While it's still October (or, as I like to call it, 'ROCKtober'), here's a whole beer garden's worth of German "schlager" music for a maniac's Oktoberfest. Most of these songs are remakes of Anglo-America hits. They're sometimes sung in German (or inaccurate English), and performed in a gleefully tasteless, absurdly upbeat party-ready delirium. The closest analogy in American music would be Vegas-type lounge music, but even the cheesiest of those swingin' cats had a bit of jazz in them. This stuff is more like oom-pah tarted up for the '60s and '70s, trading in lederhosen for eye-poppingly colorful wide collar shirts and bell-bottom flared pants. It's quite ridiculously entertaining, and it all comes from my collection of used vinyl. Vee hef ways of making you LAFF! [original artist's name in brackets]
OKTOBERFEST A-GO-GO
1. Bernd Spier (not to be confused with reggae band Burning Spear!) "Memphis" [Chuck Berry]
2. Chris Roberts "Rock and Roll Music" [Chuck Berry]
3. Rolf Kühn "Paranoid" [Black Sabbath] - clarinet instrumental!
4. Rex Gildo "Speedy Gonzales" [Pat Boone]
5. Chris Robert "La Bamba" [Richie Valens] - absolutely absurd English lyrics
6. Rolf Kühn "I Hear you Knockin" [Dave Edmunds]
7. Ruth Bra
ndin "Warum (nennt man dich Sunnyboy)"8. Rex Gildo "You Call Everybody Darling"
9. Bernd Spier "Danke Shoen" [Wayne Newton...or was this a German original?]
10. Tanzorchester Schwarz-Weib "Kleines Haus am Wald"
11. Jo Ment "Get It On-Sweet Hitchhiker" [T.Rex/Creedance Clearwater Revival]
12. Rolf Kühn "Apeman" [The Kinks]
13. Pumuckl's Kinder-Party "Pumuckl Rock n Roll"
14. Chris Roberts "Blowin In The Wind" [Bob Dylan] - play this for any Dylan fan, and watch smoke come out of their ears
15. Lolita "El Paso" [Marty Robbins]
16. James Last "HeyTonight-She's A Lady-What Is Life" - [Creedance Clearwater
Revival/Tom Jones/George Harrison]17. Gunter Hapke "Fur Gaby tu ich alles" - from 1963; early electronic keyboard?
18. Rolf Kühn "Black Magic Woman" [Santana]
19. Ruth Brandin "Papagei-Twist"
20. James Last "Be My Baby-Immigrant Song-Have You Seen The Rain-My Sweet Lord" [Ronnettes/Led Zeppelin/Creedance Clearwater Revival/George Harrison]
21. Lolita "Wenn der Sommer Kommt (Theme From A Summer Place)" [Percy Faith]
22. Rex Gildo "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" [Shirelles]
6 comments:
Rolf Kühn's "Paranoid" cover is topped by the equally hilarious and incredible cover by Cindy & Bert "Der Hund von Baskerville", straight out of the "What WERE they thinking" department. You can find it on youtube.
Fantastic, anon, thanks! I found the mp3 here:
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/mp3_download_di.html
9. Bernd Spier "Danke Shoen" [Wayne Newton...or was this a German original?]
The German original of Danke Schön" was first recorded in 1962 by Bert Kaempfert. Wayne Newton's '63 version of it gained all the fame and it appears Bernd Spier recorded this 1964 (he used it as a standard in all his concerts).
Just a small point.
A friend of mine is working in Munich just now, and he was just telling me that Oktoberfest actually starts in September!
No, i dunno what the hell those kerazee Germans are playing at either, just thought i'd share the info.
Great compilation though, thanks.
Thanks for the info Taro!
And yes, the Oktoberfest celebration that takes place at Alpine Village here in LA also starts in Sept. Why limit drinking yourself blind for only one month?
While Karel Gott is Czech actually he is/was very popular in Germany. Here's his puszta-interpretation of Paint it Black named "Rot und Schwarz" (red and black). I'm afraid to say that I enjoy it more than the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwJp_Xh8lP0
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