You (Peter Maffay Song)
Du is the title of a ballad sung by Peter Maffay in 1970, which was the singer's first record, became a million seller and helped him achieve his breakthrough.
History of origin
The trained lawyer Michael Kunze became aware of Peter Maffay in the summer of 1969 when he was looking for up-and-coming interpreters for self-written songs. Kunze's wife discovered him in the “Song Parnass” music cellar in the Au-Haidhausen district of Munich when he was performing there with Margit Kraus. “It convinced me,” Maffay said of Kunze, “that everything works differently in the business. And I kept my mouth shut because I wanted a record. "
The recordings were made in the recording studio "Union Studio" ( Boney M. later recorded here ), which was located in the back of a large villa in the posh Munich suburb of Solln . When Peter Maffay arrived here at nine in the morning in November 1969, a full orchestra was already sitting there. There were strings, wind instruments and a rhythm section with Charly Antolini (drums), who played with Max Greger . The producers Michael Kunze (text) and Peter Orloff (music) sat in the control room . It took around 14 hours for the music tracks to be recorded. Around midnight, Maffay came in for the vocal recordings, when most of the musicians had already left the studio. Michael Kunze wrote the lyrics of the song "Du" to the music of Peter Orloff. There was a spoken part in the middle part of the song. "Seriously and with a lot of feeling" was the instruction of the music producer . Maffay tried a few times, but his Romanian origins were undeniable. He couldn't speak the text without rolling the "r". After a few takes , Kunze interrupted the recording and spoke the text himself. It was the spoken part “You, I want to tell you something that I have never said to any other girl, to any other girl… I love you ... ".
The pop composer Georg Buschor , who was present during the entire recording, took Maffay into the city in his car around four in the morning after another four hours of recording and dropped him there in Lothstrasse, where the student dormitory of the Munich University of Applied Sciences was located lay.
Publication and Success
Peter Maffay's first official single -Publishing you / Every boy needs a girl (Telefunken 6.1109) was published on 15 January 1970. The radio was leaning first one airplay of the song down because it is too long, according to the program manager with 4 minutes and 58 seconds playing time was advised. Therefore there were hardly any record sales for two months. It was only when Maffay made his first television appearance on the ZDF hit parade on March 21, 1970 as the seventh of 14 artists that he became known in Germany for the ballad.
The ballad then made it onto the German charts in April 1970 , where it was listed as the number one hit for four weeks from May 23, 1970 . You became the biggest German-language hit of 1970 and was awarded a gold record by Maffay's music label for 500,000 units sold in Germany. At the same time, the song was also placed in the charts of the Netherlands (1st place; gold record), Austria (8th place), Belgium (1st place; gold) and Switzerland (2nd place). An English version was also released under the title You , which ranked first in South Africa (gold record), Belgium and Holland. In addition, a French and Spanish version was brought onto the market, which could place high in the local charts. In total, over a million copies were sold by the end of 1970. A first report in the youth magazine Bravo appeared on Maffay in the 24/1970 issue of June 8, 1970.
The copyright of the song was 50% each with Kunze and Orloff. This team received the GEMA proceeds from performance and airplay. The record company Teldec held the master rights to the recording and collected the sales proceeds from every record sold. Of this she paid the singer Maffay a royalty of 5% (of the gross wholesale price) per unit sold.
Maffay's first hit was included on the 1970 debut album For the Girl I Love . He worked for Michael Kunze for more than 4 years and had Kunze write and / or produce at least 70 titles for him. The early success with this ballad had a lasting impact on Maffay's image and made it difficult for him to change his style to rock music for many years.
Cover versions
Co-author Peter Orloff recorded the song in 1976 for his album Ich orderell die Himmelbett . In 1986 the Dutch singer André Hazes covered Maffay's song with self-written Dutch lyrics as the theme song for his album Jij bent alles . At the end of the year he was 10th in the Nederlandse Top 40 . Under the title Ich , the Lassie Singers released a version from a feminine perspective on their album Sei À Gogo in 1992 . David Hasselhoff sang the song in the German version in 1994 and was able to move into the charts again in German-speaking countries. Hasselhoff's version was used for the film Eurotrip . In 1999 the song was released in a Discofox version by Chris Marlow .
In 1970 Patrick Samson sings an Italian version with a text by Cristiano Minellono entitled "Tu" ( Carosello Records , CI 20264), which was added to the album "Soli si muore" (Alone you die) ( On Sale Music , 52 OSM 056).
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literature
- Martin Jung: Only you, you, you alone - Peter Maffay: You (1970). In: Rainer Max, Rainer Moritz : hits that we will never forget. 1997, ISBN 3-379-01583-0 , pp. 198-201.
Individual evidence
- ↑ storyarchitekt.com (PDF; 324 kB)
- ↑ Stern-Magazin, Volume 54, 2001, p. 192
- ↑ a b ponies and hot-blooded animals . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1980, pp. 210 ff . ( online ).
- ^ ZDF hit parade / episode list
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 445 .
- ↑ Edmund Hartsch: Maffay: On the way to me. 1st edition. 2009, ISBN 978-3-570-01029-7 , p. 70.
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 311
- ↑ Étienne François, Hagen Schulze: German Memories III , Volume 3 2001, p. 211.
- ↑ Du (Peter Orloff) - song information at hitparade.ch
- ^ Jij bent alles (André Hazes) - song information at hitparade.ch
- ↑ Jij bent alles (André Hazes) in the Nederlandse Top 40
- ↑ [1] , I , at Discogs
- ↑ Chris Marlow - You at hitparade.ch
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH