Werner Becker (musician)

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Werner Becker (born December 4, 1943 in Celle ), alias Anthony Ventura , is a German musician , arranger and music producer .

biography

Beginnings

Werner Becker grew up in Hamburg-Harburg . He came to music in childhood because of the fortunate circumstance that a neighbor of the Beckers had to hand over a piano and he got it including piano lessons. His musical talent was so great that he taught himself other instruments such as the accordion , guitar and trumpet . When he was only 11 years old, he first appeared in a band on piano and accordion. As an accordion player, he also became a member of his neighbor's band.

Despite his musical commitment, Becker planned a conventional professional career. He trained as a typesetter and then trained as a commercial artist. He also worked in this profession until 1964.

A year earlier he had already joined the dance trio "Melodic Telstars" and discovered the Hammond organ for himself. As a full-time musician, he also got engagements abroad in the following years. In private life he married and had two daughters.

From 1970 Becker became a member of the big band "Die Studiker", where he developed his talent for arranging and working in the studio through practical training. In the Hamburg studios he met Dicky Tarrach , the former drummer of the Rattles and Wonderland . In 1972 Becker joined his band Randy Pie as a pianist . The musical claim that set her apart from the Krautrock bands of the time was not reflected in commercial success, so he continued to work as an arranger.

Anthony Ventura

In 1973, producer Reinhard Streit came up with the idea of ​​releasing the hit Je t'aime… moi non plus , in the success of which he was involved in 1969, in a relaxed Hammond / orchestral version. Werner Becker took over the arranging, mixing and recording with numerous orchestral soloists. For the first album Je t'aime - Traum Melodien , other classics were orchestrated. Because of Becker's Randy Pie engagement, it appeared under the artist name “Orchestra Anthony Ventura”. He successfully established his own orchestral sound for the large easy listening market and ten albums in the Je-t'aime series were released at short intervals until 1982 .

Becker left Randy Pie in 1977 and focused on his own projects. In addition to Anthony Ventura, he also took part in the preliminary round of the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson in 1975 (as WW Becker with Today I am poor, today I am rich ), albeit unsuccessfully. The Anthony Ventura project remained a project from the recording studio and there were only individual appearances with musicians put together for it.

The sixth Je-t'aime album, titled 20 Traum Melodien at the turn of the year 1977/78, became the project's first number 1 album . It sold over 1 million times. Anthony Ventura was also very successful in Austria, where the album reached number 2.

When the music publisher Hans R. Beierlein joined the project in 1980, he started a media campaign to determine the most beautiful melodies in the world through audience voting on television and print media . These favorite tracks were then implemented by Anthony Ventura and released as LP. The whole thing went in favor of the German Cancer Aid and became one of the most successful charity campaigns in the German music business. The album, number 1 in Germany for ten weeks and number 2 in Austria , was such a great success that a second album was released. In the following year, this again reached number 1 in Germany. A third part still reached fourth place in 1982.

1986 followed an interlude with the comeback attempt by Randy Pie and the album Magic Ferry, with which this chapter was finally closed.

In the following years the popularity of the dance orchestras declined and when Reinhard Streit, the inventor of the project, withdrew at the end of the 1980s, Becker hired the Anthony Ventura orchestra. A brief resurgence between 1992 and 1995 resulted in three more albums, but no longer building on previous successes. In total, Anthony Ventura has sold over ten million albums and received two gold awards for them.

Arranger and producer

Werner Becker had meanwhile shifted more and more to the producer business. He produced and arranged numerous well-known hits from the field of hits such as Klaus and Klaus , Nino de Angelo , Roy Black , Howard Carpendale and Matthias Reim , but also international artists such as Mayte Mateos ( Baccara ), Engelbert , Bonnie Tyler and Roger Whittaker . From 2000 he was also successfully involved in top 10 hits by Jeanette Biedermann ( No More Tears , It's Over Now ) and No Angels ( Reason ).

Becker has his own recording studio in Trelde near Harburg. Musically, he has now turned to country music and has his own country band, which includes the well-known Danish guitarist Nils Tuxen , who was also part of the 1986 comeback of Randy Pie. In 2004 he was on the road with the Country Goes Classic concert series with classically arranged country songs interpreted by Gunther Emmerlich , Deborah Sasson and Tom Astor , among others .

Discography

  • Je t'aime - Dream Melodies (1973)
  • Je t'aime 2 (1974)
  • Je t'aime 3 (1975)
  • Je t'aime 4 (1976)
  • Je t'aime 5 (1977)
  • 20 Dream Melodies - Je t'aime 6 (1978) (DE: goldgold)
  • Melodies of the World - Je t'aime 7 (1978)
  • Fantastic Dance Party (1978)
  • Je t'aime 8 (1979)
  • The most beautiful melodies in the world (1980) (DE: goldgold)
  • Je t'aime 9 (1981)
  • The Most Beautiful Melodies in the World No. 2 (1981)
  • Je t'aime 10 - dream melodies from France (1982)
  • The Most Beautiful Melodies in the World No. 3 (1982)
  • Time for Tenderness (1992)
  • Evening silence everywhere
  • Silent Sound of Simon & Garfunkel
  • Melodies to dream

Individual evidence

  1. http://easylistening.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthony%20Ventura
  2. Awards for music sales: DE

Web links