Charlotte Rank, Ding Dong Rock, 1958

Charlotte Rank is an Austrian Jazz singer who only made a handful of records in the 50s before she went back into private life. A mention of her being “A true local Vienna Girl” is one of the only informations I could find.  In the late 1940s Lotte Rank started performing together with the orchestra of famous Austrian  jazz musician Johannes Fehring, with whom she also recorded a nice version of  “Cow Cow Boogie”. Fehring also recorded two rock´n´roll 45s for Heliodor in ´56 and ´57. Apparently Charlotte Rank  still performs from time to time in Vienna.

And what a looker she was!

It seems that songs that contain the word “rockabilly” ( like Guy Mitchell´s “Rock-a-billy”) in the title or the lyrics tend to be actually considerably less rockin´. The original version of  “Ding Dong Rockabilly Wedding” was recorded by Dean Libby in 1957 for Savoy, a Rhythm & Blues label and backed by the Ray Charles Singers. While Charlotte Rank´s version might not be rockabilly music, it´s still rather surprising to find any reference to the word in a German song when it wasn´t even all that common in the U.S. at the time.

For some reason so far “Ding Dong Rock” has slipped Bear Family Records otherwise pretty complete list of German rock´n´roll re-releases.

Here is this cute little ditty digitized  for the first time…

CHARLOTTE RANK, Ding Dong Rock, 1958

CHARLOTTE RANK, Der Gedanke schon allein, 1958

DR. M AND HIS DIXIE FIVE, Schlaf Kindchen schlaf, 1961

The small indies Anitrola, Amulett, Carina and Linda out of Frankfurt all belonged to the same family of labels. Fats and his Cats recorded some rock´n´roll on Linda and Laya Raki did her suggestive twist “Oh Johnny hier nicht parken” on Carina.

This dixieland version of  the lullaby  “Schlaf Kindchen schlaf ” went to number 30 in the German charts but soon faded into oblivion.  So far nobody cared to re-release it in 50 years…

DR. M AND HIS DIXIE FIVE, Schlaf Kindchen schlaf, 1961

DR.M AND HIS DIXIE FIVE, Lullaby, 1961

FRITZ TRIPPEL TRIO, Boogie, 1960

Fritz Trippel was a Swiss jazz pianist. This EP was recorded August 28, 1960 in Stuttgart  with Rolf Cizmek on bass and Henry Owen on drums.

FRITZ TRIPPEL TRIO, Boogie, 1960

INGFRIED HOFFMANN, Ingfried´s Boogie, 1956

I bought this in a thrift store  recently. It wasn´t possible to listen to the record in the store but “boogie” sounded interesting enough to spend one Euro on it. I really like these two boogie tunes. With repeated listening I have the feeling that they do stand out in the field of German jazz and rock´n´roll recordings in the 1950s. At least I can´t think of any other record that bridges the gap between those two styles better than this one does. I guess a big part of it was then 20 year old Ingfried. As the label states this release was a special “new talents series” (Nachwuchs-Serie) so he must have jumped at the chance to record one of his own songs for his first record. Back then most other young artists in the pop business had to record the material they were given. While I do enjoy the period charm of  records made by the likes of Ted Herold, Paul Würges and Ralf Bendix, their music was schlager first and rock´n´roll second. In contrast these two instrumentals come much closer to the rhythm & blues roots of rock´n´roll. For some reason they have never been re-released, probably because they are so singular. With what to pair them with?

INGFRIED HOFFMANN, Ingfried´s Boogie, 1956

Hoffmanns version of  Rimsky-Korsakov´s “Flight Of The Bumble Bee” predates the 1959 hit for B.Bumble & the Stingers ( Earl Palmer, René Hall and Plas Johnson) and is cleary inspired by the lightning-fast 1946 swing arrangemet of Freddy Martin and his Orchestra.

INGFRIED HOFFMANN, Bumble Boogie, 1956

Also I  already have another great record by Ingfried Hoffmann,   “Hammond Organ” on the Czech Supraphon labeI. The two Songs “TV-Swing” and “Soul Twist”, recorded in Hamburg in 1963, are great modern Jazz with a pop  twist. They have been re-released in 2007 on the “Hammond Bond – Jazz For Secret Agents” CD. In the 1960s Ingfried Hoffman went on to play with Klaus Doldinger and became of the most prestigious European jazz pianists. In 1970 Hoffman quit performing altogether to focus on composing and arranging. One of his most famous melodies, at least to the german audience, is the title track to the german Sesame Street.

