Early years (1968–1969) Having left the
Sarajevo-based
Indexi in 1968, established keyboardist
Kornelije "Bata" Kovač, a graduate of the
Sarajevo Music Academy, moved to Yugoslav capital
Belgrade. Soon after arrival, he met the bassist Bojan Hreljac, former member of recently-disbanded
Elipse, and the two decided to start a brand new band, inviting Hreljac's former Elipse bandmate, drummer Vladimir "Furda" Furduj, and guitarist Velibor "Borko" Kacl formerly of another recently-disbanded major Yugoslav band,
Zlatni Dečaci. Newly-established Korni Grupa then completed their lineup with the arrival of the female singer Miroslava "Seka" Kojadinović in September 1968, with the event receiving significant press coverage due to the members being well-known musicians owing to their previous work. In fact, many observers considered the band to be the first
supergroup in
Yugoslavia. Their debut live appearance took place at Belgrade's
Dom Sindikata (Trade Union Hall) in late 1968 as part of the Yugoslav Athlete of the Year award ceremony. The band's set, performed alongside two
go-go dancers, consisted of several original songs written during rehearsals/
jam sessions at Hreljac's garage as well as a cover of "
If You Go Away" during which they notably utilized pre-recorded sounds of the sea played from a tape recorder placed inside Kovač's piano. The eye-catching performance was received favourably, opening a number of live performance opportunities for the band at numerous venues around town. One such appearance took place at Belgrade's
Dom Omladine (Youth Center), where they put on a conceptual multimedia performance, with painter Raša Trkulja painting live during the show. It further featured
ballerinas dancing behind multicoloured plastic cylinders blurring their silhouettes, and actors performing sketches such as dusting the piano or
The Lady With the Dog sketch (named after
a short story by
Anton Chekov) in which a lady would walk a man on a leash in the first part of the performance and the man walking the lady in the second part. The reason for her refusal was the selection of the songs for the performance, including the song "Marijan", the first song the Kovač had written with the band, which Kojadinović, heavily influenced by the 1960s
underground music, especially
Julie Driscoll (whose version of "
Season of the Witch" the band used to perform at the time), considered overly commercial. Since the rest of the band took Kovač's side, Kojadinović was excluded from the band, after which she started a solo career that would turn out to be short lived, releasing one
EP and two
7-inch singles before retiring from music and, after graduating from the
Belgrade Faculty of Law, becoming a lawyer.
Dušan "Prele" Prelević, well-known around Belgrade at the time for his distinctive
rhythm and blues and
soul vocal style and excessive lifestyle, became the new Korni Grupa vocalist. In early 1969, the band was invited to compete at the
1969 Jugovizija festival, the selection for the Yugoslav representative at the
Eurovision song contest, which entailed coming up with an original number. Despite being heavily influenced by the emerging
progressive rock genre at the time, for the band's entry Kovač opted to write a pop-oriented song, "Cigu-ligu" ("Tweedle-dum, Tweedle-dee"), due to picking up on what he felt to be a hostility that a sizeable section of the Yugoslav audience and media exhibited towards the progressive sound. Appearing at the competition in February 1969, held that year in
Zagreb, as one of the three acts representing
RTV Belgrade (the other two being
Lola Jovanović and ), Korni Grupa's singer Prelević showed up drunk for the performance. Despite the band finishing third among seventeen competing acts, Prelević's behaviour led to an argument with bandleader Kovač that resulted in a mutual decision for Prelević to leave the band. Nevertheless, later in 1969, the band released "Cigu-ligu" as their debut single, with "Čovek i pas" ("A Man and a Dog") as the B-side, all three numbers recorded with Prelević on vocals, the latter of which Prelević would re-record decades later on his 1996 solo album
Ja, Prele (
I, Prele). After leaving Korni Grupa, Prelević appeared in the cult 1969 Yugoslav staging of the
Hair musical in
Atelje 212 theatre, recorded a studio album with progressive rock band
Opus, a single with keyboardist
Oliver Mandić, as well as several solo albums and devoted to a literary and journalism career. The new Korni Grupa singer became
Dalibor Brun from
Rijeka, a former member of the band
Uragani (recording the single "Deborah" with them). It was with Brun that Korni Grupa recorded their first hits "Magična ruka" ("The Magic Hand"), "Sonata" and "Dzum-ram". With Brun—himself fostering a typical festival singer image but a rock vocal style—the band succeeded in maintaining a double track career: alternating between being a festival band performing commercial
pop rock songs on one hand and a progressive rock band following the current global rock musical trends on the other. With the
folk-influenced song "Pastir i cvet" ("A Shepperd and a Flower"), the band appeared at the Singing Europe festival in
Scheveningen,
Netherlands winning the Golden Pier award for the most original act, despite being in competition with acts such as the
Wallace Collection and
Olivia Newton-John. The song, released as a single during 1969 by
PGP-RTB, with "Ako budeš sama" ("If You Were Alone") as the B-side, featured
Balkan folk instruments
šargija,
tarabuka and
frula. This was however, the last recording with Brun as he, becoming less enthusiastic about the band's work, decided to leave the band conventionally. Having left Korni Grupa, Brun returned to Rijeka and joined the band Bohemi (
The Bohemians), eventually starting a successful career as a pop singer.
Dado Topić years (1969–1971) After Brun's departure, owing to the mutual friendship with dancer Lokica Stefanović, the new Korni Grupa vocalist became
Dado Topić, formerly of the
Osijek-based
Dinamiti. With Topić, the band appeared at the
Opatija festival, performing the song "Devojčice mala" ("Little Girl"), which was released on a
split single with the song "Priča se" ("Rumour Has It") by the quartet 4M. With Topić, the band held their first solo concert in Belgrade, on 6 November 1969 in Belgrade Youth Center. The concert was entitled "Uz malu pomoć naših frendova" ("
With a Little Help from Our Friends"). As the audience entered the Center's hall, they were greeted by the
Yugoslav People's Army Guard military band performing
marches and instrumental covers of Korni Grupa songs, and prior to the band's performance, on stage appeared
judo fighters, ladies walking dogs and
gallows with a hanged
friar. During the concert the band performed only their progressive rock repertoire. Soon after, Kacl left the band and decided to retire from the music business. He was replaced by , Topić's former Dinamiti bandmate who at the time fronted his own band Boček i Tri (
Boček and Three). The new lineup started working on their own vision of progressive music, making recordings of the songs "Jedna žena" ("A Woman"), "Prvo svetlo u kući broj 4" ("The First Light in the House Number 4"), co-written by Topić and Kovač,
classical music-inspired "Etida" ("
Étude") and "Žena je luka a čovek brod" ("Woman is a Harbor and Man is a Ship"). With the performance of "Jedna žena" at the 1970 Zagreb Music Festival Korni Grupa won both the audience and jury Award for the Best Song. The band continued recording commercial material with the recording of the song "Bube" ("Beetles"), the theme song for the Miša Radivojević film
This Crazy World of Ours (the literal translation of the original title
Bube u glavi being
Beetles in the Head), released on single with "Neko spava pored mene" ("Somebody is Sleeping Beside Me") as the B-side, arguably the first Yugoslav rock songs dealing with
one-night stands. The band also released the highly successful "Trla baba lan" ("Granny
Scutched the Flax"), "Slika" ("Image"), co-written with the at the time little known
Ljuba Ninković (later of
S Vremena Na Vreme fame), continuing their double musical career. During the same year, French singer
Dalida released a
French language cover of "Trla baba lan" under the title "Ram Dam Dam", her version achieving large success on the charts and leading to about 20 covers by European artists. The band also recorded the music for the 7-inch single featuring the songs "Vatra" ("Fire") and "Ljubav" ("Love") for popular singer
Olivera Katarina. In the following years, the band would record music for two more 7-inch singles released by Katarina, the first one with the songs "Treperi jedno veče" ("An Evening Is Quivering") and "Htela bih da znam" ("I Would Like to Know"), released in 1972, and the second one with "Alba" and "Plovi lađa Dunavom" ("The Ship Is Sailing on the
Danube"), released in 1973. In 1971, as a part of celebration of the
Yugoslav Revolution 30th anniversary, Korni Grupa recorded the rock epic "1941." on the lyrics of
Branko Ćopić with
Josipa Lisac as a guest vocalist. The material was recorded as a soundtrack for the
Jedan čovek jedna pesma (
One Man – One Song) television series, for which
Momo Kapor did the
mise-en-scène, directed by Jovan Ristić. Afterward, the band spent a month in Paris, playing at the
fashion show which presented "Prokleta Jerina" ("
Damned Jerina") line of clothing by fashion designer Aleksandar Joksimović, with some of these performance held in
Bois de Boulogne. On these performances, the band performed "Pastir i cvet" and their versions of "
March on the Drina" and the old patriotic song "Igrale se delije" ("The Heroes Danced"). Soon after, the band performed on the fashion show presenting "Prokleta Jerina" in
Warsaw. At one of the Paris shows, the band had met the producer Alan Milo from the
Barclay record label, who got interested in signing the band. The group made some demo recordings in Paris, however, guided by his own ambitions, Topić left the band to form
Time, a progressive rock and
jazz fusion group that would also go on to nationwide popularity, before becoming a successful solo act. Topić was replaced by the former
Ambasadori vocalist
Zdravko Čolić in September 1971. A young singer with more of a festival
schlager sensibility, twenty-year-old Čolić right away presented an uneasy fit with the band's well-established propensity for musical experimentation with even his vocal style and stage movements not fitting into the progressive aspect of the band's musical expression. Čolić thus remained in the band for only six months, recording three songs — "Gospa Mica gazdarica" ("Lady Mica the Landlord"), "Kukavica" ("The
Cuckoo") and "Pogledaj u nebo" ("Look at the Sky") — before leaving to start a solo career that would by late 1970s see him become one of the most popular and commercial acts in SFR Yugoslavia. During Čolić's short stay, Korni Grupa shot a television special directed by Jovan Ristić, featuring songs from the band's commercial repertoire.
