German girl singers of the 60s are the poor cousins
of the euro doll scene. While brit girls and yé-yé mademoiselles have been endlessly cataloged, compiled and re-released the deutsche Fräuleins are largely forgotten, even in the home country. Even if they lacked some of the musical farsightedness or elegance of the aforementioned, there are still some gems to be found in this uncharted territory. Auf geht's!
I can't believe I'm actually putting a song of Vicky Leandros in my blog, but the first two singles of teenage Vicky in 1965 were actually quite good, before she turned to MOR in the mid 60s, added her surname and invented her own brand of sentimental folk/Schlager music, that she is nowadys still (in)famous for. The very first single was of course the beat-tastic "Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht"(=Knife, fork, scissors, light -> see the video below) and even though it only went to number 16 in the charts it stayed there for a respectable 10 weeks. A star was born. However Vicky's second single "Deine Rosen vom ersten Rendezvous" was largly ignored by the record buying public and it's groovy b-side "Am Abend muss ich schlafen geh'n" (I have to go to sleep tonight) is utterly forgotten. Shame, because it's just as good, maybe even better than "Messer, Gabel, Schere, Licht"
First: sorry for the long absence, I was away for a few weeks. This week's record is a decent german cover of one of my all-time-favourite girl group classics: The Dixie Cups' "You Should have Seen The Way he Looked At Me" (1964). If you've never heard the original than you should fill this huge gap in your pop knowlege by watching the video below. Written by stellar song-writing team Elli Greenwich and Jeff Barry, the Dixie Cup song only made to an rather disappointing 39 in the US charts, considering their 1 hit "Chapel of Love" earlier that year. The german cover version sadly never charted, in spite of it being revlativly faithful to the original. I know very little about the german cover artist Regine. She made a few 45s for the german Vogue label around 64/65, two of them duetts with teen sensation Boy Berger (their "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" single is worth checking out). Don't be confused, this is NOT the french cabaret singer Regine who recorded with Serge Gainsbourg and who also released a few german songs at the same time. Curiously the german version got another release on the same label a year later by one-single girl Linda Balk, she even used the same backing track as Regine and just like her poor Linda also did not trouble the charts with her single. The pop world is so unfair!
The wonderful Lill Lindfors (born in Finnland 1940) is nowadys more known as an excellent jazz performer (and for her infamous wardrobe malfunction while presenting Eurovision 85), but at the start of her career in the 60s she was definitly more pop than jazz. Even though most of her output is swedisch or finnish, she recorded a handful of classy, yet unsuccesful German singles, all of them pleasant surprises. The infectious "Don't Stop The Slop" is the b-side of the 3rd German single "No, No Chérie", another example of a fabulous track hidden on the back of a godawful a-side. The "slop" in the title is a 60s dance craze BTW. Also noteworthy: Lill's pink peek-a-boo jumpsuit, that defines the word camp. below right: a clip of Lill performing a swedish version of the Bee Gee's "Words"
12:08 AM - Katja Holländer - Er heißt Peter (1966)
Katja Holländer A: Er heißt Peter B: Wenn ich deinen Namen hör' (Come and Stay with me) Polydor 52 700 (1966)
This doll has quite a pedigree: Katja Holländer is the daugther of composer Friedrich Hollaender (who wrote amongst many other hits Marlene Dietrich's "Falling in Love again") and grand daughter of classical composer Victor Hollaender. In 1966 Katja decided to step into the footprints of her famous family and released this delicious slice of go-go-esque pop perfection "Er heißt Peter" (His name is Peter), written and produced by Kurt Feltz and Werner Scharfenberger, the same team that was handeling Gitte's career at the time. Like many other songs in 1966 this track borrows heavily from the über-doll mega hit of that year "These Boots Are Made For Walking". However Katja's sales figures were nothing like Ms Sinatra's, in fact she did not even make it into the charts. More surprisingly so that Scharfenberger and Feltz went on and cut a whole album with Katja, and quite a good one too. This is not just the typical blend of cover versions and earlier singles, but a full LP of brandnew songs, amost a concept album, all tracks courtesy of Scharfenberger/Feltz, plus the one cover version that became the b-side of the single: "Wenn ich deinen Namen hör'" is a german version of Marianne Faithfull's "Come and Stay with Me" (in America Jackie De Shannon's version is better known). It's a fresh and modern LP (well, by german standards) full of perky tunes and slightly saucy lyrics. You just what she means when she sings that his name is Peter and "he loves to promenade" (LOL). Just like the single the album didn't sell and after one more 45 on another label Katja's recording career faltered, making the LP a hard-to-find rarity nowadays. I give you two options for the download: just the lead track "Er heißt Peter" or the whole album plus her later 45 as a .zip file. Katja went to the States to manage the musical heritage of her family, but Feltz and Scharfenberger started to work on the their next project, the debut LP of danish doll Gitte "Gitte's Boy-Party", arguably the best german doll LP ever.
