Born on January 28, 1923, in Garešnica, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Ivo Robić was a Croatian singer and songwriter best known for the hit “Morgen.” He began his career in the early 1950s singing with the Radio Zagreb Orchestra while studying in Zagreb, Croatia. Over the course of his career in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, he recorded over one hundred records including "Tiho plove moje čežnje,” "Vraćam se Zagrebe tebi," and "Ta tvoja ruka mala." While popular in his homeland, he also was able to maintain an international career and was the only Croatian artist with records released around the world. His first international hit was 1959’s “Morgen,” which was a collaboration with German composer, arranger, and band leader Bert Kaempfert. The song was popular in Germany and a German-language version of the song was a big success in the US, reaching #13 on the Billboard singles chart and spawning and English-language version sung by Leslie Uggams. Ivo Robić continued to collaborate with Kaempfert as well as other artists including Dean Martin and Freddy Quinn. Kaempfert composed the 1966 Frank Sinatra hit “Strangers in the Night” and commissioned Ivo Robić to sing the Yugoslavian and German versions of the song. His other international hits include "Ein ganzes Leben lang" (1962), "Rot ist der Wein" (1966), and "Ich zeig' dir den Sonnenschein" (1971). His recorded output slowed down by the mid-1980s although he remained a popular legacy artist. Ivo Robić died on March 9, 2000, at the age of 77.
