Reinhard Mey

Reinhard Mey, 2014

Reinhard Friedrich Michael Mey (born December 21, 1942 in Berlin ) is a German musician and one of the most popular representatives of the German singer-songwriter scene since the late 1960s . Pseudonyms are Frédérik Mey (in France), Alfons Yondraschek and Rainer May .

Life

Reinhard Mey was born in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf as the second child of the lawyer Gerhard Mey and the teacher Hertha Mey, b. Koch, born. His father awakened his interest in foreign cultures and languages. He attended the French Gymnasium in Berlin, where he completed the French Baccalauréat and the German Abitur in 1963 . He had to repeat the 12th grade because of poor grades in German, mathematics and physics. Mey's classmates at the French grammar school included Ulrich Roski , who would later become a songwriter, and Gesine Schwan, a political scientist . As an exchange student, he visited several times a French couple who were friends with their parents. Mey then completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at Schering AG Berlin. After six semesters, he broke off a degree in business administration at the Technical University of Berlin that was supposed to appease his parents, in order to devote himself entirely to songwriting.

At the age of twelve Mey got his first piano lesson, at fourteen he got his first guitar (on loan from his aunt), shortly afterwards he bought his own guitar for 40  marks . He taught himself to play the trumpet . While still at school, he and friends gained experience on stage with the performance of skiffle music in the band Rotten Radish Skiffle Guys , founded in 1957 , to which he dedicated the song of the same name in his 2010 album Mairegen . In 1961 the group Les Trois Affamés (The Three Hungry) was formed with his schoolmate Wolfgang "Schobert" Schulz and Christian Pechner. Mey's first chanson, I wanted to sing like Orpheus , was published in 1964. In the same year he was given the opportunity to perform his songs at the Chanson Folklore International festival at Burg Waldeck , a castle ruin in the Hunsrück . It was there in 1966 that he met the singer-songwriter Hannes Wader of the same age . In 1967 he started for Germany at the Knokke Festival in Belgium . This led to his first French recording deal.

In 1967 Reinhard Mey toured temporarily with Hannes Wader through Germany and played with him in clubs and on theater stages. Since the repertoire of both musicians at that time was still too small for a full-length concert, they performed a joint program of their German and French pieces. After a particularly successful appearance in the Audimax of the University of Hamburg , Mey decided against continuing the joint appearances.

Also in 1967 he got a record deal in Germany with Intercord . At first, according to Der Spiegel , “it certainly seemed as if the songwriter's career would end in commercial sideline. Because the civil servant's son [...] tinged [...] through student pubs, cellar bars and provincial gyms - without any appreciable response. […] For years the German show business hardly took any notice of him or at best scoffed: 'Mey is a weirdo'. ”Having achieved modest popularity through occasional radio and television engagements, it was not until 1971 that the double LP Reinhard Mey brought him to him live (250,000 copies sold by October) as well as the song The murderer is always the gardener the breakthrough to a mass audience.

Mey married the French Christine in 1967; the marriage was divorced in 1976. Mey has been married to his wife Hella since 1977 and lives in Berlin-Frohnau . The sons Frederik (* 1976) and Maximilian (* 1982 † 2014) as well as Victoria-Luise Mey (* 1985), who sings a song on the CD Mr. Lee and acted as a photographer on the tour of the same name in 2017/2018, come from this relationship . His son Frederik works as a pilot.

In May 2014, Mey's son Maximilian died after a coma that lasted around five years , which resulted from a delayed pneumonia and cardiac arrhythmia . He was 32 years old.

Pseudonyms

He derives Mey's French pseudonym Frédérik Mey from the French version of his middle name Friedrich. He chose it for phonetic reasons, since in his opinion the French first name Renaud, which corresponds to the German Reinhard , would have resulted in an unfavorable French pronunciation. Renaud sounds like Renault and as its full name Renaud Mey is similar to renowned .

Another pseudonym was Alfons Yondraschek , under whom he wrote the song Gute Nacht, Freunde for the duo Inga & Wolf . This should take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 . In the German preliminary decision on February 19, 1972, the song took fourth place. Mey had already used the name Alfons Yondraschek in the song Arrive Friday the 13th , in which he affirmed that he was “definitely not Alfons Yondraschek”. The name appears in Meys factory on again: In Two chickens on the way to yesterday is Alfons Yondraschek known as the author of the play of the same name.

