The Olympic group originated in Prague in the autumn of 1963, at the time when the fame of the English Beatles was spreading throughout the world and the repertoire of no continental group could get along without the songs of the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and others. Concentrated in the Olympic group were the most outstanding rock 'n'roll solo singers and thus this type of music found its way onto gramophone records in Czechoslovakia for the first time. However, the period of taking over foreign hits characteristic of all European groups of that time ended in less than two years for Olympic. Both foreign compositions and English disappeared from the group similarly as singing solo ists and from Olympic there gradually developed a united team of composers, singers and instrumentalists.
The reputation of the Olympic group spread not only among teenagers, but also experts. When Czechoslovakia's best singer, Karel Gott, wanted to win the young public and free himself at least for a while from sweet cantilenas and a large dance orchestra he invited Olympic to the studio - and was suddenly unrecognizable: explosive and dynamic.
As soon as the recordings of the Olympic group began to be broadcast over the Prague radio not only the fate of the group, but also that of Czechoslovak beat music as a whole was decided. And if some Czechoslovak groups can claim to have a style all of their own, this applies with the greatest right to Olympic.
Although the development of beat music in the world has often been reflected also in the history of Olympic., the orientation of the group has remained basically the same for seven years: simple, melodious and comprehensible songs which immediately arouse some kind of mood in their listeners - sometimes gay, sometimes dreamy, but never boredom or tearful sentiment. The music of the group is not for snobs who tot up the number of unusual chords of the solo guitar in the performed works. Some feverish fans of the Olympic group once said that its own compositions were not bad, but that they sounded "too Czech". It was only later, when the world was flooded with hundreds of copies of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, that it came to light that the Czech character really typical of Olympic was in fact its chief quality.
It is quite logical that the country which gave the world The Good Soldier Schweik sings ditties about The Bird Wolverene, causing unhappy teachers headaches due to their having to ex plain in nature study lessons that the wolverene is not a bird, but a beast of prey. And just like the music and texts of the members ot Olympic, their singing and playing do not pretend to be art with a capital A, but possess something of the good cheer and frisky mood of the famous brass bands of South Bohemia. Even when the group sings ot Paris (where it has performed several times in clubs and also made a recording), it is Paris seen through Czech eyes.
Jiri Cerny
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