Melodien, die die Welt erobern
Encyclopedia
Melodien, die die Welt erobern is a studio album
recorded for the German
market by U. S.
Entertainer Connie Francis
.
, Francis had established herself in Germany as a respected performer of contemporay German music over the next years, scoring five further # 1 hits.
Her former albums on the German market had either been compilations of her greatest German hits or local releases of her U. S. albums. The 1966 Melodien, die die Welt erobern was the first of only two German concept albums, being followed by Lass mich bei dir sein in 1967. Recording sessions were held between June 17 and 19, 1966 at DGG's
studios in Munich
.
Over the previous years of working with renowned German and Austrian
arrangers and composers like Werner Scharfenberger, Erwin Halletz or Johannes Fehring, Francis had frequently praised the high quality of Germany's musical output, claiming Germany to be her favorite music recording spot outside the United States. But for Melodien, die die Welt erobern (which loosely translates as Melodies that took the world by a storm), Francis and her German producer Gerhard Mendelson wanted to go for a more international sound. Thus, it was decided to re-record eleven songs which Francis had recorded between July 1960 and May 1966 for her American album projects:
Tapes
containing the instrumental playbacks of these recordings were shipped to Munich where Francis overdubbed
her German vocals. For Over the Rainbow and Moon River, taken from the album Connie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits, the playbacks of the 1962 versions were used. See also:
The only song previously not recorded by Francis was Heißer Sand. Gerhard Mendelson had insisted that the album should feature at least one song of German origin which had gained the status World Wide Hit. Since Mina
– another international star protégéed in Germany by Mendelson – had brought Heißer Sand not only to # 1 of the German charts but also made it an international success by recording it in Italian
, French
, and Spanish
, followed by cover versions in Dutch
and English by Anneke Grönloh
as well as an instrumental version by Ron Goodwin
and his orchestra, the inclusion of the song on Melodien, die die Welt erobern was an obvious choice. For the Francis recording, Mina's original backing track from 1962 was used.
The album was released in late 1966 as a tie-in to Francis' first German TV special of the same name. No song was culled for a single release
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
recorded for the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
market by U. S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Entertainer Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
.
History
Beginning in 1960 with the overwhelmig # 1 chart success of Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel, a German version of her own U. S. hit Everybody's Somebody's FoolEverybody's Somebody's Fool
"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" is a song written by Jack Keller and Howard Greenfield which was a #1 hit for Connie Francis in mid 1960....
, Francis had established herself in Germany as a respected performer of contemporay German music over the next years, scoring five further # 1 hits.
Her former albums on the German market had either been compilations of her greatest German hits or local releases of her U. S. albums. The 1966 Melodien, die die Welt erobern was the first of only two German concept albums, being followed by Lass mich bei dir sein in 1967. Recording sessions were held between June 17 and 19, 1966 at DGG's
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
studios in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
Over the previous years of working with renowned German and Austrian
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...
arrangers and composers like Werner Scharfenberger, Erwin Halletz or Johannes Fehring, Francis had frequently praised the high quality of Germany's musical output, claiming Germany to be her favorite music recording spot outside the United States. But for Melodien, die die Welt erobern (which loosely translates as Melodies that took the world by a storm), Francis and her German producer Gerhard Mendelson wanted to go for a more international sound. Thus, it was decided to re-record eleven songs which Francis had recorded between July 1960 and May 1966 for her American album projects:
- Dance My Trouble Away (Zorba's Dance)ZorbasZorbas is a song by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It is based on two traditional Cretan songs, "Armenohorianos Syrtos" and "Kritiko syrtaki", composed by Giorgis Koutsourelis. The song featured in the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, for which Theodorakis wrote the soundtrack, and become extremely...
from Movie Greats Of The 60sMovie Greats of the 60sMovie Greats Of The 60s is a studio album recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis. The album features songs from the soundtracks of then current and/or recent motion pictures....
