Finnish broadcaster YLE reported that Rauno Lehtinen died last week. Lehtinen wrote the best scoring Finnish Eurovision song in the contest history. His Tom tom tom, sung by Marion Rung, finished 6th in Luxembourg in 1973.

Next to Tom tom tom, Lehtinen wrote another Finnish Eurovision song that made it into the top 10 of the contest as well. Markku Aro & Koivisto sisters sang Lehtinen's song Tie uuteen päivään in Dublin in 1971 and finished 8th.

Lehtinen achieved his biggest success with his composition Letkiss, which was a genuine Finnish line dance-craze of the early sixties, based on an old traditional folk-dance. It was recorded originally by Ronnie Kranck's Orchestra in 1963. The famous Letkiss dance steps were adapted from madison, conga and bunny hop that had been done in Dick Clark's American Bandstand a couple of years earlier. The song itself has been recorded at least in 92 countries, including for instance Brazil, United States, England, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France.

Rauno Lehtinen died at the age of 74.