (Donovan was at this time unable to have product released in the UK due to a contractual dispute). The single was also a hit in France reaching #22.

Donovan's performed the song on December 8, 1968, on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, along with two other tunes: "Happiness Runs" and "I Love My Shirt".

"Laléna" made its first album appearance in 1969 on Donovan's Greatest Hits and was a bonus track on the 2005 CD reissue of The Hurdy Gurdy Man.

In 1975 Donovan recorded a version of the song with Marc Bolan in Munich which has been lost.


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