DIE SKYPIPERS, Red River Rock, 1959
Posted: February 23, 2013 Filed under: 50s, Flexible Records, Instrumental Records, Rock´n´Roll Records 6 Comments »
“WTF! Are you kiddin´”? That´s what I thought today when I heard this song for the first time. But somehow it also made perfect sense. So much sense that I wondered if I had ever really listened to the original version of Red River Rock. I mean really really LISTENED closely. Because on this version, the famous melody is played on a Blockflöte - a recorder. And it just sounds right. Was that a recorder, that I had never noticed, in the original version, too? This little school kid instrument? I actually immediately went to check…
Of course in the Johnny and the Hurricanes version its a Hammond organ! Played by Paul Tesluk on a Hammond Chord Organ. Pfff, I was worried there for a short time…
On this German flexible budget 45 the recorder, according to the label played by a certain Fred Brass, aptly mimics a Hammond organ. Sweet!
DIE SKYPIPERS, Red River Rock, 1959
The other side is Dixieland. German budget Dixieland and I´m pretty confident, that the people who recorded this song and the people who bought the record didn´t have any idea what they were playing and listening to. In the 50s Germany was just too far away from Dixie. Nevertheless this version is not even so bad. It´s a pretty carefree trad-style jazz song, including nice trumpet, clarinet, banjo, saxophone, even a short drum solo! There is a lot of music out there that is way worse…
ALAMBA DIXIES, Two Beat Dixie, 1959
I don´t know anything about the Heinerle label, but I´ve noticed that it had a knack for recording original material along with the typical budget versions of hit songs. Limehouse Dixie is credited to M. Bender and Moro, whoever they are, and doesn´t sound like Limehouse Blues, the jazz standard. So maybe it was a Heinerle original:
DIE DIXIELÄNDER, Limehouse-Dixie
In Motril is a silly song (poem?). It´s got nothing to do with the Spanish town of Motril on the Mediterranian coast. Tommy Stone is a pseudonym and I don´t know who he is behind it, but I´ve written about Kid Orbis before. This is what I wrote:
The name Kid Orbis can be found on quite a few cheapo releases on various German labels like Delta-Ton, Opera, Tip Top and Universumin. Likely chosen to sound like legendary jazz trombonist Kid Ory, the man behind the pseudonym Kid Orbis was actually Wolfgang “Wolf” Gabbe. According to Wikipedia Wolf Gabbe, born April 28, 1924 in Berlin, first worked as an auto-mechanic before taking evening classes to become a drummer. After 1945 he started to play in swing and dance bands and made his first recording for the East-German Amiga label in 1948. Gabbe´s “Radio-Star-Band” remained a fixture in Berlin into the 60s. By the way, you might want to check out another Wolf Gabbe advertisement record that I posted some years ago here: “Hully-Gully-TÖFF-TÖFF” released in 1961 on the local Rondo-Exquisit label.
TOMMY STONE MIT DEM ORCHESTER KID ORBIS, In Motril
Getting bored already? I am. Yea, that how it is sometimes… I start out with one cool song and then I add all the others that I have by that artist/label and they just are not as good. “Our love awakened tonight at the Rio Grande…” Yawn…
DINA VAN BEEREN, Am Rio Grande
Perfect if you´re from somewhere on the other side of the world and are really curious about German Schlager music. And for some reason you´ve never heard the original version of Kriminaltango. Or you like Tango. Or Criminal stories.
DIE SOLM BROTHERS, Kriminaltango
About me:
My name is Andreas Michalke. I´m a cartoonist from Berlin, Germany and I like collecting records. Most of the records I find in thrift stores or at flea markets here in Berlin. I like a lot of music but I thought I`d focus on odd German records. Preferably with cartoon covers.
All my scans are high-resolution. If you double-click on them they will get much bigger.
Hey Andreas!
“In the 50s Germany was just too far away from Dixie”? I think Dixie came very close when Chris Barber played in Hamburg in 1958 and at “Deutschlandhalle” in Berlin (10.000 seats) in 1959! http://www.chrisbarber.net/tours-concerts/tc~home.htm
Cheers,
Asphalt Tiger
Hey Tiger,
no doubt, Germans got to hear loots of Dixieland music in the 1950s. But Chris Barber was from Hertfordshire! I meant “Dixie” as in American South. I don´t think German jazz musicians and fans actually realized the racist connotation of the Confederate anthem. “Today, “Dixie” is sometimes considered offensive, and its critics link the act of singing it to sympathy for the concept of slavery in the American South.”
Menno jetzt parlieren wir hier schon auf Englisch… Nichts für ungut…
Alles Liebe
Andi
Andreas!
Oh, ich bin deinem link nicht gefolgt, ich alter Zausel, pardon, pardon … Danke für die Aufklärung, der Groschen ist gefallen!
Hab mich schon gewundert, alter Checker!
Auf Wiedersehen beim Rock’n'Roll (hoffentlich bald!),
Dein Tiger
Tiger!
Sorry, wo kann ich sonst noch schlauschnacken, wenn nicht hier?…
Rock´n´Roll, tja… der Reflex funktioniert immer noch… ist nur im Moment auf Stand-By….
bis bald!
Andi
Hallo nach Berlin,
ich (Jahrgang 1949) kann mich deutlich daran erinnern, dass Heinerle Wundertüten herstellte, die ich sehr gerne kaufte (oder meine Eltern mir kauften). Das sie auch im Musikbusiness tätig waren, ist mir allerdings bislang verborgen geblieben. Kompliment für den tollen Blog und die wirklich raren Raritäten.
Detlef aus Lohmar
Lieber Detlef,
viel Dank für das Lob. Du hast natürlich recht, Heinerle hat die bekannten Wundertüten produziert. Leider habe ich die Marke Heinerle erst nach der “Veröffentlichung” dieses Posts gründlicher recherchiert. Die Firma Heinerle produziert übrigens heute immer noch Süßwaren und Spielzeug und sogar Wundertüten! Allerdings dürfte die Wirkung von Wundertüten auf unsere Überraschungseiverwöhnten Kinder von heute ungleich kleiner sein, als in den fünfziger Jahren. Die Heinerle Flexis gab in der Tüte am Kiosk. Wenn man´s genau betrachtet: genau so kindermässig klingt der Blockflöten-Rock auch. Aber süss!
Grüsse aus Berlin
Andreas