Hildegard Knef

I just did a YouTube search for versions of the "Pirate Jenny" and came across one by Hildegard Knef, the great German actress and singer. she was not a great singer in the way that she hit the right notes, but she was extremely expressive. Ella Fitzgerald called her "the greatest singer of all", and she definitely was a great singer herself.
here her great version of the "Pirate Jenny":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvDWwm2MHlI&feature=related

and a few others of her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKxQnUN5VZ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OA1l6BPUBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4zKSm2nJw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyD3BQnFiPc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1riCDou_ew&feature=related


Edited by BaldJean - March 15 2008 at 05:58

Black Velvet wrote: I had never heard of her before. But as you said she has quite a distinctive voice, I'm trying to think of the word that would encompass her delivery. A lot of the time it seems quite an aggressive delivery. What sort of acting did she do?

She was the first woman who appeared naked in a German movie, if only for a few seconds. It was quite a scandal in the prude Germany of the fifties, also because of the content of the movie (a prostitute taking good care of her child; this positive depiction of a prostitute was unthinkable, and the church literally howled). The name of that movie was "Die Sünderin" ("The Sinner").
She had an attempt at Hollywood, but the best she ever got was a role in "Snows of the Kilimanjaro", in which the real stars were Gregory Peck, Susan Heyward and Ava Gardner. She mentions that attempt in her song "Von nun an ging's bergab" ("After that it was downhill").
She was also a successful author; her book "Der geschenkte Gaul" ("The Gift Horse") was a huge success.