Are there language Switched cover songs out there?
So I want to show you a few of those and some other „special versions and songs“ you might NOT know.
1. Weil mein Herz dich nie mehr vergisst (lyrics are pretty closed to the original song „my heart will go on“.sung by Greek German artist Vicky Leandros…she is very famous here) https://youtu.be/KHDj8Emv69Q?si=pdO84nemnfpnPj7C
2. Doch leider lieb ich dich immer noch(pretty close to the original „believe“. Sung by famous singer Mary Ross it became a smash hit in 1999) https://youtu.be/s5OD1oKJwcQ?si=Qdj5SdHJihqGzQYo
3. We do have a huge country music community here and there not Even Rudolph with it’s nose so bright was sacred. The band „truck stop“ changed the lyrics to „Erwin the big snowman“ -about a snowman feeling the heat of love-https://youtu.be/7hNxz1PZIrU?si=u_fm9qc6z_EnEd6q
4. Country…yes there is something…“come let your love flow“ became a kinda „slippery“ Schlager song by Jürgen Drews. He sings about making a bed in the corn field for himself and the girl he just met. This song is know by absolutely everybody here! https://youtu.be/RwHcohP7y3I?si=NZGjeSCKeABrPmgl
5. „The day they drove old Dixie down“ became an anti-drug song over here. Juliane Werding sings „the day that Conny Kramer died“. Lyrics example: but joints turned to trips…or: at his last time he said: now I can see heaven…https://youtu.be/OD8-q-Zey7Q?si=HPisvPgfcatLJTda
6. The German countryboys from „the bossHoss“ cover „Jolene“ also became very famous here. https://youtu.be/1mk4vrRMh3Y?si=AdlzIJqftM5EiCIZ
7. The song „Jolene“ also became the Modell for our Schlagermusik-empress: Marianne Rosenberg…it’s 3 years younger than Jolene and not a real cover but the story of the song is almost the same: Marleen-one of us has to leave now Marleen, so I beg you to leave, Marleen!…https://youtu.be/x41IzYLmFLE?si=hguI2CQSG0m1C-Ld
8. And here is a special piece of candy: a song no one except we and the Dutch ppl know…but if you ask ppl over here they always answer: well it’s an American singer, isn’t he? ….nope he definitely is NOT! https://youtu.be/vV0pcIRgcOk?si=xtE7HMSbG-QMUlGe
Ok, done for now! Hope you enjoy what you hear, and keep in mind: if YOU write a no.1 HIT song, it might end up as one of these here….
RK
Comments
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What a fantastic thread! And one I could never have posted myself. Thanks for going to the effort of creating all those links too, I've already used a couple of them! Now you've got me wondering how many songs went the other way! I think "Those were the days" was originally Russian?
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Charles Trenets's song "La Mer" has been covered over 4000 times in many languages, the English version being "beyond the sea" by Bobby Darin.
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Well there still is Rammstein as a famous band and I guess Nena and her 99red Ballons (99 Luftballons) is still famous too.
And from Austria we got a damn good songwriter, who passed away a couple of years ago. This guy always wanted to marry one of my cousins btw….Udo Jürgens. Not only that he was one of a kind in the German songwriter family, he also wrote the original song to a very famous song in the UK and USA. Sid might know Shirley Bassey‘s „if I never sing another song“ well here is the original song. Darker, full of selfrefection and sung by a great woman with an amazing alto-voice who passed away way too early. Oh, the title: Illusionen (illusions) https://youtu.be/jWuyGc9jEXM?si=htdw-j-YIPUGm1Qh0 -
@RainyDayMan many of these German covers are from the old days, without a World Wide Web and when English has been „exotic“ and not as Common as it’s today. And the newer ones …well I guess they are good stuff that needed to be sampled or covered in German so that the older ppl can enjoy it, too.
In the old days English was only taught in gramma schools and you had to pay to go there. Understandable that only the minority of ppl spoke it.0 -
One of my favourite singers from this country (UK) is Kiki Dee (real name Pauline Matthews). Back in the early 70's she had a big hit with a beautiful song called 'Amoureuse' which, as the title suggests, started out as a French song. I got the following info from the web:
'The title of this song means literally "in love"; it was composed by French singer-songwriter Véronique Sanson. Originally the title track of her acclaimed 1972 album, a faithful English lyric was produced by Elton John collaborator Gary Osbourne, and the single, backed by "Rest My Head" was released on the Rocket Label by Kiki Dee in 1973'
We are going to see her this coming Saturday at a small venue near home. She's now 77 and performs with her long time musical collaborator guitarist Carmelo Lugerri. She still has a great voice and they put on an excellent show which is mainly acoustic. It will be something like the 5th time we've seen them.
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Scott Walker, once he went solo, got into chansons, and helped popularize Jacques Brel's recordings in the US with songs like this one, beautifully translated/re-interpreted by Mort Shuman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZtiI6anODc&list=PLUPdGVF6ESU9S8XPp3ccox9sx8Byk0V7r
The Hepstars from Sweden did one of the many international covers of the classic folk ballad "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" by Ed McCurdy::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xyHIUnETY
Always great to hear a song in different languages.
C,
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