Decca arrives late for blockbuster centenary
OrchestrasThe label has just issued a bumper centennial box of recordings by Bert Kaempfert, whose 100th birthday fell in 2023.
Kaempfert was a chart-topping German bandleader, best known for composing ‘Strangers in the Night’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Wooden Heart’. He also engaged the unknown Beatles inn 1961 to back Tony Sheridan on an album called My Bonnie.
Kaempfert died of stroke in 1980 and quickly faded from our soundworld.
Kaempfert never wrote a song called ‘Wooden Doll’. It was ‘Wooden Heart’, set to the tune of the old German song ‘Muss i denn.”
Danke!
Bitte!
Danke Shoen is probably the most famous Kaempfert song for people of a certain age.
For me, the first time I heard him was an instrumental called Wonderland by Night.
What about Swinging Safari?
Not to be confused with “Danke Schoenberg”, number 13 of Anton Webern’s “Achtzehn Kleiner Arbeiterundbauernlieder” of 1912.
Yup. I remember singing it about the house when I was a sprog, and my father told me it was based on an old German folk song, which he knew and sang to me. Just like Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken being based on a Gaelic hymn, Bunessan, which my father knew in Gaelic (though that was a translation, as the original lyrics were in English).
‘Bunessen’ of course is the Bavarian equivalent of Welsh Rabbit. The tune named after it has been used for several hymns, but “Morning Has Broken” was commissioned from the writer Eleanor Fargeon for the hymnal “Songs of Praise”, edited by Ralph Vaughan Williams et al.
Which is about a young man who has to leave his girlfriend behind as he leaves his home town in search of a master who will take him on as an apprentice, so there are Mahlerian overtones, especially if you transpose the melody into a minor key. I believe the words are in Swabian dialect.
The tune was also played when a ship left port, including on the fateful day when the “Bismarck” set sail on its first and only voyage.
So now you know …
I wonder how many people are left who would buy this set. 24 disks of Easy Listening that has vanished from the radio…at least in the US. Maybe a George Melchrino set is next?
https://www.amazon.com/Bert-Kaempfert-Decca-Collection-Boxset/dp/B0CKY98FCW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3AU00E5WEE1AX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QpLJzCnsce6TUXEyoGOYrQRKhOLACBNn2JPwCv9-Y46LADSP3ZIHrf9Z3kVTqoLjKAEoosLoh5UzszvY91mZEKzrSfEuNr1B46mA8J0Z09PV5lbEZi7RVDpRfpQ0tX5f.8Tq-UMQCNzCyWcbGrE6Otf90UwXdLZkqgrsveN_tDTk&dib_tag=se&keywords=bert+kaempfert+decca+collection&qid=1708353610&sprefix=bert+kaem%2Caps%2C205&sr=8-1
I think next will be the Horst Jankowsky Collection. Spaziergang Im Schwarzwald, anyone? For wholly unknown reasons my 7 year old son has been obsessed with this song for years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ktk1Nrilc
I remember that from my youth too. It got radio time.
Try him on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYMMRkXqNdA&list=OLAK5uy_l6g401vnyUETe0lu72_kzD-7OslZhWaXQ&ab_channel=DieTirolerBlasmusikanten-Topic
He could do a lot worse!
I remember loving that song when I was seven too!
Bert Bacharach? The Tijuana Brass? Eddie Calvert (The Man with the Golden Trumpet)?
From deep within my insular and rather elitist “mostly classical only, please” world view I needed some reminding of who this Bert Kaempfert was — so, YouTube to the rescue. Ah! Swingin’ Safari and Afrikaan Beat …. THAT guy.
And then I counted the views on YouTube (many of them pirated it appears). Holy millions of views, Batman! I have a hunch this collection will sell very well.
Someone mentioned the Melachrino Strings, and just maybe Hugo Winterhalter’s time has come too (and yes, I do know that Winterhalter had classical bona fides and recorded with Byron Janis.)
Decca should have waited to celebrate his 200th birthday. How many people would even listen to this?