Various - 1000 Nadelstiche Vol.08, 1970er - Amerikaner & Briten singen deutsch (CD)

1-CD with 55-page booklet, 24 titles. Duration approx. 77 minutes.


1000 pinpricks, episode 8 (1970s)

The sixties were the decade in the history of so-called underground music that has had the most impressive impact to this day. Again and again there are spiced up cover versions of classics from the 60s, adapted to the styles and fashions of the new millennium - and they often grow into chart successes.

Those sixties were also the heyday of our field of vision. Between 1963 and 1968 Anglo-American interpreters were permanently ordered to perform (also) with songs in German language. The CDs of the series '1000 Nadelstiche' published so far are proof that artists have been pulled out of all drawers: Twist, Hully Gully, Beat, R&B, Soul, Country, Gecroontes - no direction stopped this trend.

But it was also noticeable that the more the 60s were coming to an end, the more sparse the songs of the British and Americans became in the German language. The reason was the stylistic changes in music outside our borders. A blues revival began in Great Britain around 1968, after which Progressive Rock pushed their way into the front row with endless guitar and drum solos - both really not fields where cover versions could harvest something; the sounds were hardly suitable for producing German versions of the (often wacky) compositions and constructions. Also the Bombast-Rock of the early seventies did not change anything. The conventional 'song form' was almost obsolete: The long-playing record came inevitably towards the new, overflowing sounds - decoupled singles stepped more and more into the background.

Nevertheless, not all music fans agreed with the new developments; there was still an expectant clientele that remained more conservative in tone. Gaps opened up again and again, which were pushed into - with conventional pop music. And it was still a good idea to have the original interpreters play it in translated form.

As in the sixties, however, the success at the sales counter was again limited. Especially if the German versions had already made it relatively far into the charts here in English. After that hardly anyone wanted to have the German versions anymore. So of the 25 songs offered on this CD only one (!) made the leap into the national hit parade, time only stops at the devil, sung by Barry Ryan (here the original with the title Today remained meaningless).

Other performers from Britain or overseas could at least place themselves with us with the originals. For example the Englishman Daniel Boone (actually: Peter Lee Stirling), whose single Beautiful Sunday 1972 (identical in title) even advanced to number 1 and stayed in the charts for 23 weeks. In the same year Olivia Newton-John also moved into the German charts with Banks Of The Ohio, the translated edition Unten am Fluss, the Ohio is called Unten am Fluss and flopped with the audience (but is now a sought-after single, for those interested already some tens - even in euros - have to leaf through).

The New Seekers, Paul da Vinci and Terry Jacks also waited in vain for the breakthrough of their German-sung versions. The multi-cultural combo climbed with Beg, Steal Or Borrow up to position 5, da Vinci's Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore landed at number 31 and Terry Jacks' Seasons In The Sun, written by chanson grandmaster Jacques Brel, even scored the No. 1 hit - for the followers Oh, I Want to Beg, I Want to Steal and Life Just Begins for You as well as In the Gardens of Time nobody would like to warm up yet. The same was true for the UK duo Shepstone & Dibbens: Their Shady Lady occupied 45th place in the charts, and the German edition that followed may have done the stupid macho title Man kann Frauen selten truen (Texter: leider nicht zu ermitteln) less well.

The singing guinea pigs from the first half of the seventies came from all popularity classes. Donny Osmond was celebrated in the USA, even though no one in the German language cared about him. A man like Chris Montez, on the other hand, had long since had his best time behind him when he tried a comeback. Let's Dance from 1962 remains a classic in everyone's ears forever, but 12 years later with Nur du however it partout didn't want to work.

Even performers who were at least temporarily on German soil were stuck in the machinery of success. The Munich-based Love Generation, for example, an excellent choir with changing Anglo-American singers and trailblazers for the Les Humphries Singers, published fuderweise singles and LPs in two languages - a chart hit was not among them, in this specific case neither for the English nor the German version of Israel presented here. Also Sheila McKinlay (base camp: Hamburg), with her sister Jeannette Gallagher also as McKinlay Sisters and McKinlays as backing singers very much in demand, could not establish herself with her solo disc; it didn't help that the original of Ich geh' mit dir came from the pen of Bob Dylan. Jimmy Patrick, Jon Simon (for him Gunter Gabriel sharpened the author's pencil) and Candyfloss (produced by ex-City-Preacher John O'Brien-Docker) did not feel better. The former GI Lee Patterson had already recorded records in the sixties under the pseudonym Toni/Tony Cavana(ugh) and later tried his luck as leader of a gospel ensemble in the style of the Edwin Hawkins Singers - in vain, and even his German cover version of the McGuinness Flint hit When I'm Dead And Gone couldn't push him to the top.