Kreuzberg Swing

Am Freitag 9. März von 19 bis 23:30 Uhr veranstalte ich Kreuzberg Swing im Festsaal Kreuzberg, eine Swingtanzveranstaltung im Stil einer kleine Revue, die aber tanzbar bleibt, mit der bösen Berliner Swingband Skullduggery Swing, Fil (ja, DEM Fil), einer Bauchtanzperformance von Amani Said und kleinem kostenlosen Grundkurs mit Daniela und Marcus! Durchs Programm führt Franky Fuzz. Eintritt 6 Euro.

BIG JONES, Le Climb, 1963

One Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago my friend Franky picked me up with his car and took us to a record convention. I hadn´t been to one of those for a long time and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. It was poorly attended and apparantly only by old men.That had never bothered me before. I went to my first record swap meet in 1980, when I was a fourteen year old rockabilly, accompanied by my dad, who was very patient with me. The event had been recommended by the radio DJ Werner Voss on his weekly show “Werner Voss Rock´n´Roll museum”, that was always aired right after school. That first time I bought some nice 45s like “Heat/Nameless”, two great blasting saxophone instrumentals by the Rockin Rs on Tempus, or a pounding version of “In The Mood” by the Hawk (Jerry Lee Lewis) on the Phillips International label, of some vendors that seemed unbelievably old to me then, but were probably younger than I am today. Back then, before the Internet and Ebay, record conventions were the only place to find rare records. Also, vinyl was still the most popular medium, so a lot of different people, from jazz to schlager fans, went there to find something. This time I had a feeling the whole business was on the way down. Most of the stuff that is being sold is pop and rock vinyl LPs from the 60s to the 80s – the short period the collectors grew up in. No 78s, no electronic music or hip hop vinyl and only few  CDs. Even Jazz collectors don´t seem to look for vinyl any more. When I asked for Jazz,  a vendor told me: “Ah, I left that box at home!”

We still had a nice sunday morning at the swap meet and both came home with a bunch of cool stuff. From a french seller I bought this mysterious EP. “The Climb” was written by Leiber and Stoller for the Coasters, who first recorded it in 1962. Like a lot of the Coasters stuff it is a slow grinding R&B number with great vocal harmonies. In 1963 Duane Eddy recorded a instrumental version. In 1964 “The Climb” appeared again in “Viva Las Vegas” this time performed by the Forte Four, a gospel quartet led by George McFadden

In France at least eight different versions of “Le Climb” were released. The only information I could find about Big Jones, is from the back of the sleeve: 6.2 ft tall and born in Ohio. “Galaxie” was the biggest hit for “Les guitares du diable” a french instrumental band made up of studio musicians led by jazz guitarist Léo Petit (a.k.a William Stanray). The two other crazy twist songs on this EP are also penned by Stanray, so I guess this was one of his many projects in the early 60s.

So here´s “Le Climb”, a weird little number  with bass AND also very high vocals by the mysterious BIG JONES – THE HUMAN DOUBLE BASS!

BIG JONES, Le Climb, 1963

BIG JONES, Mais quést-ce c´est?, 1963

BIG JONES, Terrible pour la danse, 1963

BIG JONES, Galaxie, 1963

SVEN GOLDEN BAND, Barhocker-Bounce, 1961

“What are you doing, hacking away on that keyboard?”, my girlfriend asked irritated while I was writing this. “You´re not doing your blog again, are you?” My girlfriend always thought my blogging was just a huge waste of time. And she is right. Today it took me a couple of hours to do this little post, because I forgot how all the features work. Ridiculous how long it took. It was one of the reasons why I stopped blogging almost a year ago. I was addicted to “putting stuff from the real world into the digital world”, or at least that´s how I used to justify my activity, but then I never really had any use for the digital myself. I still don´t listen to MP3s, I don´t own CDs and I don´t buy anything on the Internet. Especially not on Ebay. I like buying real records and if I ever had a message behind this blog, it was to encourage people to go out and buy records. It´s easy. I do it every week. Another reason for my absence was that my computer collapsed. Luckily a friend gave me his old one but it is really loud and slow and most of the keys on the keyboard don´t work properly so it takes twice as long to write. It´s just not fun doing a music blog like this.

