The nipple
| The nipple | |
|---|---|
| Mike Kruger | |
| publication | March 1980 |
| length | 3:41 |
| Genre (s) | Pop , hit , comedy |
| Author (s) | Mike Kruger |
| Producer (s) | Mike Kruger |
| album | The nipple |
The nipple is a song by Mike Krüger . It was released as a single from the 1980 album of the same name. With the piece, Krüger took first place in the charts in Germany and Austria .
Origin and content
The song was written and produced by Krüger himself. The pop / hit / comedy song is only accompanied by the acoustic guitar. The lyrics target nonsensical user and operating instructions as well as “ packaging mania ” in times of increasing automation and in consumer society . In the stanzas, the protagonist tries to open a mustard tube one after the other and to operate the coffee machine at a motorway service station, but is presented (analogously) as instructions for use:
"
All you have to do is pull the nipple through the tab and turn the little crank all the way up.
An arrow appears immediately
and then you press it
and the tube opens!"
In the following verses, when the main character instructs the doctor during the appendix operation to pull the nipple through the flap and to open the friend's bra, there is also a suggestive connotation of the word nipple. Finally he jumps out of a crashing plane, but because of the cumbersome instructions he does not manage to open the parachute in time. As a result, he arrives at the Gate of Heaven in the last verse, but again the same instructions can be read there.
Krüger got the idea for the song after accidentally staining a friend while opening a mustard tube. He tested the song at a gala in Darmstadt in front of 1,500 hairdressers. "I thought: if someone knows all the bad jokes, then hairdressers," he said later. “And if they thought the song was funny, then it was funny. They stood on the benches. "
Publication and reception
The single was released by EMI in March 1980 . On the B-side was the title We drink little . The single version was taken from an appearance by Kruger in the Saalbau Witten in January of that year, which was also included on the album of the same name. The nipple also appeared on numerous compilation albums . The song reached number one in the German single charts and was placed there for five weeks from May 26th to June 29th, 1980, totaling 26 weeks in the chart. It also reached number one in Austria (18 chart weeks) and third place in Switzerland (nine chart weeks).
In the ZDF hit parade Mike Krüger performed the song on May 19, 1980 , but could not place in the top three. Nevertheless, he played it in the super hit parade - hits that you won't forget again on October 27, 1983. Here he stepped in for Hoffmann & Hoffmann , who had split up shortly before.
Der Spiegel described Der Nippel as the "hit of the season" as early as the summer of 1980 and cites the anecdote that a stewardess instructed the German national soccer team after winning the European Football Championship in 1980 with the refrain text in the use of life jackets and oxygen masks, which the entire team did sang the song on the flight. "With this refrain, which repeatedly crowns the description of awkwardness and small everyday disasters, Krüger hit two souls in the German's chest: the disaster-plagued HB male and the hedgehog ." The magazine spoke of the due to similar titles at the time "Nipples of musical entertainment in the Federal Republic".
37 years later, Anne Weiss also created the context in Spiegel with other comedians of the time such as Otto Waalkes , Didi Hallervorden , Karl Dall or Jürgen von der Lippe : Their “new German stupid texts also crashed in the middle of an ideal hit world”, similar to the same Time for the New German Wave . Weiss wrote: “ In the 1980s, the nipple developed into a kind of national anthem, as Spiegel admitted in 1983, and the refrain became a constantly quoted phrase: If someone had failed to do something again, we often joked in family and friends that they had to just pull the nipple through the tab. "
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
|
1 (26 weeks) | 26th |
 Austria (Ö3)
|
1 (18 weeks) | 18th |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
|
3 (9 weeks) | 9 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Krüger - Der Nippel Lyrics. In: musikguru.de. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Schlager: On everyone's lips. In: Der Spiegel 27/1980. June 30, 1980, p. 165 , accessed May 5, 2020 .
- ^ A b Anne Weiss: Hit "Der Nippel": When Mike Krüger laid Germany flat. In: Spiegel Online . February 23, 2017, accessed May 5, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Steffen Hung: Mike Krüger - The nipple. In: hitparade.ch. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Mike Krüger - Der Nippel Chart Placement Germany. GfK Entertainment , accessed on April 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Mike Krüger - The nipple chart placement Austria. In: Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed April 14, 2020 .