Rolf Koehler

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

California (as Marc De Ville)   DE 34 08/22/1977 (1 week)

Rolf Köhler (born May 24, 1951 ; † September 16, 2007 in Hamburg-Altona ) was a German singer , musician and music producer.

Career

Rolf Köhler was one of the most successful background singers in Germany. He achieved his first successes as a solo artist in the 1970s under the pseudonym "Marc De Ville" (Walking alone in the Rain, California). He sang in the background for numerous productions of German pop greats (including Westernhagen ) and international heavy metal bands (including Saxon and Blind Guardian ) and gave many popular promotional songs ( e.g. "Wenns um Geld, Sparkasse", "Tortella", "Bifi") his voice. His most famous work worldwide is probably the design of the falsetto voices in Modern Talking . He formed this with his colleagues Detlef Wiedeke, Michael Scholz and Birger Corleis. Blue System , Bohlen's second big project, lent Koehler the chorus. Dieter Bohlen moved his lips during performances and in videos for the refrain - but Köhler could be heard.

Köhler was co-owner of the KaRo music studios and worked alongside Kalle Trapp in numerous heavy metal and rock productions (including Blind Guardian, Molly Hatchet ). He died of a stroke .

Quarrel with planks

After Modern Talking ended again, he and his two colleagues went public with the assertion that "Bohlen himself [...] did not make a single note on the records" . Although Dieter Bohlen denies this to this day, the record company paid 100,000 DM to each of the three. The credibility of this claim, however, suffers from the suspicion that the three former studio singers may have wanted to “revenge” with their statements for Bohlen simply changing them as a falsetto choir after the 2000 Modern Talking album, after the trio made more money for his vocal interludes.

The dispute in court was exclusively about the illegal use of the old MT vocal tracks as samples and their digital modification. In addition, the sequence of times ( consecutio temporum ) must also be observed. The collaboration ended as a result of the lawsuit. In fact, the choir was then replaced, with the result that it no longer sounded original as it used to be.

Own successes

His own band, consisting of Köhler, Wiedeke and Scholz, has been called Systems in Blue since it was founded in 2003 , based on the old Bohlen project Blue System . Several titles from it were released as a single. However, Köhler was unable to celebrate commercial success with this project either. In 2008 the second and last album by Systems in Blue was released, the song concept was even better than the "Point of no Return" album. Although the album reached number 60 in the amazon.de charts, there was no commercial success.

Several concerts were given in Russia and Israel. Furthermore, Köhler was a member of bands such as "New Commix" (this spelling was used for Köhler's membership and single release, see link, discography), "Kentucky", "Tollhouse", "To Be", "Ian Cussick", "Blue" Blizz ”,“ Springflut ”(with Wiedeke) and“ Gnadenlos Platt ”.

In the 1980s he also had some mini projects such as B. "Stag", "L'Affair", "C.Dorian", "Tom Jackson" and mini-band projects called "Boo Who" and "Straight Flush" as well as "Broken Dreams" but with this one Production remained in each case.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charts DE

Web links

• Obituary on the "Systems in Blue" website
• “Bohlen's singer is dead” , obituary in Stern , September 18, 2007
• Official German Systems-in-Blue fan page