Freddy Quinn Freddy Quinn - Die Autobiografie

(Edition Koch) Paperback, German, 264 pages, with numerous private photos of Freddy Quinn, 240 x 138 x 20 mm

‘I was everything—except a lonely sailor!’

You should never call Freddy Quinn a pop singer. It makes him grumpy. He is much more than that: a trained singer, circus artist, actor, presenter, and entertainer. With his unmistakable voice, Freddy Quinn shaped the attitude to life of an entire generation. Twenty-three top ten hits, major films, and unforgettable moments on stage made him one of the most dazzling figures in German show business. But there is much more behind the legend of the lonely sailor—and that is exactly what Freddy Quinn now wants to reveal for the first time, more than 15 years after he retired from the stage.

From circus artist to superstar

Quinn's youth was marked by a thirst for adventure and discovery. He fled from his stepfather and left high school to go abroad, joined the circus, and even served in the Foreign Legion before finally being discovered at the Washington Bar in Hamburg—the starting point of his phenomenal career. The 1950s and 1960s became his golden decades: Freddy Quinn filled concert halls, his songs told of longing, home and wanderlust. He sold more than 60 million records, shared the stage with legends such as Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, and became a celebrated film star.

Honest insights into an eventful life

Freddy Quinn was always in the public eye, but rarely did anyone know what he was really like inside. His private life was a well-kept secret. Only now, at the age of 93, is Freddy Quinn ready to tell his whole story: his most beautiful and important moments, but also the deep valleys he has gone through—such as his trial for tax evasion. His wedding at the ripe old age of 91 is part of his late happiness. And his final farewell to the public.

Freddy Quinn

Freddy Quinn is without doubt an icon of the German entertainment industry. His songs about loneliness and wanderlust, mostly composed by Lothar Olias, and his film appearances have made him popular and prosperous. With ten number one hits such as Heimweh, Junge komm bald wieder or Die Gitarre und das Meer, his record company Polydor made millions in the 50s and 60s. And with his melancholic sailor and adventure ballads, the man helped many film producers to create villas, yachts and fast cars.,

In the early years of his success, at the end of the 1950s, Freddy, with his low baritone, especially took the rebellious young men to his side. I remember on class trips, Freddy's songs spiked in our schoolboys' minds. After evening football matches with local street teams, a Freddy song ("Juanita was called the girl...") was sung in the storm of victory.

Whoever was already taller - half as strong as it was then - and dreamt of the wide world, was even more inspired by the powerful songs and only too willingly complied with the request: "The day comes when you want to go abroad...".

Later, as Freddy's songs became more romantic, some of the young boys turned their backs on him. They set to harder rhythms. On the other hand, the guitar hero was all the more heart-broken with girls. This led in many families to a fierce sibling fight in the fight for the local radio. If the brother wanted to hear a football report, the sister moaned because the pop parade was on at the same time - with Freddy.

With so much popularity, the powerful film-makers of the Economic Miracle cinema soon realized that the hit star was a gold mine for them. Because anyone who sang so successfully had to be well received on the screen. No sooner said than done.

From 1957 to 1971 he made 13 Freddy films, seven of which bear his name in their title! Many were written right to his body. It was directed by men with a flair for entertainment and cash. Wolfgang Schleif, who later became a sought-after director for family entertainment on television, staged four adventures alone.

The locations of the films were the cities of Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and, of course, the big wide world: Canada ('Freddy - under strange stars') and Brazil ('Weit ist der Weg'), the South Seas ('Freddy und das Lied der Südsee'), Ireland ('Nur der Wind') and Sardinia ('Haie an Bord') - the breath of distance and homesickness blows through Freddy's songs as well as the screen adventures.

Business savvy, rental companies included the names of major Freddy hits in their film titles, so their success was certain:'Heimatlos','Freddy - die Gitarre und das Meer','Freddy - Unter fremden Sternen'.

Freddy's entertainment film marked the beginning of a new genre in post-war German cinema. The previous music film mosaic, consisting of a series of popular hit artists, was replaced by the musical thriller or adventure film, the plot of which was carried by only one main character, Freddy. He was a hero like he couldn't be more German: Truthful and faithful, singing heartthrob and child lover. Mr. Saubermann in person. Many mothers who watched the films with their adolescent daughters would have loved to land him as a son-in-law - if not as their own husband.

The years 1959 and 1960 reflect its importance for the record and above all the cinema industry in a unique way. Within 24 months four Freddy films were released ('Freddy, the Guitar and the Sea','Freddy - Under Foreign Stars','Melody of the Night', Weit ist der Weg'). The upright nature of the entertainer and his music, with which he built up an exotic-romantic counter-world to the bourgeois everyday life of the Economic Miracle, made the box offices of the cinemas ring loudly.

Freddy Quinn's importance as a screen hero was also evident in the fact that well-known film greats were placed by his side: Marianne Hold, Vera Tschechowa, Gustav Knuth, Heidi Brühl, Grethe Weiser, Heinz Erhardt, Karin Dor and finally the Hollywood curve stars Jayne Mansfield and Mamie van Doren.

Excerpt from the booklet BCD17419 - Freddy Quinn Tausend Meilen (4-CD)
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.de/quinn-freddy-tausend-meilen-4-cd.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records

Auszug aus dem Booklet BCD17419 - Freddy Quinn Tausend Meilen (4-CD)
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.de/quinn-freddy-tausend-meilen-4-cd.htmlCopyright © Bear Family Records