Your greatest successes

Your greatest successes.
Studio album from Extrabreit
Publication (s)	1980
admission	June / July 1980
Label (s)	Metronome Records
Format (s)	LP , MC
Genre (s)	Rock music , punk , new wave
Title (number)	13
occupation	Singing : Kai Havaii Guitar : Stefan Kleinkrieg Guitar : Carlo Karges Guitar : Frankieboy Bass : Ralf Teuwen Keyboards : Carlo Karges Drums : Rüdiger Braune Drums : Gerhard “Käpt'n Horn” Sperling
production	Christian Schneider
Studio (s)	Hiltpoltstein recording studio , Hiltpoltstein
chronology - Your greatest successes. What a country! - What kind of men: 1981

Your greatest successes ( spelling : YOUR GREATEST SUCCESS. ) Is the title of the debut album by the German rock band Extrabreit , which was released in 1980. It contained the hit Hurray, Hurray, the school is on fire and a cover version of the Hans Albers song Flieger, greet me the sun from the 1932 UFA film F.P.1 does not answer .

background

Extrabreit was founded in 1978 by Stefan “Kleinkrieg” Klein and Gerhard “Käpt'n Horn” Sperling . The idea for the band name came from Gerhard Sperling, who discovered it on a particularly thick felt-tip pen from the edding company . Ralf "Rhava" Denz, who also played with The Ramblers , took over the bass. Horst-Werner Wiegand became the first singer. The band quickly gained a good reputation as a live band in their hometown of Hagen . After internal quarrels, Wiegand surprisingly got out, whom Denz followed a little later.

Stefan Klein, Gabi Lambrecht, a roommate of Urbanization 56 B , one of which also Kay-Oliver Schlasse, a music cassette was pressed into his hand, on the Schlasse with Wiegand jammend was heard, suddenly asked him about whether he wanted to sing at Extrabreit. Schlasse agreed. Denz was replaced by Ralf Teuwen, the second guitarist was Peter Worthmann. In Jörg A. Hoppe , who also lived in WG B 56 , the band finally found a manager.

After the band had recorded a demo tape , they found a supporter in Hartwig Masuch , who made it possible for them to record their first single and promised to take care of a recording contract for the group. With his Wiehagen & Masuch music publishing house , the band signed a publishing contract in 1979.

In January 1980 the band then recorded the song Hart wie Marmelade in the Hiltpoltstein recording studio , the B-side was the song 1.36, which was still written by Horst-Werner Wiegand and was not later published on the album. Masuch produced the single under his pseudonym Christian Schneider, with whom he also acted as a singer in the band The Ramblers . The record deal he negotiated gave the group a musical home with the Metronome label ( Warner Music Group ). The label refused to publish the original recording, however, because it contained the line "and then I'll pull white powder until the nostrils smoke". Management and the record company agreed on a compromise: The band recorded a modified, "radio-compatible" version of the song and in return received the promise that the original text would be used on any album that might be published.

On April 7, 1980 guitarist Peter Worthmann tried to take his own life. Carlo Karges stepped in for him . He had been recommended by Masuch to play the upcoming concerts and, if necessary, to take part in the recordings for the planned album. The work on this took place again in Hiltpoltstein .

The first song that the band recorded, was Hooray, hooray, the school burns of guitar chords Gerhard Sperling had written some time before the studio sessions and the quay Havaii as singer Schlasse was now called the Association children's song had. He wrote a suitable text. During the same session, the cover version of Flieger, greet me the sun (originally: Das Fliegerlied ) was made. Kleinkrieg and Havaii modified the lyrics slightly and left out lines five and six in the chorus of the original version of the song.

With Boy, we can be so hot was on the album at least one tribute , but in fact one of Schlasse and small heavily edited and lyrically freely transferred into German cover version of Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side , which indirectly the band to connect to American punk precursors Velvet Underground produced. Ramblers guitarist Frank Becking contributed the guitar solo for this song .

By the end of two weeks in the studio, the band had recorded thirteen songs for their album. Many titles from the early phase of the group were not taken into account: Denkpause, Hit at 7 or Bei Rainer ist die Hölle los were all created in 1979, but were only featured on the sampler Unerhört in 2003 - 18 Rär Träcks, demos and other exotic specialties by the band is self-published.