One of the earliest pseudonyms is Rainer May , under whom he brought out the piece Geh und fang den Wind in 1965 , a German-language interpretation of the Donovan hit Catch The Wind (German text: Joe Menke ). This pseudonym was created unintentionally - the producer wrote the name incorrectly.

plant

Between 1967 and 2020 Mey released 28 German studio albums, the first I wanted to sing like Orpheus in 1967, the last one so far Das Haus an der Ampel 2020. From 1986 to 2004 Reinhard Mey released his studio albums every two years, since then at larger intervals, each May .

Outside of this rhythm, an album was released in 2015 under the title Songs from Friends with titles by Ulrich Roski , Pete Seeger , Rio Reiser , Franz Josef Degenhardt , Heinz Rudolf Kunze , Klaus Hoffmann , Gerhard Gundermann , The Magnetic Fields , Colin Wilkie , Johann Sebastian Bach , Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger , I Muvrini , Manfred Maurenbrecher , Ludwig Hirsch and Boris Vian . In contrast to his studio albums, he did not make the recordings in a relatively short period of time, but they were made over many years.

“'We all have a song somewhere in our memories, or in our ears right now, where you are gripped that you don't know what's happening to you,' as I once tried to describe it. I have many such songs from the pen of very close or distant colleagues who are all equally familiar to me through their music. Some have been with me all my life, some I may only discover now, but from now on they will also be my companions forever. Songs that I sing for myself, simply because they give me pleasure, because they comfort or move me and sometimes when there is still a bit of time after a day at the studio and the colleagues feel like it, or a visit comes, whom I - like my daughter - can persuade you to sing along, then I'll record one of them, just like that. Over the years, over a dozen recordings have emerged from the spontaneous desire to make music, to experiment, from the desire not to part without a final encore after a day full of music in the studio. I call them friends' songs. "

- Reinhard Mey : about the album Lieder von Freunde

Mey released 18 German live albums for the studio recordings , the first being released in 1971 by Intercord under the title Reinhard Mey live . It was recorded in Berlin in December 1970. Of the 25 songs on the double album, all but two were written and composed by him. Since the early 1990s, the live albums have been characterized by a considerable number of introductory speaking contributions. In addition to these two types of records, there is a large number of samplers , singles and two DVDs , the first of which mainly contains film material produced on the occasion of the company's 60th birthday in 2002.

Mey had great success in France and the Netherlands . There are seven Frédérik Mey albums and two live LPs in French ; Most recently, after a 23-year break, the CD Frédérik Mey, Vol. 7 - douce france (2005) was released. Texts by Mey appeared in French school books. In Dutch , Als de dag van toen ('As before the year and day') was released in 1975 - his only double platinum record ever - and in 1976 Er zijn dagen… ('There are days ...'). The attempt to gain a foothold in Great Britain in 1970 with the LP One Vote for Tomorrow failed.

He published his greatest success with the LP Mein Achtel Lorbeerblatt (1972), which contains the title Gute Nacht, Freunde , which has since become an evergreen . Another very well-known song by Mey is Over the Clouds from 1974, which was initially released as the B-side of the single Mann from Alemannia . Among other things, this title reached 4th place in the selection of the 100 best songs of the century ( hosted by ZDF as part of the TV series Our Best ) in 2005 . The title was sung live by Mey in this broadcast.

Mey reached number one in the German album charts three times: in 1972 with Mein Achtel Lorbeerblatt , in 2007 with Bunter Hund and in 2013 with Then take it easy . Mey got the first gold record for Ich bin aus denem Holze (1971).

