Bert Kaempfert- That Happy Feeling

DSCN0050This was 80 cents.  It had a bunch of songs I knew.  Well, it had three songs I knew.  This post may be a bit incoherent as I did not get a lot of sleep last night.images

Born in Hamburg in 1923, Bert Kaempfert was a heavy weight in contemporary German music. As a band leader, he would go on to make 7 Gold Records.  As a composer, he wrote (or co-wrote) “Strangers in the Night”, “Moon Over Naples/ Spanish Eyes”, Danke Schoen”, “Wonderland by Night”, and “Love After Midnight”. Despite these accolades, his biggest contribution to popular music occurred in 1961, when he hired an unknown Beatles to back Tony Sheridan on My Bonnie.  It was this single that caught the attention of Brian Epstein and the rest is history. There is an excellent video below with both Bert and Tony Sheridan discussing this event.

At this point, I feel kind of bad for Bert.  On one hand, he had many musical accomplishments; yet, he kind of has a place in Music history as being nothing more than a talent scout.  On the other hand, I think Bert realized that the Beatles were doing something new. Watching the video above, he is not bitter he missed out on the Beatles.  Rather, he seems glad that they were able to succeed with another label. However, I have come to believe that he viewed this event as very insignificant among his own personal accomplishments and probably did not dwell on it at all. Regardless,  Bert would die of a stroke in 1980 at the age of 56 in Majorca, Spain.

Bert’s Web Page

This album, released by Decca in the US in 1962, would go Gold. In Europe, it was released as A Swingin’ Safari by Polydor. Either way, this album is heavily influenced by South African music, most notably the song “Wimoweh”, based on the song “Mbube”.  Both tunes would influence “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Many songs on this album borrow from this piece as well as the South African sound.  Perhaps the most striking example of this is “A Swingin’ Safari”, which would later become a hit for Billy Vaughn.  On this, as well as other songs, Bert employed the African style of tin whistle playing, also known as Kwela.  There are a few homages to Spain on the album as well.  The end result is a great album of light orchestral pieces and horn sections reminiscent of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Furthermore, “Swingin’ Safari”, “Market Day”, and the title track would become staples for Bert.

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For a sample,  I went with two tunes that are derivative from “Wimoweh”, “A Swinging Safari” written by Bert and “Zambesi”, an African cover song.  bert_kaempfert_4_18_2

The fact that I had five songs on this album in contention of being a sample, would lead me give this a Top Rating.