Laila (song)

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Laila is a song by Joachim Dauber and Georg von Breda based on the song and tango Leila by Adolf Dauber and Beda , as well as the song Imagine I'm a wild robber by Albert Bachrich, Peter Igelhoff and Erich Meder .

The song became known in 1960 through the Dutch group “Regento Stars” with the singer Bruno Majcherek and developed into an evergreen thanks to the “disreputable” line of text for the time: “... kiss me and torment me” .

The recording

The title was produced in the spring of 1960 on behalf of the Dutch record company "TIVOLI" in an improvised recording studio, which was housed in a caravan, with "low budget". Originally with Dutch text, a German version was written especially for the recording with the “REGENTO STARS”. During the recording, singer Bruno Majcherek suffered from a cold, which gave the voice its scratchy charm.

The text

The title is often mistakenly called "Leila". The original version was written with "a". Misprints of the "Fontana plates" of that time are now sought-after rarities. The original text was about a poor, sick legionnaire and his insatiable longing for his beloved, a harem lady. This hid aloof from him behind the high walls of the women's shelter in Algiers.

Due to the new middle section of the Regento Stars, the chorus got a completely different meaning. The text passage became known: "... kiss me and torment me", as well as the spoken middle text :

... imagine, ladies and gentlemen, I would be a wild robber.
Imagine you were walking around in the forest all by yourself
I would call: hands up or I'll shoot you.
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Do you feel now, gentlemen, that the ladies have become completely unwilling,
because in the second stanza there were quite a few young ladies
swallowed in the champagne and schnapps.

This caused a sensation and outrage in the early 1960s because of the Sado-Maso suggestion, as “mindless” women, who were also supposed to be “tortured and kissed”, were not compatible with contemporary morality. So initially the German radio stations refused to play the record after the Catholic Church denounced the public broadcast and the clear statement. At times it was even briefly on the index. In the Netherlands, priests warned in sermons of the shame this song was supposed to bring to the audience. Thereupon the middle text was “defused” in the following cover versions and kept “youth free” according to the requirements.

In 2010, for the 50th anniversary, the title was re-produced by CRI-LEX Records in Nuremberg with the original singer Bruno Majcherek in a modern version, but with the original text.

Hit parade placements

  • Germany: 1960–1961 42 weeks, highest ranking: 1st place for 12 weeks
  • Austria: 1960 14 weeks, highest ranking: 1st place for two weeks
  • Netherlands: 1960 45 weeks, highest ranking: 1st place for 19 weeks

Cover versions

  • 1963 - Peter Lauch and the plovers (text extension and new middle text)
  • 1965 - The Globetrotters
  • 1968 - Siggi Hoppe (without middle text with introduction by female voice)
  • 1971 - Matchmakers
  • 1972 - Karl Dall (New Middle Text)
  • 1987 - Höhner
  • 1982/1986/1992/1996 - Bruno Majcherek (always different middle text passages)
  • 1991 - Die Goldenen Zitronen ( titled Happy Birthday Leila , published on her album Punkrock )
  • 2010 - Bruno Majcherek (original copy including original middle text)

Movie soundtrack

  • 2009 - The Debt (original version from 1960 - backing song in a 4 minute bar scene)

Web links

Christina Merkelbach: Bergmann sings his hit again. In: www.az-web.de. Retrieved June 6, 2010 .

Individual evidence