(1966) - Jealous HeartJealous Heart"Jealous Heart" is a classic C&W song which has also been recorded by several Pop singers.-Early versions:The first recording of "Jealous Heart" was made in 1944 by its composer Jenny Lou Carson...
from Jealous Heart (1966) - Love is a Many-Splendored ThingLove Is a Many-Splendored Thing (song)"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" is a popular song with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was publicized first in the movie, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing , winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song...
from Connie Francis sings "Never on Sunday"Connie Francis Sings "Never on Sunday"Connie Francis sings "Never on Sunday" is a studio album of songs from motion pictures recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis:...
(1961) - MalagueñaMalagueñaOriginally the sixth movement of the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona, who also provided it with Spanish lyrics, the song "Malagueña" has since become a popular, jazz, marching band, and drum corps standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages.-Notable vocal performances:A...
from Connie Francis sings Spanish And Latin American FavoritesConnie Francis Sings Spanish and Latin American FavoritesConnie Francis sings Spanish and Latin American Favorites is a studio album of Spanish and Latin American songs recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis.-Background:...
(1960) - Moon RiverMoon River"Moon River" is a song composed by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini in 1961, for whom it won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was originally sung in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's by Audrey Hepburn, although it has been covered by many other artists...
from Connie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture HitsConnie Francis Sings Award Winning Motion Picture HitsConnie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits is a studio album recorded by American pop singer Connie Francis.-Background:In April 1962, Connie Francis was working mostly in Europe, recording several German language songs at Austrophon Studio, located in the basement of the Konzerthaus in...
(1962/1963) - O mein Papa from Connie Francis sings Jewish FavoritesConnie Francis Sings Jewish FavoritesConnie Francis sings Jewish Favorites is a studio album of Jewish Songs recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis.After the success of her 1959 album Connie Francis sings Italian Favorites , Francis decided to release more albums which appealed to immigrants in the United States.In July 1960,...
(1960) - Over the RainbowOver the Rainbow"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...
from Connie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture HitsConnie Francis Sings Award Winning Motion Picture HitsConnie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits is a studio album recorded by American pop singer Connie Francis.-Background:In April 1962, Connie Francis was working mostly in Europe, recording several German language songs at Austrophon Studio, located in the basement of the Konzerthaus in...
(1963) - RomanticaRomantica (song)"Romantica" was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1960, performed in Italian by Renato Rascel. The song was performed twelfth on the night, following Germany's Wyn Hoop with "Bonne nuit ma chérie" and preceding France's Jacqueline Boyer with "Tom Pillibi"...
from Connie Francis sings Modern Italian Hits (1962/1963) - Three Coins in the FountainThree Coins in the Fountain (song)"Three Coins in the Fountain" is a popular song which received the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1954.The melody was written by Jule Styne, the lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was written for the romance film, Three Coins in the Fountain and refers to the act of throwing a coin into the Trevi...
from Connie Francis sings "Never on Sunday"Connie Francis Sings "Never on Sunday"Connie Francis sings "Never on Sunday" is a studio album of songs from motion pictures recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis:...
(1961) - True LoveTrue Love (song)"True Love" is a popular song written by Cole Porter and was published in 1956.The song was introduced by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly in the musical film High Society. The Crosby–Kelly version, accompanied by Johnny Green's MGM studio orchestra using a romantic arrangement by Conrad Salinger, was...
from Greatest American Waltzes (1963) - Vaya, Con DiosVaya con Dios (song)"Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953....
from Connie Francis sings Spanish And Latin American FavoritesConnie Francis Sings Spanish and Latin American FavoritesConnie Francis sings Spanish and Latin American Favorites is a studio album of Spanish and Latin American songs recorded by U. S. Entertainer Connie Francis.-Background:...
(1960)
Tapes
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
containing the instrumental playbacks of these recordings were shipped to Munich where Francis overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
her German vocals. For Over the Rainbow and Moon River, taken from the album Connie Francis sings Award Winning Motion Picture Hits, the playbacks of the 1962 versions were used. See also:
The only song previously not recorded by Francis was Heißer Sand. Gerhard Mendelson had insisted that the album should feature at least one song of German origin which had gained the status World Wide Hit. Since Mina
Mina (singer)
Anna Maria Quaini, Grand Officer , known as Mina, is an Italian pop singer. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an...