Discography

→ Main article : Reinhard Mey / discography  and list of songs by Reinhard Mey

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1967	I wanted to sing like Orpheus	-	-	-	First published: 1967
1969	Arrive Friday the 13th	-	-	-	First published: 1969
1970	From my diary	-	-	-	First published: 1970
1971	I am made of that wood	DE8 (4 months) DE	-	-	First published: 1971
1972	My eighth of the bay leaf	DE1 (3 months) DE	-	-	First published: 1972
1974	Like year and day ago	DE16 (2 months) DE	AT8 (4 weeks) AT	-	First published: 1974
1975	Icarus	DE26 (2 months) DE	-	-	First published: 1975
1977	Human cub	DE24 (2 months) DE	AT16 (2 months) AT	-	First published: 1977
1979	Not a quiet minute	DE16 (21 weeks) DE	AT20 (1 month) AT	-	First published: 1979
1980	Seasons	DE12 (32 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: 1980
1981	Friendly faces	DE36 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	First publication: 1981
1983	The twelfth	DE34 (9 weeks) DE	AT17 (½ month) AT	-	First published: 1983
1985	Made in Berlin	DE21 (16 weeks) DE	AT28 (½ month) AT	-	First published: April 1, 1985
1986	Go it alone	DE27 (12 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: July 1, 1986
1988	Ballads	DE27 (13 weeks) DE	AT16 (5 months) AT	-	First published: January 1, 1988
1990	Colours	DE27 (25 weeks) DE	AT30 (2 weeks) AT	-	First published: April 1, 1990
1992	Everything goes!	DE28 (17 weeks) DE	AT26 (12 weeks) AT	-	First published: March 1, 1992
1994	Always on	DE21 (12 weeks) DE	AT31 (4 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 1, 1994
1996	beacon	DE26 (22 weeks) DE	AT26 (14 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 9, 1996
1998	Message in a bottle	DE7 (32 weeks) DE	AT32 (11 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 15, 1998
2000	Single-handed sailor	DE7th gold (27 weeks)DE	AT22 (6 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 5, 2000 Sales: + 150,000
2002	Rum Hart	DE4 (21 weeks) DE	AT14 (9 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 3, 2002
2004	Nanga Parbat	DE2 gold (17 weeks)DE	AT12 (14 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 1, 2004 Sales: + 100,000
2007	Colorful dog	DE1 gold (19 weeks)DE	AT8 (8 weeks) AT	-	First published: May 4, 2007 Sales: + 100,000
2010	May rain	DE2 gold (24 weeks)DE	AT2 (16 weeks) AT	CH66 (1 week) CH	First published: May 7, 2010 Sales: + 100,000
2013	then take care	DE1 platinum (26 weeks)DE	AT1 (15 weeks) AT	CH28 (4 weeks) CH	First published: May 3, 2013 Sales: + 200,000
2016	Mr. Lee	DE3 gold (18 weeks)DE	AT4 (19 weeks) AT	CH23 (3 weeks) CH	First published: May 6, 2016 Sales: + 100,000
2020	The house at the traffic lights	DE2 (... weeks) DE	AT2 (... weeks) AT	CH5 (5 weeks) CH	First published: May 29, 2020

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Productions with other artists

Mey's appearances with colleagues include the concert on the occasion of Hannes Wader's birthday in June 2002. Together with Konstantin Wecker they sang almost 30 songs, either solo or polyphonic. The double album Mey, Wader, Wecker - the concert was released in 2003. In the same year, a limited edition was released that was recorded during the demonstration against the Iraq war on February 15, 2003. It also contains Wecker's updated version of his hit Willy under the name Willy 5 , Mey's Peace, and Wader 's peace hymn It's Time .

Tours

Reinhard Mey has played over 1390 (complete) concerts so far. His tours took him through Germany, Austria and Switzerland and through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In France, Reinhard Mey gave two three-week guest performances under his French stage name (1976 in the Palais des Congrès, Paris and 1979 three-week guest performance in the Paris Music Hall Bobino ). Most of the tours are named after the previous studio album, while the live albums that document the tours have their own names.

The organization of the tours was headed from 1970 to 2005 by Peter Graumann, who died on October 29, 2005. In 1992 Mey dedicated a song (Peter) to this close companion .