As already in the case of Chris Montez, earlier merits did not necessarily help another hit star at the start on the local track. Half of the duo Bill & Buster had landed a coup in 1967: Half the world whistled I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman and celebrated the flute (which only played live) Whistling Jack Smith. His real name was Billy Moeller - some years later Bill vom Buster. Irishman Joe Dolan also had some UK hits in his luggage (e.g. Make Me An Island, You're Such A Good Lookin' Woman and Teresa) when he recorded Tina in German - the fans liked him better in the original. Just like Richard Barnes: Successful in England in 1970 with Take To The Mountains and Go North, he was even rejected twice by us. Today there are no dreams appeared both on Philips (1971) and on Ariola (1973), both attempts have not brought him much. Anthony Eyers also had to back down: under this name he wrote hits, for example the international disco-clerk I'm On Fire for the retort combo 5000 Volts, with which he also stood on stage for playback. As Tony Jayson, he was less well off in Germany. Although his very appetizing ballad Who knows where the storm is blowing us could record a lot of radio missions, but the last kick to the attack on the official charts did not come about (which even a change of the single cover could not correct).

The makers in Tina alias Philomena Veronica Quinn had high hopes. At the 1974 Eurovision Grand Prix in Brighton, Ireland, she only finished 7th with Cross Your Heart, but the German version of the game was to be a heart-warming success in this country - too high on the poker table. Also the LP 'Cross Your Heart' (Polydor 2383 285) could not make its interpreter much better known. Colleague Dana from Northern Ireland had won the European Song Contest in 1970 with All Kinds Of Everything, but that wasn't a carte blanche for the German Scholle either. The Grand Prix title hardly helped her five years later, so you can't forgive the audience. It remained their last of a total of eight songs 'in auswärts'.

Hardcore fans of the music of Alan Parsons might also be interested in this edition of our CD series '1000 Needlesticks', especially in the song Roter Mann. How's that? (Lenny) Zakatek, interpreter of the composition by Lynsey de Paul, was later in the service of the British sound inventor for many years and was requested if necessary. The Englishman of Indian descent convinced between 1977 and 1987 on eight Parsons-LP as chief singer. In 1979 he also landed the UK hit Haven't Stopped Dancin' Yet with the funky Pubrock band Gonzalez. In his early work, the only German-language work, the shouter, born in 1947 in Karachi, was hopelessly underchallenged in his singing and fell by the wayside.

The definitive collector's candy on this CD comes from an old master, Tony Sheridan. The Beatles teacher, who had already landed in Hamburg in June 1960 as a guitarist with the English jets, played the title Lieber hab' ich dich in the early seventies. Singing partner: his then wife Carole (ex-member of the English vocal trio The Three Bells). This article did not appear on vinyl, neither a single nor an LP edition are known.

The book '1000 Nadelstiche' (Bear Family Records, BFB 10014) contains detailed biographical information on the mentioned artists as well as discographies, photos and cover illustrations.

Bernd Matheja

1000 Nadelstiche - Bernd Matheja

They tormented themselves with prehistoric cardboard prompters or stuck their tongues out because they simply had thick faxes: World stars such as Connie Francis and Johnny Cash (see front page) were among the countless Anglo-American performers to whom their respective record companies have devoted special attention since the 1950s: Lyrics in German language - and singing them if possible......

The result sounded either simply touching in the buyer's ears here, or one could get so wonderfully excited about bumping. However, it was not inconvenient for those responsible, because the artists were either talking or at least talking in this way.

Connie and Johnny were still among the few singers who had hardly any problems with what was demanded. Francis, for example, released a single on single, and by means of such mass production, the initial syllable plumbing quickly regulated itself - in other words, lörning at duing.

Country expert Cash, on the other hand, was - like his compatriot Elvis Presley, for example - one of those who had been able to preserve German residual articulation: JC, very professional, reactivated stored words from his time with the US Army in Landsberg am Lech.

However, the majority of the victims, mostly confronted for the first time in their lives with "ä", "ö" and "ü", struggled with the sweaty poems for them, so they struggled with the umlaut and often delivered end products as if a whisk had fallen into a bucket of alphabet soup. Who could convince an ex-Cowboy from Colorado or a trained telephonist from Littlehampton that after their successful retraining as singing artists, the thing with the "ch" would now also have to work out alternatively as a tongue or throat sound? From now on, of course.....

In such cases of hardship, the phonetic pastoral care provided by producers and language teachers in the studios, who were set on march, usually also failed. However, in order not to completely annoy the tormented and to keep the costs of admission within reasonable limits, they gladly agreed on the formula "fits, wobbles and has air".

The result, as in 1964 in the case of the Searchers, was an opening line like: "Ick sasi heute nackt....". And already - scandalous mess! the trouble about her actually harmless "Tausn Naddelschtischa" really started.....

 

1000 Nadelstiche Bernd Matheja - 1000 Nadelstiche - 3.Auflage
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