Zlatko Pejaković years (1972–1974) In early 1972, a former Lavine (
Avalanches),
Zlatni Akordi and Had (
Hades) member
Zlatko Pejaković became the band's new singer, and with Pejaković, Korni Grupa recorded their first full-length album,
Korni Grupa. At the time of the album release, Korni Grupa was one of four Yugoslav rock bands with a full-length album (
Grupa 220,
Žeteoci and
Time being the other three), as the scene revolved mostly around 7-inch singles. The album featured complex songs "Put na Istok" ("A Trip to the East"), "Bezglave Ja Ha horde" ("The Headless Ya Ha Hordes"), "Moj bol" ("My Pain"), "Glas sa obale boja" ("A Voice from the Coast of Colors"). Following the album release, the band appeared at the Zagreb Music Festival and won the second place with the performance of the song "Kosovka devojka" ("
Kosovo Maiden"), as well as performing at the 1972
Montreux Jazz Festival; on the latter performance, held on 22 June 1972, they were joined by Mića Marković (saxophone) and
Mladi Levi member Petar Ugrin (violin, trumpet), and the group was announced as the Korni Group and Two Good Ones. In the meantime, the band recorded the first Yugoslav television show in color,
Put za istok, edited by Jovan Ristić and directed by Dejan Karaklajić. During the late 1973, Korni Grupa recorded a
symphonic rock English language album
Not an Ordinary Life, which they released under the name The Kornelyans through the Italian record label
Ricordi. The album was produced by
Carlo Alberto Rossi, a prominent Italian record producer and composer, who had been working with the Italian progressive acts of the time as
Premiata Forneria Marconi,
Banco and
Area. The album was sold without much commercial promotion in ten thousand copies only, with the license for the album release being sold to Yugoslavia, Japan, Israel, and several South American countries. On the Yugoslav scene the band had an enormous success with the single "Ivo Lola", with the lyrics based on the last letter of Yugoslav
World War II hero
Ivo Lola Ribar to his fiancé Sloboda Trajković. The single's B-side featured the song "Znam za kim zvono zvoni" ("I Know for Whom the Bell Tolls"), featuring as guest the singer Ditka Haberl. The band also released their old song "Etida" on single, however the initial number of records featured the cover with the title mistakenly printed as "Edita". The single's B-side featured the shortened version of their old composition "Jedna žena", with the slightly altered title "Jednoj ženi" ("To a Woman"). The band also had success with their singles "Divlje jagode" ("Wild Strawberries"), "Zbogom ostaj o, detinjstvo" ("Farewell, Oh, Childhood"), with lyrics from a poem by
Milovan Vitezović, "Miris" ("Scent"), with lyrics from
Charles Baudelaire's
sonnet "Parfum exotique", and "Praštanje" ("Forgiveness"), with lyrics by poet
Brana Crnčević, who was at the time considered a
dissident. In the spring of 1974, they won first place at the Opatija Festival with the song "
Moja generacija" ("My Generation"), thus representing Yugoslavia at the
1974 Eurovision Song Contest in
Brighton, where
ABBA won first place, and with whom the band had shared a wardrobe. The single, with the English-language version of "Moja generacija", with a shortened version of "Jednoj ženi" as the B-side, was released in Italy. During the same year the music magazine
Music Week declared Korni Grupa the "Yugoslav Band of the Year" based on voting from the magazine's readers in Yugoslavia. However, disappointed with little success of
Not an Ordinary Life and the 12th place finish at the Eurovision Song Contest, Kovač decided to disband Korni Grupa. They held two farewell concerts at Studio M in
Novi Sad on November 24 and part of the concert recordings were released on the first
double album in the history of Yugoslav rock music: the compilation
Mrtvo more (
The Dead Sea). One record featured their singles, representing commercial and more pop-oriented side of Korni Grupa, while the other featured live recordings of "Put za Istok", "Čovek sa belom zastavom" ("The Man with a White Flag") and "Blues", representing the progressive side of their career. The band officially disbanded on December 1, 1974.
