Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo

Divlje Jagode vocalist Alen Islamović, who took over as Bijelo Dugme's singer in early fall 1986, had been unsuccessfully pursued two years earlier by the band's leader Goran Bregović in the immediate aftermath of long-time vocalist Željko Bebek's spring 1984 departure from the band.[2] Unsure about volatile internal relations within the band and fearing Bebek's possible return into the fold, Islamović had decided to turn the offer down at the time and stay with Divlje Jagode;[2] twenty-three-year-old upstart Mladen "Tifa" Vojičić thus became Bijelo Dugme's new vocalist, recording a studio album, 1984's Bijelo Dugme, with the band.[2]

Under the pressure of professional obligations, sudden fame, and media scandal that revealed his LSD usage, Vojičić left Bijelo Dugme after only a year, and Divlje Jagode's Islamović got approached once again about joining.[2] This time, Divlje Jagode were based out of London, pursuing an international career under the modified name Wild Strawberries. Doubting Divlje Jagode's international prospects, 29-year-old Islamović decided to take the offer this time, leaving Wild Strawberries and returning to Yugoslavia to join Bijelo Dugme.[2] Talking about the second vocalist change in two years and the band's personnel issues in general, Bregović stated at the time:

Fuck singing, and fuck the singer too. What's important is the kind of person he is. The biggest issue in Dugme is can we work together or not. Everything else is easy. I'm very satisfied with Alen. My band is healthy. We've had enough of drunks and drug addicts.[3]

Due to political pressure by Yugoslav authorities, Bregović would eventually give up on implementing some of the ideas he had originally envisioned for the album.

When he began putting it together, Bregović wanted Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo to contain contributions from individuals known for holding political views outside of SFR Yugoslavia's official ideology as espoused by the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ), the only legally allowed political party in the country. To that end, he and the band's manager Raka Marić approached three such individuals who had at that point been effectively proscribed from public discourse in Yugoslavia for over a decade:

• pop singer Vice Vukov who represented SFR Yugoslavia at the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest before seeing his career prospects marginalized due to being branded a Croatian nationalist as a result of his association with the Croatian Spring political movement,
• painter and experimental filmmaker Mića Popović, associated with Yugoslav Black Wave film movement, who got a dissident reputation due to his paintings and early 1960s films,
• and politician and diplomat Koča Popović who despite a prominent World War II role on the Partisan side as the 1st Proletarian Brigade commander, an engagement that earned him the Order of the People's Hero medal followed by high political and diplomatic appointments in the post-war period, nevertheless got silently removed from public life in 1972 after coming out in support of Latinka Perović and Marko Nikezić, leading figures of the so-called "Serbian liberals", a liberal faction within the Yugoslav Communist League's SR Serbia branch.[4]

Bregović's idea was to have Vukov sing the "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi" ("You Were Once a Rose") ballad. However, despite Vukov accepting, the plan never got implemented after the band's manager Marić got detained and interrogated by the police at the Sarajevo Airport upon returning from Zagreb where he had met with Vukov.[4] Mića Popović's contribution to the album was to be his Dve godine garancije (A Two-Year Warranty) painting featuring a pensioner sleeping on a park bench while using pages of Politika newspaper as blanket to warm himself, which Bregović wanted to use as the album cover. When approached, Mića Popović also accepted though warning Bregović of possible problems the musician would likely face.[4] Finally, Koča Popović was reportedly somewhat receptive to the idea of participating on the album, but still turned the offer down.[4]

Eventually, under pressure from the band's record label, Diskoton, Bregović gave up on his original idea, instead turning to alternative solutions.[6] He decided to secure at least one old pre-World War II Yugoslav revolutionary's appearance on the album. Reaching out to surviving individuals of that ilk was done through Duga journalist and writer Milomir Marić who had been known for keeping contacts with them as part of the preparatory work for his upcoming book Deca komunizma (Children of Communism). Bregović was able to get 73-year-old Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo to agree, visiting him in his Reževići home and arranging for Tempo to come to Sarajevo, where he recorded the old revolutionary song "Padaj silo i nepravdo" ("Fall, (Oh) Force and Injustice") along with the Ljubica Ivezić orphanage choir.[7]