The biggest reason for my hiatus was that my girlfriend and me started swing dancing, a very worldly activity and a very social one. I met a lot of nice people in the swing scene but the best thing of it is, that of all the other musical sub-cultures that I was involved in since the early eighties, the swing dancing scene is the only one dominated by women. I love it and sure felt more like spending my spare time with my girlfriend and her friends, instead of the computer.

Swing dancing also opened up a huge new field of music for me. For the past year I´ve been buying quite a few jazz records and also found some pretty odd 45s that have never been re-released.

Like this advertisement record for Übersee-Kaffee. Christina Burg also did “Übersee-Kaffe-Rumba” and I have another one of her 45s on the Souvenir label: “Ich freu mich immer so, wenn Ferien sind”. In “Mister Millers Milchbar” Christina sings abut milk instead of coffee. “Barhocker-Bounce” (bar stool bounce) is 1950s big-band swing but listen to the bottle pop and the glasses klank…

SVEN GOLDEN BAND, Barhocker-Bounce, 1961

CHRISTINA BURG, Mister Milers Milchbar, 1961

CARLO GENOVESI, Baby Luna, 1960

One of the best things about doing a music blog -  apart from feedback from readers and artists involved with the records -  is when I get sent contributions from readers. This happy little tune and nice scan, I got via email from Frank from Milano, Italy.

This  is what he wrote:

Your blog is delicious: even if  I can’t understand the words in the records, the music is fabulous!
I love the 50s, and somewhat I’m a collector too: I’m interested mainly in Italian rock’n’roll of the 50s, that except for some names (Celentano amongst all), the rest is pretty obscure. I’d like to donate you a song taken from a flexi-disc.
The year is 1960, the guy who sings is named Carlo Genovesi (I don’t know if he made other records after this) and the song is called “Baby Luna”, and it sounds pretty well.
The same song was performed by a more famous Italian singer the year before, Bruno Martino (who co-wrote this song), and it was more uptempo than this version.

This flexi came along with a puzzle book called Nuova Enigmistica Tascabile, NET, and it was out every Saturday between the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Enjoy!

Thanks a lot for taking the time to record and scan this record.

Mille grazie, Franco!

CARLO GENOVESI, Baby Luna, 1960

Frank is also drumming in the great western swing/rockabilly band The Starliters, who will be playing in Berlin on Saturday, May 14th at the Roadrunners Club. I´ll definetely be heading over to the Roadrunners Club! If you´re into rockabilly, come and see The Starliters!

Tempelhof Swing

Wer Lust hat kann mit uns am Ostermontag, 25 April, auf dem Tempelhofer Feld Swing tanzen. Swingtanzbare Musik kommt direkt vom Plattenteller.  Decken, Getränke und Verpflegung bitte mitbringen. Wenn ihr am Eingang Columbiadamm auf  Kreidezeichen auf dem Boden achtet,  findet ihr uns leicht.

Berlin Tempelhof Airport has a long history starting in 1923. In 1933 Berlin´s first concentration camp was established in this place. After Tempelhof Airport was massively reconstructed in 1936 by the Nazi governement, thousands of forced laborers worked there in air armament. Of course Tempelhof was also the base of the legendary  Berlin Airlift, the Allied mission to fly food and supplies to blockaded West Berlin in 1948-1949. The airport closed in 2008. Today it is a public park.

We´ll be dancing in Tempelhof park on Easter monday. To commemorate the US history of  the airport, here´s a 45 used for radio broadcasts. Betty Madigan together with Dick Hyman and his band advertise for WAF – Women in the Air Force.

“So rememer young ladies: if the life of the WAF appeals to you, talk with your local Air Force recruiter. Get in on the ground floor of the space age!”

