The Yankees

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The Yankees were a German beat band from Bremen , which was founded in 1961 and gained national importance, especially through the first episode of the ARD youth cult program Beat Club .

The name "Yankees" was inspired by the Western The Magnificent Seven . At first it was a sign of the "urge to be manly". The origin of the word “ Yankee ” is unclear, its meaning is ambiguous , but in any case it stands for a member of a population group of the USA - mostly for representatives of the northern states .

Members

Little is known about its origins, members and repertoire. Between August 1961 and April 1963, the Yankees appeared in any case with the composition Herbert Küster, Heinz Dieter “Hascha” Hashagen, Friedel Herz and Frank “Frankie” Bartelt. Gerd "Jerry" Adamowsky, singer / keyboard player (Hohner "Symphonik") Günther Saalbach, Harald Blenke and Willi Eck probably joined the band from 1963, as did Lutz Kluge. The front man was the impulsive co-founder Bartelt, who together with Adamowsky had also composed the title Halbstark , which had been unsuccessfully presented to several record labels . The German-language title skilfully reflected the perspective from which the adults viewed “modern youth” with disdain and criticism. The colloquial expression " youngster " characterized undisciplined, rude teenagers in Germany in the 50s and 60s.

There was no national success. After all, in May 1962 the band won a competition in the youth camp in Walle (Bremen). It is said that up to this point the guitar system consisted of semi-acoustic guitars that were amplified by large tube radios. In early 1963, the Yankees met the electrician Wolfram Schloenzig. He built them a - for those times oversized - amplifier system with 100 watts of power, which hardly any band in Germany could show. The premiere was on February 23, 1963 at a carnival party in the Bremen vocational school center.

Beat club

The well-known Bremen beat band Yankees and their manager at the time Rainer Janz were also known to the Bremen Beat Club producer Michael "Mike" Leckebusch . After the leadership of Radio Bremen had approved the Beat Club broadcast in mid-1965, Leckebusch looked for bands that would appear in the first episode on September 25, 1965. At first it was far from being possible for the as yet unknown show to win top pop music star bands for its show. Therefore, regionally known bands such as John O'Hara and his Playboys (from Sheffield) were engaged with three titles, the Star Club-known girls quartet The Liverbirds (from Liverpool) - which are considered the first girl group in the world - with three titles and the - matching the name of the band - Yankees with four titles performing in uniforms of the Northern States Army from the American Civil War. As the opener of the show, it was decided to use Halbstark , the only German-language song in the first episode. This first Beat Club episode was also the last appearance of the Yankees in the successful music show.

Record deal

Due to the immense success of the first Beat Club episode, the Yankees received a record deal with Polydor Records without difficulty , and the first single was Halbstark / La-La-La-La-La-La (You are always) (Polydor Records 52589 ; October 1965). However, instead of going on tour across Germany - supported by the live performance in the Beat Club - the group stayed in the Bremen area and thus missed the opportunity for larger record sales. With I Was Born To Love You followed while another single, but this was not published because the band had shortly thereafter separated from her wayward frontman and singer Frank Bartelt. Without the front man, however, there was no success.

A total of 24 titles were recorded, most of them (15) were English language covers by other artists. 15 tracks were private recordings from 1964 for Radio Bremen, CLUB 99 , Burger Landhaus and OCEANA / Bremen. The band broke up in 1968, only keyboard player Günther Saalbach played in other bands until the 80s.

The title Halbstark recently gained fame again through the successful cover single of the German alternative rap group KIZ , which only used the refrain. On the album Lauter Werder , released for the 120th anniversary of Werder Bremen in 2019, a version of the title with a new text was released with Heimstark by Die Original Deutschmacher .

Discography (with composer in brackets)

  • Thirsty (Gerd Adamowsky, Frank Bartelt)
  • La-La-La-La-La-La (It's always you) (Gerd Adamowsky, Frank Bartelt)
  • Play, Gypsy (C. Gray, N. Foley, E. Kálmán)
  • Such a bitch (Heinrich Heine: Horse and Donkey from 1854; Harald Blenke, Günter Saalbach)
  • Love affair (Harald Blenke, Günter Saalbach)
  • In the red tram (Harald Blenke, Günter Saalbach)
  • My land of milk and honey (Harald Blenke, Günter Saalbach)
  • It's over and over (Harald Blenke, Günter Saalbach)
  • Tequila ( Chuck Rio )
  • Poison Ivy ( Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller )
  • I Should Have Known Better (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
  • I Was Born to Love You (Frank Bartelt, AE Wallace)
  • Night train
  • Very last day
  • Sunny Afternoon (Raymond Davis)
  • A Hard Day's Night ( John Lennon , Paul McCartney )
  • Amapola (Lacalle)
  • I Can Tell ( Ellas McDaniel , Samuels)
  • Mashed Potatoes (Clyde Otis, Nancy Lee)
  • Sugar and Spice (Fred Nightingale)
  • Mexico ( Boudleaux Bryant )
  • We are mountain vagabonds (Hans Kolesa, Erich Hartinger, Walter Höfling)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 50 years ago: The song "Halbstark" made the Bremen beat band "The Yankees" known overnight in 1965 all over Germany @ wkgeschichte.weser-kurier.de, accessed July 26, 2020
  2. ^ Gerhard Truig: German dictionary. 1968, p. 1629.