Werner Müller und seine Heubodensänger, Sportpalast-Twist, 1964

A while back I posted a bunch of Werner Müller´s rockin´orchestra sides. Last week at the charity shop I got his Sportpalast-Twist, a Berlin twist song if there ever was one.

Built in 1910 the Sportpalast was Berlin´s first multi-purpose arena. At the time of its opening it was the largest such facility in the world. Max Schmeling boxed there. Social-Democrats, Communists and Nazis held conventions there. Goebbels held his famous “Total War speech” there. After the war many rock groups played there, among them: Bill Haley, The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. It was torn down in 1973 and replaced by a high-rise appartement complex.  Today it is still a eye-sore, dubbed by Berliners  the “Sozialpalast”.

The Sportpalast-Twist is a twist version of the Sportpalastwalzer, that was first performed in 1923 at the “Sixdays” cycling event. The whistles heard throughout the song, were established by “Krücke”, a Berlin bloke who made a name of himself by his funny antics. Initially he loudly whistled the chorus from the audience and by doing so helped establish the song. In the subsequent versions of the song the whistles were deliberately built-in. The “Sixdays” run is still being held in Berlin, turning in about 75.000 visitors  each year.

Fittingly “Noch ein Tor” (One more goal) is a twist song with a football theme. My record didn´t have a sleeve so I took this little image from the great FC 45 site. If you´re into football and football related music, they have gathered the best collection of  football records I´ve ever seen.

Werner Müller und seine Heubodensänger, Sportpalast-Twist, 1964

Werner Müller und seine Heubodensänger, Noch ein Tor, 1964

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