BETTY MADIGAN WITH DICK HYMAN AND HIS BAND, Just Like Sam/  Candy, 1958

BETTY MADIGAN WITH DICK HYMAN AND HIS BAND, I`ll Never Say Never Again/  Tears ON My Pillow, 1958

JACK DIÉVAL ET SON SEPTUOR, Rock´n´Roll Ruby, 1956

Despite the last two rainy days, springtime is in full swing here in Berlin, so I´d like to celebrate with some swinging early french rock´n´roll.  No idea how this turned up in Prague, but that´s where I  bought this 45 a couple of years ago. Great dual vocals by Maria Velasco and Jean-Pierre Sasson, backed by swing jazz veteran Jaques Diéval!

JACK DIÉVAL ET SON SEPTUOR, Rock´n´Roll Ruby, 1956

JACK DIÉVAL ET SON SEPTUOR, Church Bells May Ring (Bing! Bang! Rock!), 1956

LUISE MARTINI, Die Brieftaschen-Anni, 1957

Luise Martini (born 1931) is an Austrian actress. In 1957 she started co-hosting the popular daily radio-show Autofahrer unterwegs (car drivers on the way). The one-hour show ran for 42 years and featured music, traffic reports and notification requests for travellers on the road. These requests,  searching for travellers when a close relative at home was seriously ill or dead, are still being broadcasted all over Europe during summer vacation.  Of course in the past they were of greater importance. Before cellphones, once you were travelling, you were gone.

In the swinging Brieftaschen-Anni (wallet-Anni), sung in Austrian dialect, Luise Martini is telling the humorous story of Anni, a professional thief who “doesn´t like boogie, be-bop and rock´n´roll, because it makes stealing impossible when you´re twirling up in the air”.

LUISE MARTINI, Die Brieftaschen-Anni, 1957

LUISE MARTINI, Autofahrer unterwegs, 1957

MONA BAPTISTE, Die Mädchen aus de Mambo-Bar, 1959

The story of  Afro Carribean artists living and working in Germany, like Billy Mo, Roberto Blanco and Mona Baptiste has not been written yet.  At least I´ve never seen the book. Even though they were mostly offered Schlager material, sounds the conservative German audience was used to, these artists managed to leave a legacy of music in the post-war era that contributed greatly in making German culture much more varied and less insulated.

Mona Baptiste, born in Trinidad in 1928, had already  established herself as a blues singer, when she arrived in London in 1948. In the subsequent years she worked with Cab Kaye in London and Stephane Grapelli in Paris. In 1953 she got her first contract with Polydor in Germany and recorded and performed together with Werner Müller and later with Bert Kämpfert. Starting in 1954 she appeared in seven German films in the 50s. Mona Baptiste continued to work into the 70s. She died in 1993 in Krefeld, Germany.

This song is the title track to the film  Mädchen für die Mambo-Bar from 1959. Last year I posted Heiße Musik, another song from the film here. Bear Family Records has reissued Mona Baptiste´s early 50s material on the LP Es liegt was in der Luft and these two tracks on their great all-girl CD compilation Vor Kurven wird gewarnt.

MONA BAPTISTE, Die Mädchen aus der Mambo-Bar, 1959

MONA BAPTISTE, Boy, komm und küß mich, 1959

TANZ-ORCHESTER, Manches “Nein” heißt “Vielleicht”, 1931

Last week, while searching for German postwar swing records in a thrift store I came across these smaller 8 inch records. I´m not into tango music and I´m not going to start collecting records from the 1930s, but the names of the songs made me curious. The records are in poor condition -  at least they were cheap, only  1 euro. At home I was happy to find out that these tangos are quite  light-hearted, even funny. The song Manches “Nein” heißt “Vielleicht” suggests that sometimes “no” means “maybe”, because a lady who cares about her outward appearance is shy about the “yes”.

Ralph  Benatzky, who wrote the song, became  famous for his musicals that combined more traditional with new 1920s jazz rhythms. His most famous play “Im weißen Rössl” (1930) was banned by the nazis because of its jewish co-authors and marked as “enartet” because it made fun of traditional values and because of  a saucy bathing scene. Benatzky left Berlin in 1932,  first to Switzerland and later for Hollywood.

