Gambler's Guitar

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Jim Lowe: Gambler's Guitar

Gambler's Guitar is a 1953 country song by Jim Lowe , best known in the same year version by Rusty Draper . The German version Der lachende Vagabund , published by Fred Bertelmann in 1957, was the best-selling German single for a long time .

History of origin

Gambler's Guitar was written by country singer Jim Lowe , who recorded and released it in May 1953 (Mercury # 70163). A little later, Rusty Draper released his version (Mercury # 70167), also recorded in May 1953, on the same label, which became a million seller . Lowe's Original made it to number 26 on the pop charts. Draper rose to be a country star, selling more than 31 million records. Both versions have that as well as the same record label together in the Bill Putnam belonging recording studios of Universal Recording Corporation incurred (Chicago).

German version

Fred Bertelmann - The laughing vagabond

Peter Moesser wrote a German text for the melody, which, under the direction of producer Hans Bertram, on July 19, 1957 with singer Fred Bertelmann, became Der laughing Vagabond . Bertelmann's hearty laugh in this song became his trademark. He will be accompanied by the NDR dance orchestra under the direction of Franz Thon . Published in October 1957 with the B-side Cantabamberra (EG # 8732), one million records were sold from November 1957. A total of 3.5 million records went over the counter within a short period of time, over two million of them in Germany, for which Bertelmann was awarded, among other things, a golden record and Electrola's in- house “Golden Dog” . Over 300,000 copies were sold in the United States. It was the Electrola label's single with the highest sales and at the same time the most successful German-language production for a long time. Another record was that the German cover version was able to achieve significantly higher record sales than the successful American version , although the US record market enabled higher sales figures due to its size.

Already on October 17, 1958, a hit film of the same name, Der lachende Vagabund, premiered, in which Bertelmann took the lead role and followed the theme of the eponymous hit .

Cover versions

literature

  • Carstenzell: Pink good-for-nothing. Fred Bertelmann: The Laughing Vagabond (1957). In: hits that we will never forget. Sensible interpretations. Edited by Rainer Max, Rainer Moritz . Reclam, Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-379-01583-0 , pp. 60-64.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 78.
  2. Jump up ↑ Joseph Murrells: The Book of Golden Discs: The Records That Sold a Million . 2nd Edition. Limp Edition, London 1978, ISBN 0-214-20512-6 , pp. 98 .
  3. ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 443 .
  4. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 113
  5. ↑ Udo Jürgens - The laughing vagabond at austriancharts.at