In 1989, after many years of inquiries from those responsible in the GDR, he was finally given the opportunity to " sing once in Dresden ". He got an invitation to Gunther Emmerlich's show colade . After his arrival on November 7, 1989, he was forbidden to sing Above the Clouds because the word “freedom” was not wanted. The concert took place on November 11, 1989. Due to the fall of the Berlin Wall in the meantime and the growing thought of freedom that came with it, he was allowed to present Above the Clouds as well as Good Night to friends , both of whom carried within them the idea of ​​freedom, which was prohibited until November 8, 1989.

Reinhard Mey, 1971 in Kiel

• 1971: first major tour (Germany)
• 1972: 142 city tour (Germany, Austria and Switzerland )
• 1974: 30-city tour ( France )
• 1976: 40-city tour (France, Belgium and the Netherlands )
• 1976: Three-week ensuite guest performance at the Palais des Congrès, Paris
• 1977: 30-city tour (France)
• 1977: 72-city tour (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
• 1979: Three-week guest performance in the Paris Music Hall "Bobino"
• 1980: 56-city tour (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
• 1983: 60-day tour (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
• 1986: major tour (Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
• 1988: 55-city tour (Germany)
• 1989: 14-day tour (Austria)
• 1990/1991: color tour. 55 cities in Germany, 11 days through Austria
• 1992/1993: Everything goes tour. 60 days through Germany, 14 days through Austria and Switzerland
• 1994/1995: Always on tour. 60 days through Germany, 19 days through Austria and Switzerland
• 1996/1997: Beacon tour. 61 days through Germany, 17 cities in Austria and Switzerland
• 1998/1999: Message in a bottle tour. 60 cities in Germany, 27 cities in Austria and Switzerland
• 2000: Single-handed sailing tour. 60 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• 2002: Rüm-Hart tour. 60 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• 2005/2006: Nanga Parbat tour. 60 days through Germany and Switzerland, 11 days through Austria
• 2008: Bunter-Hund-Tour. 60 days through Germany, Austria and Switzerland
• 2011: May rain tour. 62 days through Germany and Switzerland
• 2014: "then take care" tour. 60 days through Germany
• 2017/2018: Mr. Lee tour. 30 days through Germany, 10 days through Austria

Song content

See also : List of songs by Reinhard Mey

Mey's songs are often characterized by extensive lyrics and catchy melodies . They are heavily influenced by French chanson ; some of his songs also show the influence of country music in melody and instruments . In contrast to the French chanson, Meys songs initially rarely dealt with political issues (see  In Tyrannis ). Especially since the 1990s , pieces that take a political stance, are critical of society and time and are often influenced by a pacifist stance can be found on his albums (Die Waffen low , Be alert , Heimatlos , Das Narrenschiff , Frieden , No, Meine Söhne geb ' not me , Kai) . With the song Die Kinder von Izieu , which describes the deportation of 44 Jewish children from France, he took a firm stand against forgetting the Nazi crimes. Mey represents a moderate left political position. In his songs, he is particularly committed to the values ​​of freedom and non-violence or peace and is also committed to this (for example in the 2002 federal election campaign for the omnibus for direct democracy or at a large demonstration in Berlin against the impending Iraq war in early 2003 ).

In his songs, Reinhard Mey essentially deals with topics taken from real life. In the 1960s and 1970s, these included love songs (And for my girl , autumn thunderstorms over roofs , Like year and day ago , summer morning) , songs about flying (Above the clouds , Icarus , Lilienthal's dream) , about death (Schade that you have to go , the time of the juggler's over , like a tree that one falls , My Testament) , satirical observations of social conditions and the adversities of everyday life (Diplomatenjagd , Annabelle , a request for an application form , the hot battle at the cold buffet) or his own life (trilogy on Mrs. Pohl , Arrive Friday, 13th , The Homestory) . Occasionally he manages to shape the German language ( the murderer is always the gardener ) . Mey repeatedly uses the form of mocking unmasking, for example, to talk about the unreliability of craftsmen (I'm a plumber by profession) , the excesses of modern director's theater (two chickens on the way to the day before yesterday) or about hypocritical politicians (what could be nicer on earth, as a politician) to make fun of. With the birth of his children, a new focus arose from 1977: children and family (you have already asked me questions , no quiet minute , young human) . This topic dominated until the early 1990s.

