Why did most German bands sing in English?

It`s from an album called Uber sieben Brucken ( Over 7 Bridges ) Wow! I thought I was the only one on the planet who had that album. I think it was also released in West Germany at the time but I`ve got an East German pressing. Got it at some yard sale somewhere for 50 cents or something like that. They`re still going I believe. Wonder why they`re not on PA??? Some cool stuff here.

Even nowadays a couple of bands do it,

Like "Tokio Hotel"...

Don't bother listening ton them, terrible, poppy, boring rock.

But

They record all of their songs in both German and English.

GaryB wrote: Here are a few more German bands that I have set aside for closer listens: Eloy, Kraan, Grobschnitt, Karthago, Kin Ping Meh and Message. I believe most of them sing in English but if I come across some in German, I will post them.

Greets from southern California,

My old Swiss progressive rock band Flame Dream,singer Peter Wolf wrote lyrics and sang always in english due because our label Vertigo,Phonogram and the band wanted to make our music much much more international.
Even whilst tracking,recording working at Patrick Moraz's Aquarius Studios in Geneva,Switzerland;and his amazing engineer Jean Ristori,(where most European prog rock bands recorded at);spoke and wrote in mostly english.
http://www.rire-sous-cape.ch/counting-out-time/flame-dream/flame-dream-index.htm


Edited by DaleHauskins - May 29 2009 at 14:39

BaldFriede wrote: The first one to only use German as a language in German rock music was singer Udo Lindenberg (of whom hardly anyone knows that he used to be a good drummer and even played with Passport on their first album).

I knew that! And I love some of his albums from the 1970s, especially PANISCHE NAECHTE, which is darker than you'd expect from him.

By the way, there are lots of British (and American) artists who sing in excellent German, e.g. Ian Bostridge, James Gilchrist, Simon Keenlyside, Thomas Hampson and Mark Padmore. But they've all had classical training.

Also, in past decades certain French-language, German-language and Italian-language performers did very well in the charts in the Dutch-speaking parts of the world. (I can hear some of you Yanks going: "Dutch? Ain't that the same as German? )
For example: Umberto Tozzi, Eros Ramazotti, Serge Gainsbourg, Les Poppies (!) and that idiot who crooned "Du bist ALLES was ich habe auf der Welt! Du bist alles was ich bin, YE-E-AH!"

Edited by fuxi - May 31 2009 at 16:27

Actually, I think they spelled their name "Les Poppys". They were a wildly popular French boys choir from the early seventies, who had hits with pop songs like "Non, non, rien n'a change" (sorry, I don't have the accent handy) and "Isabelle je t'aime". You can probably find them on YouTube!

Sean Trane wrote: Chez ces gens-là, monsieur, on ne vit pas!! On triche!!! Jacques Brel

moshkito wrote: Sean Trane wrote: Chez ces gens-là, monsieur, on ne vit pas!! On triche!!! Jacques Brel   if you have not heard Ange do this song ... it's a treat. And it shows, that Decamps is one of the finest actor singers out there ever ... sorry Peter ... and Fish and whoever else!

Edited by lucas - June 01 2009 at 12:12

P.S. I made a mistake. "Moscow Discow" was one of Telex' earlier singles. For the Eurovision contest they wrote a special number, to which they gave the exciting title "Eurovision":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6USa0zUMmqI

They had the distinction of finishing last! ("La Belgique, nul points!") Clearly hoi polloi were not ready for this. Out-of-this-world!

By the way, Les Poppys were not as silly as you might think. The opening number on their first album ("Des chansons pop") opened with a daring guitar solo in Jimi Hendrix vein, it finished with a French-language cover of "Let the Sunshine in" (which I, as an eleven year old, found incredibly exciting) and in between there even was a kind of... well... a "tribute" to Jimi (who'd only just died):

Pour Jimi Hendrix qui ne voulait pas voir
Pour les Blancs, les Rouges, les Jaunes ou bien les Noirs
Pour l'Ouest ou le Sud, ou l'Est ou bien le Nord
Pour tous les vivants qui distribuent la mort
Je demande une trêve pour que se passe en paix
Cette conférence au sommet

("Noel '70")

Ah, innocent days!

Latest news: at the time of writing, one Peter Fox (from Berlin) has a huge hit in the (Dutch-speaking) Low Countries with something called "Haus am See", sung in German. It's a true "summer hit", in spite of the fact the German language is not usually perceived as "cool".

moshkito wrote: I found the reason ... I found it! You have to do some math... How many German speaking peoples there are ... and then ...(here comes the kicker ...) How many English speaking people there are in both the Great Brittain areas and American areas ...

On the other hand, there are lots of U.K. bands who never make it in the U.S. but who manage to survive by touring the U.K. alone, with occasional forays into selected European countries. Similarly, many Italian acts thrive by touring Italy alone. Now Germany has a much bigger population than either Italy or the U.K. so - you see what I mean!