TANZ-ORCHESTER MIT REFRAINGESANG, Manch “Nein” heisst “Vielleicht”, 1931

„ Manches „Nein“ heißt „Vielleicht“/ Und „Vielleicht“ heißt „Gewiss“, oder so/ Denn die Dame von Welt, die auf´s Äußere hält, bis auf da mit dem „Ja“/ Man kaschiert sein Gefühl, teils aus Scheu, teils kokett, oder so/  Kurz, in dem Augenblick, macht der Ton die Musik“

Tri -Ergon, a system to record sound directly on film, was invented in Berlin in 1919. Fox Movietone later used it among other sytems for one of  the first talking films, Friedrich Wihelm Murnau´s Sunrise (1927). The Tri-Ergon record label produced a wide variety of records in the 20s and early 30s. The smaller 8 inch records were the cheapos.

TANZ -ORCHESTER MIT REFRAINGESANG, Ich hab´ kein Herz seit 24 Stunden, 1931

Pictures from a program of  the Berlin Wintergarten music hall from May 1931, that  I bought some years ago in a thrift store. Actually it´s a small mgazine filled with photos and little articles about Berlin nightlife. The cover and one more illustration are signed by BALKIE,  a cartoonist the Internet has no knowledge of. I really like his style and wish I could find more information about the artist.

ARGENTINISCHE TANGO-KAPELLE, Heut tanz´ ich nur mit dir, 1930

On more cheap 8 inch tango record, this one is on the Derby label. The local Berlin Derby label was an economy label that also produced  regular 10 inch records. Before I  “researched” a bit on the Internet, I didn´t know economy labels existed in the 1920s. But of course the recording industry was already huge,  so of course some businesses tried to sell cheaper versions of  hit records.

As was common practice with cheapo labels, the names of the artists didn´t appear on the labels but often well-known artists were playing on the recordings.  The musicians of the “Argentinean Tango Band” were most likely  local Berliners. The original of Heut tanz´ ich nur mit dir (today I´ll only dance with you) was written by famous Berlin composer  Will Meisel.

ARGENTINISCHE TANGO-KAPELLE, Heut tanz´ ich nur mit dir, 1930

ARGENTINISCHE TANGO-KAPELLE, Auf einer kleinen Bank im Park, 1930

A single page probably from another program, that I “found” in the May 1931 Wintergarten program, with a poem by Erich Kästner and nice photo of  contortionist Barbara La May.

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER TANZORCHESTER, Top-Light, 1959

Over the past month I´ve really gotten into 78rpm records and swing music. Suddenly the less than 50 shellac records I´ve  recently accumulated are much more exiting to me than the thousands of 45s I have in my collection. Also more exiting than the boxes I´ve filled with odd and never re-released 45s for this blog.

So what do I post next? More scratchy 78s? Not until I find a better way of recording them. As much as I like to listen to the shellac records on my record player, so far the results of my digitizing are painful to listen to.  While searching in my collection for something to get me at least a little bit inspired I found these records. They make a transition from the early to the late 50s. From swing on 78rpm to swing on 45.

Some nice up-tempo swing music on Top-Light by Heinrich Riethmüller and his orchestra from an advertisement record for the film “Elektroschiffe – Voll voraus” (full ahead) produced by the AEG company, proudly showing all of the electrical equipment on the electric-diesel ship “Wappen von Hamburg”. A quick look at Wikipedia revealed that it is currently being renovated in San Fransisco, California. The new owners even made a cool blog about the history of the vessel.

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER TANZORCHESTER, Top-Light, 1959

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER TANZORCHESTER, Voll voraus!, 1959

HEINRICH RIETMÜLLER & DAS CORNEL-QUINTETT, Winke Winke, 1950

Heinrich Rietmüller was born in 1921 in Berlin and after studying music, got his first professional job right after the war, playing piano in the Radio Berlin Tanzorchester. On this Amiga recording he can be heard backing the Cornel-Quartett playing the Wurlitzer electric piano.

The song was originally written by Michael Jary for the film “Die dritte von rechts” from 1950,  a spectacle picture most notable for Laya Raki´s taped nipples.