Mey is a committed vegetarian and was actively involved in animal welfare with the organization PETA . Since 1992 some of his songs have dealt with the subject of animal welfare (The dignity of the pig is inviolable , rabbit prayer , animal police , mercy , dog prayer) . In 2006 he published these and other animal songs from different decades on the sampler Frei! . On the 2013 album, then mach's gut , he dedicates himself to this topic under the title Good cows go to heaven .

Television activities

Mey has repeatedly moderated television programs (for example the Reinhard Mey Show in 1972) and appeared in TV films as a guest actor (in 2002, directed by Jan Josef Liefers in the love comedy Die Frauenversteher - Men among themselves as an aircraft mechanic and in 2005 in Küss mich, Hexe as White Magician (Director: Diethard Küster )).

From June 1973 to December 1974 Mey hosted six issues of the program Chansonnade for Swiss television.

In 1979 he created a musical joint program with Salvatore Adamo (Two Men in Three-Quarter Coat) , 1980 The Fat Tall One and the Little Thin One with Mort Shuman and 1981 Some like it quietly with Heidelinde Weis, and in 1982 he produced his own show Ich hab 'Dich lieb on ZDF . Together with Rut von Wuthenau ( Rut Speer ) he shot his personal homeland film Reinhard Mey and his village in Berlin for ZDF , which was broadcast in June 1989. Mey also moderated in 1980, followed by Frank Elstner , 3 episodes of the ARD entertainment program The Monday Painters until Sigi Harreis took over the moderation in January 1981. With the Monday painters he had a total of six appearances as a prominent fellow councilor (1978) or in the show part (1977-1986).

From 1987 to 1996 Mey hosted the music festival Songs on a summer evening . In this context he also performed his own songs. Since he was not willing to do without the song Be vigilant with the text contained therein: “The minister whispers the bishop by the arm: / Hold her stupid - I'll hold her poor! ”, he ended his moderation and participation for several years. Reinhard Mey has been taking part in the festival regularly since 2006 and is featured on the CDs, in 2011 and 2014 .

reception

Mey's songs were initially largely positively received by German-language music critics and the press and were mostly seen as a pleasant contrast to the shallow pop music with its low-quality lyrics (around 1970). The Neue Zürcher Zeitung, for example, called it a "rare stroke of luck in show business", with "boyish freshness, carefree spontaneity and directness in contact with the audience". Others saw in him "the unrecognized voice of the open-minded young middle class".

With growing success, however, negative reviews also increased in the early 1970s, especially from the left, accusing him of a lack of political commitment (“Retreat Poets”), fearfulness and a penchant for idyll (“ Heino for the Third Program”). In the Frankfurter Rundschau , Volker Rebell described Meys' musical design as "indistinguishable from the petty pop music [...] in essence the same cabbage, the same limited variations over a standard range of musical patterns". Barry Graves called the singer in the world a "meaningless purr-teller", an "escape helper for the environmentally disaffected" and a " Heintje for the spiritually superior". This criticism reached a climax in the mid-1970s, when Mey targeted the manifestations and excesses of the student and 1968 movement in the song Annabelle . Thomas Rothschild wrote in the book Liedermacher: “With this caricature of a left student [...] Reinhard Mey finally turned out to be someone who sings by the mouth to his middle-class listeners who do not want to be stolen from their ideal world. [...] What even moderators apparently regard as humor is malicious ridicule of a minority. It's just a step from Annabelle, who never laughs, to the Russian with the knife between his teeth. Mey runs witch hunts in chanson form with Annabelle. "

In later years Mey - with a few exceptions (e.g. the daily newspaper : "Säuselbarde") - was no longer criticized so sharply because of his song content. One saw in him rather the "class representative of the tired rebels", an "unmistakable master of discreet emotional ambivalence", whose most poetic songs are a "wistful touch on the edge of the hereafter". The Süddeutsche Zeitung praised him on his 70th birthday as a “poet of everyday life” and “great humanist, scoffers and comforter”, whose songs sang the “Chronicle of our bourgeois life in touching, long-suffering, wonderfully sentimental and appropriately moral ballads”.

There was no comparable negative criticism in France .

