Thor Raymond

Thor Raymond Zetterstrøm, born in Stavanger 1919, died in 1982. Used the artist Thor Raymond. Norway's first cowboy singer, fully completed in 1952, had its greatest commercial success with the song "A letter with three loving words" along with Åse Wentzel; The song sold in 67,000 copies. A tendonitis in the left arm of the early 1960s put an end to the career. Thor Raymond went before the Second World War in the photo arch of the uncle who had a photo shop in Kongsgata in Stavanger. As a musician, Thor Raymond was autodidact (self-taught). He even comforted himself by singing simple shows with simple melodies. Thor Raymond started his musical runway as soloist and dance musician along with comrade Rasmus Dahl. He was also guest artist of the reviews that the two cousins ​​Gilbert and Odd Kjell Helgeland set up in Haugesund, in 1947 and 1948. Thor Raymond's real breakthrough came in 1952. He dressed as a cowboy and launched his own songs "A Cheerful Cowboy Song" and "Yippi Ai". In a short period of time, 10,000 plates were sold. Then the songs came on track: "Old Black", "Buldrende Buffalo", "Banjo Bill from Arizona", "Cowboydansen," The lonely cowboy "," Cowboy farewell "and" Red River Valley ". In 1954 he heard the song "Vaya Con Dios" when he listened to Hit Parade on the AFN American Forces Network. Thor wrote Norwegian text and went to studio in Oslo together with Åse Wentzel. The Stavanger artist became Norway's most sought-after gramophone butterfly in a short period of time, and "Vaya Con Dios" is still such a tremendous melody, over fifty years later. The song was the start of a successful collaboration for the duo. In 1955, "A letter with three loving words" came, as with its 67,000 copies sold, became Thor Raymond's biggest commercial success. The melody was followed by several plots of land: "Today I've burned my love letters," "A little apartment", "In a small cafe", "My secret honeymoon," "I love your smile", "Loving, loving thoughts" "Midnight roll", "It's going to be very little" and "Send a greeting home". Several of the melodies were a permanent guest in the NRK Wish Concert for years. At this time Raymond and Wentzel competed with other famous artists such as Alf Prøysen, Kurt Foss and Reidar Bøe, The Monn Keys, Sisters Bjørklund and Jens Book-Jenssen. The 1950s was Thor Raymond's great decade as a record artist, but in the early 1960s his career ended when he received a tendonitis in the left arm. He then took up the thread as a photo consultant and traveled around the country to advise people on restoration and coloring of old photographs. During this time he lived in Oslo, and later moved to a small farm on Toten. After 15 years at Toten, he moved to Jelsa in Ryfylke where his son lived with family. Later he settled down on Sola and Klepp. In 1970 he participated in a radio show in Atlantic Hall, "Back to the 50's". With "Old Black" he finished the artist career with the last big stage show, with the same old voice, and the same simple guitar chords.