– another international star protégéed in Germany by Mendelson – had brought Heißer Sand not only to # 1 of the German charts but also made it an international success by recording it in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, followed by cover versions in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and English by Anneke Grönloh
Anneke Grönloh
Louise Johanna Grönloh, is a female Dutch singer.-Life:Anneke was born in Tondano, North Celebes, Dutch East Indies and spent her early years in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies in a Japanese concentration camp...
as well as an instrumental version by Ron Goodwin
Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a British composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years....
and his orchestra, the inclusion of the song on Melodien, die die Welt erobern was an obvious choice. For the Francis recording, Mina's original backing track from 1962 was used.
The album was released in late 1966 as a tie-in to Francis' first German TV special of the same name. No song was culled for a single release
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
.
Side A
| # | Title | Songwriter | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Wenn du in meinen Träumen bei mir bist (Over The Rainbow)" | Harold Arlen Harold Arlen Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the... , E. Y. Harburg, Ernst Verch |
3.52 |
| 2. | "Malagueña" (German version) | Ernesto Lecuona Ernesto Lecuona Ernesto Lecuona y Casado was a Cuban composer and pianist of Canarian father and Cuban mother, and worldwide fame. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional quality.... , Ernst Verch |
3.11 |
| 3. | "Deine Liebe (True Love)" | Cole Porter Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre... , Glando |
3.12 |
| 4. | "Heißer Sand" | Werner Scharfenberger, Kurt Feltz | 3.02 |
| 5. | "Für immer (Moon River)" | Henry Mancini Henry Mancini Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995... , Johnny Mercer Johnny Mercer John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others... , Joachim Relin |
2.44 |
| 6. | "Zorba's Tanz (Dance My Trouble Away)" | Mikis Theodorakis Mikis Theodorakis Mikis Theodorakis is one of the most renowned Greek songwriters and composers. Internationally, he is probably best known for his songs and for his scores for the films Zorba the Greek , Z , and Serpico .Politically, he identified with the left until the late 1980s; in 1989, he ran as an... , Al Stillman, Ernst Bader |
3.23 |
Side B
| # | Title | Songwriter | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Drei Münzen im Brunnen (Three Coins in the Fountain)" | Jule Styne Jule Styne Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:... , Sammy Cahn Sammy Cahn Sammy Cahn was an American lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area... , Hans Fritz Beckmann |
3.10 |
| 2. | "O mein Papa" (German version) | Paul Burkhard Paul Burkhard Paul Burkhard was Swiss composer. He wrote primarily Oratoria, Musicals and Operettas.His probably most famous artistic creation was the song Oh mein Papa , about the death of a beloved clown-father, written for the musical "Der Schwarze Hecht" that premiered in April 1939... |
3.32 |
| 3. | "Sag, weißt du denn, was Liebe ist (Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing)" | Sammy Fain Sammy Fain Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. In 1925, Fain left the Fain-Dunn act to devote himself to... , Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:... , Ernst Verch |
2.49 |
| 4. | "Blaue Nacht am Hafen (Jealous Heart)" | Jenny Lou Carson Jenny Lou Carson Jenny Lou Carson, , born Virginia Lucille Overstake, was an American country music singer-songwriter and the first woman to write a No. 1 country music hit... , Nicola Wilke Lale Andersen Lale Andersen was a German chanson singer-songwriter born in Bremerhaven, Germany. She is best known for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen" in 1939, which became tremendously popular on both sides during the Second World War.- Early life :She was born in Lehe and baptized Liese-Lotte... |
2.36 |
| 5. | "Vaya, Con Dios" (German version) | Larry Russell, Inez James, Buddy Pepper, Kurt Feltz | 3.18 |
| 6. | "Romantica" (German Version) | Renato Rascel Renato Rascel Renato Ranucci, in art Renato Rascel was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1942 and 1972... , Eduardo Verde, Roger Joseph Berthier, Arno Gillo |
3.10 |