Mey himself responded in 1972 in the form of the chanson My eighth bay leaf . The refrain reads: "And I think about what everyone has to say / And keep quiet / And sit on my eighth bay leaf / And do what I want." Looking back, Mey said, looking back at his critics at the time: "When you got a gold record in 1971, it was clear that you could only be a commercial pig."

In 1998, 26 years later, he wrote Der Biker, a kind of apology song in which he expresses his appreciation for Annabelle, for the song Annabelle , which, by his own admission, brought him "a lot of trouble, but also a lot of fun" .

Dissemination of song lyrics on the Internet

Most of the lyrics can be found on the official Reinhard Mey website. The lyrics of early songs like Bauer, ich bitt 'dich , Das Canapé , Drei Lilien , Mädchen in den Schänken and others are still missing there (as of October 2014). The music on these songs is by Mey, but the lyrics are by other authors. These texts are also missing in the official song text book Alle Meine Lieder , which appeared in 1985 (extended new edition appeared on December 2, 2016: Alle Lieder - Toutes les chansons ), but they are included with notes in the official songbook from the beginning .

biography

Reinhard Mey had the publication of a biographical book Above the Clouds prohibited by a court. Shortly afterwards, in August 2005, he published his own book with the title What I still have to say (author: Bernd Schroeder ).

Trivia

Aviation as a hobby

Mey acquired the private pilot's license for powered aircraft (PPL A) at Wilhelmshaven-Mariensiel airfield in 1973 , which he expanded three years later to include the instrument flight rating. In 1982 he acquired the private pilot's license for helicopters with piston and turbine engines (PPL H). As a student of world champion Manfred Strossenreuther , in 1984 he was finally authorized to do aerobatics with powered aircraft. He and a friend bought a twin-engine Cessna 340 , which they used to charter flights until the business was no longer profitable due to the oil crisis . After initially letting all flight licenses expire in 1996, he has been in possession of a pilot's license again since 2004.

Mey's passion for flying is also reflected in the lyrics of his songs: One example of this is the title Above the Clouds , which is about the longing for the freedom of flight. All the storm-proof sky dogs dealt with the early aviation pioneers , Otto Lilienthal even got his own song with Lilienthal's dream . The Song of November golf is a tribute to the rescue helicopter Christoph 4 and its crew.

Kampen (Sylt)

Reinhard Mey owns a house in Kampen . His close connection to the North Sea and the island of Sylt is reflected in some of his songs. Furthermore, the album name Rüm Hart and the DVD title Klaar Kiming result in a North Frisian motto ( Rüm Hart, klaar Kiming - 'wide heart, clear horizon').

In 2002 he caused heated discussions on Sylt when, in an open letter to the municipality of Kampen, he denounced the use of noisy lawnmowers by neighbors - which he dubbed “garden Nazis” - as an omnipresent disturbance of the peace . The incident was picked up by tabloid journalism nationwide. Mey himself dealt with the event in a rewrite of his 1996 song Irgendein Depp always drills somewhere : On Mey's subsequent live album Klaar Kiming and the double DVD of the same name, which was released a little later, Irgendein Depp mäht somewhere always appeared .

"Bootschafter" of the DGzRS

In 2000 he became involved as a “boat officer” for the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS). The annually boat steward arises for a term volunteer for advertising DGzRS mainly funded by donations available.