Keyboardist Laza Ristovski, who left Bijelo Dugme in 1978, participated in the recording of Bijelo Dugme, but became an official member of the band once again only after the album was released.[2] Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo was the first Bijelo Dugme release since 1977 live album Koncert kod Hajdučke česme to feature Ristovski as an official member.[2]

Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo featured similar folk-oriented pop rock sound as Bijelo Dugme, and was similarly inspired by Yugoslavism, containing numerous references to Yugoslav unity as well as the lyrics on the inner sleeve printed in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.[2]

The album cover featured a photograph of Chinese social realist ballet.[6]

• Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo - vocals (on track 1)
• Amila Sulejmanović - backing vocals
• Amela - backing vocals
• Zumreta Midžić "Zuzi Zu" - backing vocals
• Nebojša Stefanović - bass guitar
• Sinan Alimanović - keyboards
• Slobodan Sokolović - trombone
• Branko Podbrežnički - recorded by, mixed by
• Damir Begović - recorded by, mixed by
• Vlado Perić - design

Large section of the critics, however, disliked Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo. In his Danas review, Dragan Kremer drew parallels between the developing economic and political crisis in SFR Yugoslavia and what he sees to be the band's ongoing creative crisis:

Unfortunately, what makes this album so 'Yugoslav' mostly has to do with the crisis and lack of criteria, which are no longer possible to hide.[3]

In 1987, Kremer went further while appearing as guest on TV Sarajevo's show Mit mjeseca (Myth of the Month), a programme pitting Yugoslav rock critics against the country's rock stars — allowing critics to directly pose questions to musicians sitting across from them in the same studio. In the case of Kremer's appearance, Bregović wasn't in the studio due to being on tour — Kremer's taped questions were thus shown to Bregović while his reaction was filmed.[8] Expressing his dislike of the band's new album, Kremer looked into the camera and addressed Bregović directly:

As a man who adores records with an almost fetishist passion, I hate what I'm about to say and do, but I feel compelled to as means of posing a question. All great authors usually have the same answer to this question, which is that all their works, regardless of type, are equally dear to them and equally good, but — is it possible that this album is your [Bregović's] ugliest and dumbest work?[9]

Upon stating the above, Kremer tore up the Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo album cover.[9] A visibly angry Bregović reacted by cursing under his breath and launching into an insult-laden tirade directed at Kramer: "It's hard, even for a fool, to harbour ambitions of being liked by everyone, especially by these kinds of fat little pigs with sideburns who probably still masturbate on a regular basis in their forties. Even asking me to answer this pile of imbecilic questions, I mean.... But there's something that doesn't make sense here: we're about to go on a tour with 400,000 copies of this album already sold, which guys like this crap on regularly. So, either the people are fools, which would make what this guy's saying right or I'm still better at writing songs than he is at writing reviews".[9][8] The incident got a lot of play in the Yugoslav media at the time with the angle of usually calm and collected Bregović losing his temper being the focus.[2]

Vukmanović's appearance on the album was described by The Guardian as "some sort of Bregović's coup d'état".[2]

• Serbian folk singer Ana Bekuta recorded a cover of "A i ti me iznevjeri" on her 1993 album Pitaš me kako živim.[10]
• In 1993 Bregović wrote the soundtrack for Emir Kusturica's surrealist drama Arizona Dream, including a new version of "Hajdemo u planine" titled "Get The Money" with English language lyrics and sung by Iggy Pop.[11]
• Serbian ensemble Fejat Sejdić Trumpet Orchestra recorded a cover of "Hajdemo u planine" on their 1994 album Na Dragačevskom saboru orkestara u Guči.[12]
• Croatian pop singer Alka Vuica recorded a cover of "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi", entitled "Ružica", on her 2001 album Profesionalka.[13]
• Serbian folk singer Usnija Redžepova recorded a cover of "A i ti me iznevjeri" on her 2007 album Oko Niša kiša.[14]
• Bosnian and Yugoslav rock band Teška Industrija recorded a cover of "A i ti me iznvjeri" on their 2010 album Bili smo raja.[15]
• Bosnian and Yugoslav pop singer Zuzi Zu, who sung backing vocals on Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo, recorded a cover of "Ružica si bila", releasing it as a single in 2011.[16]