Edelweiss (band)
Encyclopedia
Edelweiss was an Austria
n electronica
/dance
band consisting of remixers Martin Gletschermayer, Matthias Schweger
and Walter Werzowa
. The group is best known for their 1988 worldwide hit "Bring Me Edelweiss", and their European hit "Starship Edelweiss".
Edelweiss reached the number one position with their hit "Bring Me Edelweiss" in many European countries, supposedly by following the instructions given in The KLF
's book The Manual
. Borrowing large parts of its melody from ABBA
's "SOS
" and Indeep
's "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
", the song humorously targeted Austrian ski resorts and yodeling
and sold five million copies worldwide. Bill Drummond
, one of the authors of The Manual, mentioned the group in the epilogue of the German release of the book, which was originally published in 1989 (in English
).
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
/dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
band consisting of remixers Martin Gletschermayer, Matthias Schweger
Matthias Schweger
Matthias Peter Schweger is an award-winning director, writer, and producer for television. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded and managed internationally successful music projects Edelweiss and Bingoboys, as well as music video production companies, and helped launch Germany's first music video...
and Walter Werzowa
Walter Werzowa
Walter Werzowa is an Austrian composer, producer and owner of LA-based music production studio Musikvergnuegen. He is most famous for composing the "Intel bong" jingle and the '80s hit "Bring Me Edelweiss" as part of the band Edelweiss....
. The group is best known for their 1988 worldwide hit "Bring Me Edelweiss", and their European hit "Starship Edelweiss".
Edelweiss reached the number one position with their hit "Bring Me Edelweiss" in many European countries, supposedly by following the instructions given in The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
's book The Manual
The Manual
The Manual is a 1988 book by The Timelords , better known as The KLF. It is a tongue-in-cheek step by step guide to achieving a No.1 single with no money or musical skills, and a case study of the duo's UK novelty pop No...
. Borrowing large parts of its melody from ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
's "SOS
SOS (ABBA song)
Agnetha Fältskog's version was the second single from her fifth Swedish solo-album Elva kvinnor i ett hus . It was the only song from this album not to have been composed by Fältskog herself....
" and Indeep
Indeep
Indeep was a 1980s New York-based R&B/New Wave group, best known for its post-disco song "Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life."-Career:The group was led by its songwriter-musician Michael Cleveland, and it was known for employing a strong disco-esque bass line and early hip hop lyrics backed by two...
's "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (song)
"Last Night a D.J. Saved My Life" is a song written by Michael Cleveland for R&B–New Wave–dance group Indeep. It features vocals from Reggie and Rose Marie Ramsey, and its protagonists recall how they were bored to death until a DJ played a hot song and saved their lives by giving new energy to the...
", the song humorously targeted Austrian ski resorts and yodeling
Yodeling
Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning "to...
and sold five million copies worldwide. Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond
William Ernest Drummond is a Scottish artist, musician, writer and record producer. He was the co-founder of late 1980s avant-garde pop group The KLF and its 1990s media-manipulating successor, the K Foundation, with which he burned a million pounds in 1994...
, one of the authors of The Manual, mentioned the group in the epilogue of the German release of the book, which was originally published in 1989 (in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
).
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT | UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
US dance club Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
US dance sales Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes... |
US mod. |
DE Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
CH Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
NL Mega Single Top 100 The Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales and legal downloads and composed by MegaCharts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutch Top 40 and the Mega Top 50. The difference is that these charts also include airplay data.The list is... |
SE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
||
| 1988 / 89 | "Bring Me Edelweiss" | 1 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 24 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1989 | "I Can't Get No... Edelweiss" | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| 1992 | "Raumschiff Edelweiss" / "Starship Edelweiss" | 1 | − | − | − | − | 7 | 8 | 19 | 25 |
| 1992 / 93 | "Planet Edelweiss" | 14 | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| 1993 | "Beam Me Up" | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| 1993 | "Ski Instructor" | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| 1997 | "Edeltaler Hochzeitsmarsch (Kein Sex vor der Ehe)" | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
| 2001 | "Bring Me Edelweiss" (Remix) | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − | − |
Album
| Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AT | UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
US Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
DE Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
CH Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
NL Mega Single Top 100 The Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales and legal downloads and composed by MegaCharts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutch Top 40 and the Mega Top 50. The difference is that these charts also include airplay data.The list is... |
SE Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
||
| 1992 / 93 | The Wonderful World of Edelweiss | 11 | − | − | 91 | − | − | − |