Alexander Zatsepin started with short films, cartoons and documentaries, and the melody he wrote for the Kazakh performer Ermek Serkebaev was very popular in certain circles. When the composer Nikita Bogoslovsky left Leonid Gaidai, Nina Grebeshkova staged Zatsepin’s “Above Me The Blue Sky” to her husband. At first, Gaidai doubted that the author of the song would be able to compose an eccentric, but in the end he gave him a chance.
The result exceeded all expectations, because in collaboration with the poet Leonid Derbenev, Zatsepin created the hit “Song about Bears” for “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Song about Hares” and “Island of Bad Luck” for “Diamond Hand”, “There is Only a Moment” for “Earth Sannikov”, a few hits for “Ivan Vasilievich is changing his profession”. However, it cannot be said that in the process of creativity there were no conflicts.
So, Natalya Varley claimed that Leonid Gaidai approved her as the performer of “Songs about Bears”, but at the last moment Zatsepin intervened and voted for the candidacy of Aida Vedischeva. Alexander Sergeevich himself later said that Vedischeva initially signed up, and only then Gaidai suggested trying Varley as a vocalist, but in the final, a professional singer emerged as the winner. It is interesting that Aida Semyonovna also had her own opinion – that Natalya stole her laurels from her.