Others

• 1967 was on the first studio record I wanted to like Orpheus sing the Hauptbahnhof Hamm dedicated a title. The text is more of a snapshot of the nighttime atmosphere and has little to do with it. In addition, Hamm train station only became the main train station officially in 2019 .
• In the song The Secret in the Yeast Dough, or The Shot in the Oven (1971), it is described at the beginning that the cake is made on the 12th, “a Thursday”, which fits in with Arrive Friday, the 13th (1969).
• The "Mhmm" at the end of I Always wanted to be a mannequin (1972) is based on Papa loves Mambo by Perry Como .
• In 1973 Mey sang the song of the ARD television lottery But despite all this, you can no longer find your peace .
• Mey lent his voice to the rooster Alan A'Dale in 1974 in the dubbing of the cartoon Robin Hood . In 1978 he sang the title song in the cartoon Lucky Luke - His greatest trick in German.
• Since 1976, an adaptation of Gute Nacht, Freunde has opened and closed the news program Met het Oog op Morgen on Dutch radio 1 every evening .
• In 1980, Mey appeared twice in the ZDF hit parade with the title No Quiet Minute .
• Rio Reiser names Reinhard Mey in the original version of his song König von Deutschland (1986) as the "King's Bard".
• The melodic whistling in the song Das Sauwetterlied (1992) is based on Just Walking in the Rain by Johnnie Ray .
• In 1992 the band Pur set to music the previously unpublished Reinhard Mey text Der Mann am Fenster as a present for his 50th birthday.
• In 1997 Reinhard Mey was a guest on the ZDF show Wetten, dass ..? (with Thomas Gottschalk) and played the song Lilienthal's dream from the album Leuchtfeuer together with the Berliner Philharmoniker .
• His radio commercial blues from 1984, which denounced the many radio commercials, was rewritten in 1998 as television commercial blues.
• In 1998 Reinhard Mey appeared on the TV show Geld oder Liebe (with Jürgen von der Lippe ) and presented his song Viertel vor Seven from the album Bottle Post to an audience of millions. The sales of the album then increased significantly. Since then, every Mey album has climbed back into the top 10 of the album charts.
• In 1999 the live 3 CD box stage fright was released, a recording of the 1998/99 Message in a Bottle Tour. There are u. a. to hear the previously unreleased songs Ich bin and television advertising blues, which were given as encores at the concerts.
• In 2002, on his 60th birthday, various German artists interpreted his songs on the double album Hommage an Reinhard Mey .
• The song Nanga Parbat from 2004 was dedicated to Mey Reinhold Messner , whose brother Günther died trying to climb the mountain of the same name in 1970.
• Due to the fate of his son, who was in a vegetative state at the time, Mey decided not to advertise his 2010 album Mairegen . In the German album charts, however, it climbed to number 2 and stayed in the top 10 for another five weeks.
• In addition to other social engagements, he gives regular benefit concerts for the Children's Cancer Aid , DGzRS , Hamburg Leuchtfeuer , Friedensdorf International and Dunkelziffer e. V.
• Mey is a juror for the Henner Krogh Foundation's sponsorship award, which promotes musicians from Sylt. A special prize donated by Mey is announced for the best German-language original composition.
• There are various instrumental albums on which Mey's songs are performed without vocals, e.g. by Mey himself (1978 - M (e) y Instrumentals ) or by guitarist Jens Kommnick (2011 - Kommnick plays Mey ).
• In 2012 the album Ich bin by Heinz Rudolf Kunze was released with a duet title with Reinhard Mey.
• His good friends include Karl Dall , to whom he dedicated the line “… and my friend Karl Dall” in 1985 in his song I greet ... and Klaus Hoffmann , for whom he wrote the 2011 song Brother Klaus .

Awards and honors

• 1968: Prix International de la Chanson française (as the first foreign singer)
• 1983: Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1987: Order of Merit of the State of Berlin
• 1992: German Record Award
• 1992: ECHO Pop for life's work
• 1994: German Cabaret Prize
• 1996: Best songs list
• 1999: Best songs list
• 2000: Bootschafter of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People
• 2001: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 2011: German music author award in the text / songwriter category

Works

• Reinhard Mey: Peter , short story in the anthology Friendships by Marie-Luise Marjan (ed.), Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-455-05141-3 .
• Reinhard Mey, Bernd Schroeder : What else I would have to say. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2005, ISBN 978-3-462-03622-0 .
• Reinhard Mey: Right from the start. Songbook with his most important songs (1969–1985). With tablatures, guitar plucking techniques, sheet music and complete texts. Voggenreiter, Bonn 2005, ISBN 978-3-8024-0049-0 .
• Reinhard Mey: Bunter Hund , Songbook: Summer '52. The fisherman and the boss. Wotan and Wolf. Colorful dog. Three boxes of childhood. Three years and a day. I am in love with my secretary. Thank you, dear fairy godmother. I need a sommelier. Friedrichstrasse. Big sister. Quay. Schrader's film palace. Maikäfer-Musik, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-925482-26-7 .
• Reinhard Mey: All songs - Toutes les chansons , 13th, extended edition. Edition Reinhard Mey, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-925482-28-1 (German, French).
• Reinhard Mey: Until today . Songbook, 73 songs. Voggenreiter, Bonn 2014, ISBN 978-3-8024-1000-0 (texts and notes).

