Review
Genre and Mood
Pabbi minn (“My dad”) is a song Björk Guðmundsdóttir did not write and a melody most of Europe already knew. On Gling-Gló, her 1990 album with the Trio Gudmundar Ingólfssonar, it sits among vocal jazz and Icelandic popular songs, a cover of the Swiss song O mein Papa sung in Icelandic. The mood is nostalgic by design and warm in its setting: one voice and a small acoustic trio.
Song Summary
O mein Papa was written by the Swiss composer Paul Burkhard in 1939 for a musical, and in it a young woman remembers her beloved father, once a famous clown. Pabbi minn carries Burkhard’s melody into Icelandic; the album’s credits give the Icelandic lyric to Þorsteinn Sveinsson, while the streaming credits name Jónas Árnason as its writer. At 2:42 it is short, and Wikipedia singles it out as one of three songs on the album sung with a noticeably different arrangement from the rest.
Musical Breakdown
No review we found walks through Pabbi minn passage by passage, so this page describes less than usual and points to what the sources do say.
The Melody
The tune is the song’s identity: a nostalgic melody that had already crossed borders many times, in German, English and as an instrumental, before it reached Reykjavík.
The Vocal
Björk sings in Icelandic. All About Jazz heard her vocals across Gling-Gló as minimally processed, mixing a lilt with a fair amount of gritty growl.
The Trio
Behind her are Guðmundur Ingólfsson on piano, Þórður Högnason on bass and Guðmundur Steingrímsson on drums, a trio the same review heard as more supportive than assertive.
Concepts in Focus
A cover version in translation keeps the melody and replaces the words, and with them part of the meaning. Pabbi minn is one of several imported songs on Gling-Gló, from Irving Berlin to Theresa Brewer’s Ricochet Romance, all sung in Icelandic, so the album turns foreign hits into local songs. Compare Björk – Kata rokkar, written in Iceland by Theodór Einarsson, from the same sessions.
The hook here is the whole melody. Eddie Calvert’s trumpet version of O mein Papa topped the British chart in 1954 without a word sung, while Eddie Fisher’s English Oh! My Pa-Pa reached number one in the United States. A tune that strong survives a change of language, instrument and decade.
Artistic Context
Gling-Gló grew out of a radio request: Icelandic state radio asked the trio for a live set of popular Icelandic songs and jazz standards, Björk joined as their singer and chose the songs. Most of the album was recorded on 1 and 3 September 1990 at Stúdio Sýrland, produced by Tómas Magnús Tómasson, and released on Smekkleysa, the label of the Sugarcubes circle, in which Björk was still singing.
Impact and Reception
The album received mixed reviews, but All About Jazz found that its pairing of straight piano with her voice almost always works, from swing to ballads. Pabbi minn is here as the album’s most familiar melody in its least familiar language. Play it next to Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet and hear how early Björk’s love of an old tune began.