It took me a while to find some biographical details for this doll, but a trusty friend provided me with this information: "Margit Schneider was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland. As a child she performed as a duo with her sister Esther for school festivities and small parties. A producer discovered them performing in the Kindli pub in Zürich, named them "Kindli Sisters" and they released a few 45s. Later Margit went solo and made 3 singles between 1965-67." It's a tough choice between those 6 songs she recorded, in the the end I decided to give you the sultry "Sag' was weiß ich schon von dir?" (Tell me, what do I know about you?). Oddly enough the song's message is a complete contradiction to the song on a-side "Was ich nicht weiß" (What I don't know). There she claims that she prefers to know nothing about about her boy's past, while here she complains that she knows not enough about him. Just make your mind up, will you?
Great voice, tragic story: Brigitt Petry was a german singer/actress who fled from East to West Germany in 1965 and had just started to build up a steady career, when she sadly died in a mysterious car accident in 1971. There were rumours that her death was a retaliation act of the East German intelligence, but this was never proved. Quite a shame, because I really like Brigitt. She had an unusual soulful voice, was not afraid to make some daring choices in her material and had a glamorous bombshell look, all if which set her pleasantly apart from the horde of prim looking hausfrau girls that dominated the german music scene at the time. This single from 1968 finds her at her best, the A side "Lass die Hände von Bill Bailey" is a cover of Gale Garnett's "You've Been Talikng About My baby" and the exotic B side "...da beißt ein Goldfisch an" is a german take on "Watch 'n' Chain" by The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliatio. I can't think of another german girl singer who would have had the guts to go for these tracks in the 60s. OK, maybe Joy Fleming, but Brigitt's vocal approach is way more sophisticated than hers IMHO. Brigitt sounds surprsingly at home with these R'n'B tracks, one can only wonder what direction she would have taken in the 70s, when this sound became more popular in Germany.
Elisa Gabbai A: Winter in Canada B: Nach Tahiti, Hawaii und Jamaica Hansa 18 582 AT (1966)
It's christmas time...so I thought I bring you something seasonal, not really a christmas song as such, but something that will make feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "Winter in Canada" is a heartwarming track written by veteran composer team Christian Bruhn and Georg Buschor. Singer Elisa Gabbai hails from Israel, this was her first and biggest hit in Germany, climbing all the way up to no 13 in the charts in early 1966. Enjoy and merry christmas to you all!!!
"Today in the espresso bar, I sat down next to you and until that very moment you didn't even know I existed" What a great opening line for a song, we learn a) that our heroine is modern woman that will make the first move to pursue the object of her desire and b) that she moves in the high-class world of espresso bars. Is't like Sex And The City in 1965. Swedish Ann-Louise Hanson is one of the endless line-up of scandinavian girls invading the german Schlager market in the 60s, but not as well known as Gitte, Siw Malmkvist or Wencke Myhre. Her mumsy, Doris-Day-esque exterior make me think that she is probably more at home with more dowdy material, but on this upbeat track she channels Nancy Sinatra perfectly. Wikipedia says that she has entered the Swedish Melodifestivalen competition thirteen times without winning once, I'm not sure if this dubious fact is an achievment or a defeat. Below a clip of Ann-Louise with a different, more demure song from 1963.
MAK Les Soeurs A: Sunshine B: Weiße Wolken und blaue Wogen Ariola 19 644 AT (1967)
Swedish girl group MAK Les Soeurs are Agneta Wigforss, Margareta Hamrefors and Karin Hamrefors. Here some biographical details I stole from another website: "All three had moved to Mölndal in the early 1960's and a few years later they headed to Göteborg (Gothenburg) for studies. To earn money they were working at the music club called Rondos, and since 1964 they were also performing there. The group's name comprised of the first letter of each member's first name added with the French word for 'sisters'. After winning the 4th place in a song contest in Göteborg, they managed to sign the record deal with Cupol Records. Also Cupol's subsidiary label Ariola in Germany released some of their records sung by German. MAK Les Soeurs' final recordings were made in 1969 and they appeared on stage for the last time in the early 1970's." I was lucky enough to find their 1966 LP a short while ago, which is folk-y little gem sung in both swedish and english, their german 45s were far poppier, especially the upbeat "Sunshine" from 1967. enjoy!
This is a good one, in fact it's it's so good that for the first time I give you both a and b-side of a single. Inga Rumpf hails from Hamburg, she is one of Germany's most prolific rock singers and still active today. Her career started in the mid 60s as part of the folk outfit The City Preachers, who later changed their name to Frumpy and than again to Atlantis before they disbanded in 1976. During this time she also released several solo singles, none of which troubled the charts. Inga took part in the infamous german Schlagerwettbewerb in 1968, where she looked positivly out of place, Schlager was just not for her. This early and ultra-rare single from 1967 show off her real talents: the a-side is a cover Sonny & Cher's anthem "The Beat Goes On" and the b-side a garage-y beat track called "Dein Spiel ist aus" (Your game is over). I'm not sure if the latter is a cover version, the record lists an alternative english title "Beg you love" that was also recorded by Inga, but is it the original?