literature

• Marc Sygalski: The “political song” in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1964 and 1989 using the example of Franz Josef Degenhardt , Hannes Wader and Reinhard Mey. (= eScripta. Göttingen series of publications for student German studies , volume 1. eScripta, Göttingen 2011, DNB 1013004485 , master's thesis at the University of Göttingen , Seminar for German Philology, 2011, escripta.de (PDF; 1 MB; 177 pages), ISSN  2192- 0559 ).

Movie

• "In person" - Reinhard Mey . Film by Heike Vossler. Broadcast on ARD in 1994
• Germany, your artists - Reinhard Mey. Documentation by Dagmar Wittmers . Broadcast on July 16, 2008 on ARD

Web links

Commons : Reinhard Mey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Reinhard Mey in the catalog of the German National Library
• Reinhard Mey in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Autumn thunderstorms special: Interview with Reinhard Mey. - Interview with Reinhard Mey at the songwriter and small magazine Ein Achtel Lorbeerblatt (archived version, audio, 95 min)
• Reinhard Mey at laut.de
• Official website of Reinhard Mey / EMI
• Sheet music for all various titles by Reinhard Mey as PDF (Edition Reinhard Mey)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Manuel J. Hartung and Jeannette Otto: Why did you study business administration, Reinhard Mey? - "To reassure my parents" . In: Die Zeit , No. 14/2020 of March 26, 2020, p. 39
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jens Mühling: Gesine Schwan had me copied . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 19, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Susanne Gaschke : Singing with a disposition . In: Die Zeit , No. 18/2008
4. ↑ ^{a b c} More beautiful yesterday . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1971, p. 190 ( online ).
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Reinhard Mey - biography . reinhard-mey.de. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
6. ↑ Mey sings about Christine in the song of the same name as well as in the song Ankomme Freitag, 13.
7. ↑ Conversation with Heinz Rudolf Kunze
8. ↑ songwriter. Reinhard Mey's son is in a vegetative state . In: Spiegel Online , September 6, 2009
9. ↑ ^{a b} Reinhard Mey mourns: Son dies at the age of 32 . In: Focus Online , May 20, 2014; Retrieved May 20, 2014.
10. ↑ FAQ Reinhard Mey
11. ↑ ^{a b} Reinhard Mey: Lieder von Freunde , accessed on April 16, 2016
12. ↑ Reinhard Mey's new album Lieder von Freunde , accessed on April 16, 2016
13. ↑ then take care
14. ↑ The happiest message for 2000 years . ( Memento from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) sz-online.de
15. ↑ Meys appearances in films: See Imdb link
16. ^ First «Chansonnade» with Reinhard Mey . (PDF) srf.ch, June 23, 1973
17. ↑ Reinhard Mey presented songs on a summer evening from 1987 to 1996
18. ↑ ^{a b c} class representative of the rebels . In: Die Welt , October 22, 2005
19. ↑ ^{a b c} Poet of the everyday . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 21, 2012
20. ^ Annabelle lyrics , oh Annabelle
21. ↑ Suddenly French. May 14, 2012, accessed February 18, 2013 . 
22. ↑ Lyrics of the song My eighth bay leaf
23. ↑ Lyrics Der Biker
24. ^ Texts on the page Reinhard Mey
25. ↑ From the beginning . Voggenreiter Verlag, 1977
26. ^ ^{A b} Reinhard Mey, Bernd Schroeder : What else I would have to say . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-462-03622-X , p. 130 ff .
27. ↑ Reinhard Mey, Bernd Schroeder : What else I would have to say . S. 124 ff .
28. ^ Rescue helicopter Christoph 4
29. ↑ boat steward www.seenotretter.de,
30. ↑ werkzeug.heinzrudolfkunze.de
31. ↑ mz-web.de: Federal Cross of Merit Award for Reinhard Mey and Thomas Langhoff