Post breakup After Korni Grupa disbanded, Kovač started a successful career as a composer, arranger and producer, Pejaković turned towards pop music, Boček and Hreljac became studio musicians and Furduj started a career in
jazz. The various artists live album
Randevu s muzikom (
A Rendevouz with Music), released in 1977, featured the Korni Grupa songs "I ne tako obićan život" ("Not an Ordinary Life at All") and "Jedna žena" recorded at Novi Sad farewell concerts, which were previously unreleased. During the same year, Kovač initiated the formation of a supergroup K2 (not to be confused with the 1990s
duo consisting of Kovač's daughters) which ought to have featured Josip Boček, Dado Topić, Sloba Marković, Čarli Novak and Ratko Divljak, but it was never formed mostly owing to Topić's hesitation. In 1979, the 1971 recording of the musical epic "1941." was released as Korni Grupa's posthumous studio album
1941.. Korni Grupa's original guitarist Velibor Kacl died in a car accident on 17 May 1984.
1987 "Legende YU Rocka" reunion In May 1987, Korni Grupa—with its established former core of Kovač, Furduj, Hreljac, and Boček, as well as Dado Topić on vocals—reunited to perform, alongside
Indexi,
Time,
YU Grupa,
Drago Mlinarec, and
R.M. Točak Band, at the Legende YU Rocka (
Legends of YU Rock) concert organized by
Radio 101 at
Zagreb's
Dom Sportova. A few weeks later, in June, the same bands performed at Belgrade's
Sava Centar. In December 1987, the show moved on to
Sarajevo's
Zetra Hall. Korni Grupa's live performance of "Jedna žena", recorded at the Zagreb concert, appeared on the 1987 various artists double live album
Legende YU Rocka, released by
Jugoton.
Post 1987 In 1994, the previously unreleased Korni Grupa song "Prvo svetlo u kući broj 4" appeared on the compilation album
Plima: Progresivna muzika (
Tide: Progressive Music), released as a part of
Komuna's
YU retROCKspektiva (
YU RetROCKspective) album series. In 1996, the compilation album
Prvo svetlo neobičnog života (
The First Light of an Unordinary Life) was released, featuring a selection of tracks from Korni Grupa's progressive repertoire. During the same year, Kovač released the compilation album
Moja generacija (
My Generation), consisting of recordings of his songs used in the television show
Zvučna viljuška (
Tuning Fork), including cover versions of the Korni Grupa songs "Moja generacija" by Filip Žmaher, "Sonata" by Zoran Šandorov, "Oj, dodole" ("Hey,
Dodola") by
Del Arno Band and "Jagode i maline" ("Strawberries and Raspberries") by
Van Gogh. In 2005, the three-part compilation album
Ne tako običan život (
Not an Ordinary Life at All) was released by
PGP-RTS, featuring the collected singles, recordings from the progressive phase, the recording of "Jedna žena" from the 1987 reunion concert and the previously unreleased version of the song "Kosovka devojka" with Kovač on lead vocals. In 2008, the same label released the DVD
Korni Grupa, featuring the band's music videos, TV appearances, concert recordings, as well as recordings from the band's rehearsals in Belgrade Youth Center and Belgrade club Cepelin. The band's second vocalist, Dušan Prelević, died in Belgrade after long illness on 28 July 2007. Furduj died in Belgrade on 1 June 2015.
2019 reunion In 2018, it was announced that Korni Grupa would reunite for a farewell concert to be held in Belgrade's
Sava Centar, with a lineup that was to feature Kornelije Kovač on keyboards, Josip Boček on guitar, and Dado Topić on vocals, along with three younger musicians, Peđa Milanović (bass guitar), Aleksandar Miletić (keyboards), and Ratko Ljubičić (drums). It was further announced that Bojan Hreljac would also perform, but that his role would be reduced to a guest appearance on a single song due to his health condition. However, the planned reunion ended up facing numerous difficulties. The show was originally announced for 30 November 2018, but was postponed for 31 January 2019. In the meantime, on 19 December 2018, Hreljac died in Belgrade. Prior to the concert, the organizers announced that Dado Topić might not appear due to his own health problems and that guest vocalists would fill in for him. Eventually, Topić did appear, but only on a handful of songs, while the rest of the set featured guest vocalists:
Dejan Cukić,
Goran Šepa, Zoran Šandrov, and Dušan Svilar. During the same year, the German record label Hollow Cloud Music released the vinyl record featuring the 1970 recording of "Jedna žena", featuring Topić on vocals, and the 1972 recording of "Igra na Šar-planini" ("Dance on the
Šar Mountains"), featuring Pejaković on vocals and recorded with Mića Marković and Peter Ugrin.
Post 2019 In 2020, PGP-RTS and
Croatia Records jointly released the box set
Original Album Collection, featuring
Korni Grupa,
Not an Ordinary Life and
Mrtvo more, as well as Kovač's first three solo albums. Kovač died in Belgrade on 13 September 2022 of the complications caused by
COVID-19. ==Legacy==