Gus Backus

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Donald Edgar "Gus" Backus (born September 12, 1937 in Southampton , Long Island , New York ; † February 21, 2019 in Germering ) was an American musician and pop singer . With titles like Der Mann im Mond , Da spoke the old Indian chief, beans in his ears and sauerkraut polka , he had great successes in Germany in the 1960s.

Life

The hobby musician Backus was drafted into the US Air Force in Pittsburgh in the mid-1950s . There he joined the Doo-Wop group The Del-Vikings , which in 1957 posted two top ten listings in the US charts with the titles Come Go with Me and Whispering Bells . In the same year GI Backus was relocated to Wiesbaden in West Germany . There he founded the vocal group Vidells and recorded two of his own songs in Chicago a year later during a home vacation . On the advice of his brother-in-law, Backus applied in writing to the Polydor record company in 1959 , whose producer Gerhard Mendelson offered him test recordings and finally a contract. Several singles followed , which mainly contained German-language cover versions of American and British hit titles, including Elvis Presley , Paul Anka and Conway Twitty . In Wiesbaden he met his first wife Karin, with whom he had three children. The marriage ended in divorce.

Backus achieved his breakthrough in 1960 with the titles Brown Bear and White Dove and Da spoke the old chief. In the first half of the 1960s, more successful singles and numerous appearances in music programs and films followed, with which Backus became a popular entertainer in German-speaking countries. Although he in 1964 for Polydor in Nashville , among others, each one Hillbilly - LP recorded in German and English, increasingly mood, certain drinking and carnival songs his repertoire. In 1965 he had another great success with the title Beans in the Ears . In the second half of the 1960s, German-language music increasingly had to assert itself against the emerging beat wave.

After his second marriage to the ballet dancer Heidelore had failed, Backus turned his back on show business in 1973 and went back to the USA , where he worked as a foreman on oil fields in Texas , among other things . In Germany he was temporarily considered missing and was even pronounced dead.

After the death of his third wife Byra in 2001, Backus returned to Germany, where he tried largely unsuccessfully to participate in the success of the oldie wave with new and old music titles . Backus, the father of four children and multiple grandfather, reconciled with his second wife, Heidelore, and remarried in 2002. He lived with her in Germering near Munich , where he died in February 2019 after a serious illness. Gus Backus found his final resting place in the forest cemetery of Germering.

Discography

Filmography

Awards

Bravo Otto

  • 1962: silver
  • 1963: silver

Lion from Radio Luxembourg

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pop singer Gus Backus is dead. In: Welt.de. February 22, 2019, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Pop singer Gus Backus is dead. In: ORF.at. February 22, 2019, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  3. ^ Wolfgang Molitor: Gus Backus. The old chief turns 75. In: zvw.de. Zeitungsverlag Waiblingen Germany, September 12, 2012, accessed on February 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Peter Loder: Interview appointment with a hit legend. Gus Backus tours in the oldie bus in the footsteps of Johnny Cash. In: Merkur.de. September 16, 2016, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Schlager star Gus Backus is dead. In: Focus.de . February 22, 2019, accessed February 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The grave of Gus Backus. In: knerger.de. Klaus Nerger, accessed on June 3, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Award 1962. In: Bravo.de.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bravo.de
  8. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Award 1963. In: Bravo.de.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bravo.de
personal data
SURNAME Backus, Gus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Backus, Donald Edgar (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician and pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Southampton, Long Island , New York
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 2019
Place of death Germering