When the recordings were over, manager Jörg A. Hoppe first threw in the towel because the album wasn't “punk enough” for him. Carlo Karges also left the band, drummer Gerhard Sperling had been kicked out. Singer Schlasse, suddenly plagued by self-doubt, called Stefan Klein and informed him that he would also get out. Klein then made Norbert Thiel, known as "Nobsy Laumann", the band's singer and hired the drummer Rolf Möller , whom he had known since childhood, to keep the band alive.

Track list

Your greatest successes.
No.	title	Songwriter	length
1.	Hurray, hurray, the school is on fire	Kay-Oliver Schlasse , Gerhard Sperling	2:14
2.	Extra wide	Horst-Werner Wiegand	3:43
3.	Nosedive	Schlasse, Worthmann	3:03
4th	Annemarie	Schlasse, Stefan Klein	1:44
5.	Bus baby	Small	1:21
6th	I want to get out of here	Ralf Denz	1:57
7th	Nightmare city	Wiegand	2:42
8th.	Hard as jam	Small, class	3:01
9.	Lotto king	Small	1:56
10.	Aviator, say hello to the sun	Allan Gray , Walter Reisch	2:53
11.	It's ticking	Schlasse, Worthmann	2:51
12.	110	Schlasse, Carlo Karges	4:59
13.	Boy we can be so hot	Schlasse, Wiegand	4:39

reception

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Your greatest successes   DE 7th 12/28/1981 (38 weeks)

Singles

Hurray, hurray, the school is on fire   DE 12 03/15/1982 (23 weeks)

The album is analyzed in detail in the book Die Praxis der Popmusik: Sociological Perspectives . In his conclusion, author P. Klose writes that the “basic gesture of the pieces” appears “quite uniform at first glance”, and the closer analysis reveals a “great wealth of variants in detail”. Many design elements referred to “the conventions of older rock and pop music”, which was “evidence of the band's awareness of tradition”, with the role of the guitar being particularly worth mentioning. There are “no two songs that largely obey the same pattern”. Many elements brought “the music close to the Ramones ”, and with the cover version Boy, We Can Be So Hot , “also more related to the US proto-punk scene” than to the current British punk at the end of the 1970s. Also with regard to the texts, “the bandwidth is wide”. For Extrabreit, “representatives of German pop music in the punk tradition” could be considered what the New Musical Express had certified for the Ramones: to be a “cartoon version of rock and roll”.

After its release in the summer of 1980, not much happened commercially with the album at first. In the scene in Hagen - Wehringhausen, however, the record was well received. But only with the chart success of the second studio album Welch ein Land! - What for men: in December 1981 and the resulting single Polizisten in January 1982, sales of the album picked up. Then Hurray, Hurray, the school burns was released as a single, and your greatest success reached number seven on the German music charts .

literature

• Anna Daniel, Frank Hillebrandt (Ed.): The Practice of Pop Music: Sociological Perspectives , 1st edition, February 2019, page 224; Springer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-658-22713-5 .

Web links

• Her greatest successes at Discogs

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kai Havaii: As hard as jam - A rock'n'roll novel from the provinces, construction publishing group, 1st edition 2007, pages 65–74
2. ↑ The Extra Wide Story by Kurt Grosskurt, Part 4 , accessed on January 15, 2020
3. ↑ Kai Havaii: As hard as jam - a rock'n'roll novel from the provinces, construction publishing group, 1st edition 2007, page 87
4. ↑ Kai Havaii: As hard as jam - a rock'n'roll novel from the provinces, construction publishing group, 1st edition 2007, page 88
5. ↑ according to Kalender-365.de ; based on Havaii, which here is called Easter Monday in 1980 as a day of the event
6. ↑ Kai Havaii: As hard as jam - A rock'n'roll novel from the provinces, construction publishing group, 1st edition 2007, page 103
7. ↑ Original lyrics on the website of the Bremen Choir Workshop
8. ↑ Lyrics by Extrabreit at musixmatch.com , accessed on February 2, 2020
9. ↑ ^{a b} The Practice of Pop Music: Sociological Perspectives, page 219
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Kai Havaii: As hard as jam - A rock'n'roll novel from the provinces, construction of the publishing group, 1st edition 2007, pages 107/108
11. ↑ Awards for music sales: DE
12. ↑ Chart placements: DE . Retrieved May 26, 2019