HEINRICH RIETMÜLLER & DAS CORNEL-QUINTETT, Winke Winke, 1950

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER, Grüne Welle, 1959

In the 1970s Heinrich Riethmüller (1921-2006) got to be known by millions of Germans when he appeared regularly on television in the Dalli Dalli quiz show. Without noticing  German kids were also familiar with Riethmüller because he was responsible for directing many  German soundtracks and voiceovers of Disney films.

As indicated on the back of the sleeve Heinrich Riethmüller recorded at least seven more 45s for the Austrian Amadeo label. He can be heard playing the electric piano on these two automobile related songs: Grüne Welle (A lucky streak of being given the green light at crossings) and Romanze für 12PS (PS = horsepower, so I guess it´s veeeery slow romance).

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER UND SEINE SOLISTEN, Grüne Welle, 1959

HEINRICH RIETHMÜLLER UND SEINE SOLISTEN, Romanze für 12PS, 1959

GOLDY UND PETER DE VRIES, Mich zieht´s zurück nach Hawaii, 1949

This week more shellac records: Danish rumba-swing, Danish western-swing and Dutch Hawaiian-swing sung in German.

I love this song! It´s schmaltzy and it is a little irritating when they sing about “das schöne Hula-Mädchen mit dem  rabenschwarzen Haar” (the pretty hula girl with the pitch black hair), but compared to the majority of German  Hawaiian music, this doesn´t sound so damn German.  Because it isn´t. The Dutch duo Goldy and Peter de Vries, backed by the  Horst Wende Trio, recorded in the ruins of Hamburg.

This is a 78rpm record that I bought two weeks ago in a local Berlin thrift store for 50 cents….

GOLDY UND PETER DE VRIES, Mich zieht´s zurück nach Hawaii, 1949

Peter de Vries is mentioned in this 1951 article about some Kids in cowboy gear posing in the ruins near the Cologne Cathedral. Apparently he was quite famous for his cowboy songs in the early 50s.

Indianer gingen – Cowboys blieben.

Geschäfte für Scherzartkel, die früher an kleine Kunden Indianer-Kopfschmuck verkauften, verdanken heute dem Cowboy-Darsteller William Boyd, der als “Hopalong Cassidy” in zahlreichen Filmen die Kinder in aller Welt begeistert, ungeahnten Umsatz. In Deutschland half der Schlagersänger Peter de Vries, die Cowboys und ihre Lieder populär zu machen. (Neue Illustrierte, Köln 1951)

EDDIE RUSSELL, Cowboyens Sang, 1947

For some reason the trift store, where I bought most of the 78rpm records, also had a lot of Danish records. Out of curiosity I bought a bunch of them, but most of them turned out to be pretty boring.

Not this one. Although sung in Danish, and nowhere as fast as the original “Blazin´The Trail To My Home” written by Teddy Powell and recorded in 1945 by Gene Autry, Eddie Russell´s version is a pretty close approximation of American western swing music. Or at least much closer than every German Cowboy song I have ever heard.

Now if I only found a cheap way of getting rid of the awful clicks and hisses. This record cost 50 cents.

EDDIE RUSSELL, Cowboyens Sang, 1949

EDDIE RUSSELL, The Last Round-Up, 1949

VALDEMAR DAVIDS, Managua Nicaragua, 1947

Managua, Nicaragua was first recorded by Freddy Martin´s orchestra and reached #1 on the Billboard charts in 1947. Rita Paul, backed by Walter Dobschinski and his Swingband, did a version sung in English for the Amiga label in 1948. I love Rita Paul but this Danish version, sung by Valdemar Davids, is much better. Danish just sounds much funnier and the fast swinging groove gets me on my feet every time.

VALDEMAR DAVIDS, Managua, Nicaragua, 1947

This is a Wikipedia photo of Danish bandleader Teddy Petersen (1892-1991) and his orchestra, probably at restaurant Wivex at Tivoli in Copenhagen in 1941. Petersen is standing to the far left with violin.

Teddy Petersen also appears in this 1941 film. The showgirls in the silky hot pants arguing with the lady toward the end of the film almost made me pee my pants:

Just for comparison, this is Freddy Martin´s original version of  Managua, Nicaragua:

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