To ostatnia niedziela

"To ostatnia niedziela" ( _pl. This is our Last Sunday; 1935) is one of the long-time hits of Jerzy Petersburski. A nostalgic tango with lyrics by Zenon Friedwald describing the final meeting of former lovers who broke up [http://www.infinium.pl/teksty/Ta_ostatnia_niedziela-Mieczyslaw_Fogg-d45_0449.txt] , it was performed by numerous artists and gained the nickname of "Suicide Tango", regarded as the perfect background music for shooting oneself in the head. Usually such acts were committed by young, disillusioned officers.

In 1937 a Russian version was written by Iosif Alvek and performed by singer Pavel Mikhailov backed by the State Radio Committee Jazz Band, led by pianist Aleksandr Tsfasman, under the title of "Weary Sun" ( _ru. Утомлённое солнце, "Utomlyennoye solntse", [http://akkord.li.ru/utomlehhoe_solhce-3774-pesni_sovetskix_vremen/] ). After the war the song remained largely successful and was one of the symbols of pre-war music in Polish popular culture. Performed by, among others, Mieczysław Fogg and Piotr Fronczewski, it appeared in a number of films, including Yuriy Norshteyn's acclaimed "Tale of Tales" (1979), Krzysztof Kieślowski's award-winning "" (1994) and Nikita Mikhalkov's "Burnt by the Sun" of the same year, as well as in "Schindler's List" in 1993. The Russian title of the song also became the namesake for the latter film.