Tivoli melody
Tivoli Melody is the original title of an instrumental piece of music that was written by the German composer Heino Gaze . The instrumental version Calcutta became a number one hit with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra in the USA in 1961 . In Germany, Vico Torriani came with the text version Calcutta is on the Ganges also at the top of the charts.
Tivoli melody
In the 1950s, Heino Gaze was a very busy composer in the hit industry, who wrote a number one hit and other top 10 successes for Peter Alexander with the title I know what you are missing . By 1957 he had composed the soundtrack for over 20 films. In the spring of 1958, the German record company Polydor released Heino Gaze's composition Tivoli-Melodie on the single No. 23668 , played by the Ricardo Santos orchestra. The later successful band leader Werner Müller hid behind Ricardo Santos . In the same year the Italian pianist Marino Marini and his quartet also published an instrumental version of the Tivoli melody . In the fall of 1958, a sung version with a text by the American Al Stillman appeared in Great Britain, which was interpreted by the British Tony Osborne. None of these versions made it into the hit lists.
Calcutta
The American Artie Ripp produced a new instrumental version of the Tivoli melody with the orchestra leader Lawrence Welk . Welk had recorded a number of successful instrumentals since the 1930s. In addition to the Welk Orchestra, Artie Ripp had planned a harpsichord for his production, which was played by Frank Scott. Under the title Calcutta , the production was released in November 1960 by the US record company Dot Records on a single under catalog number 16161. Calcutta appeared in the Hot 100 of the US music magazine Billbord for the first time on December 12, 1960 . On February 13, the piece of music reached number one there, which it defended for two weeks. The title Calcutta appeared on Dot in January 1961 on a long-playing record , which also reached first place in the LP charts.
In addition to covered instrumental versions of Les Baxter , Les Brown and The Ventures , a text version of Calcutta with the Four Preps , written by Lee Pockriss, was published in 1961 by Capitol in the USA as well as in Great Britain and Germany. The text is about women in Calcutta who kiss better than those in Paris or Spain. The Four Preps reached # 96 with their version on the Billboard Hot 100.
Calcutta lies on the Ganges
In Germany, a text version of the Tivoli melody was published as early as 1960 , which was given the title Calcutta lies on the Ganges . The copywriter was Hans Bradtke , who already wrote the lyrics for two number one hits: Seven times a week ( Vico Torriani ) and Hula-Baby ( Peter Kraus ). The title Calcutta lies on the Ganges is misleading because the Indian city of Calcutta is located on the Hugli River , which is part of the Ganges delta , but flows into the sea about 320 km west of the main current of the Ganges. In the rest of the text Bradtke tries to make it clear that geographical knowledge is less important to him than the beautiful Madeleine: “This is how this earth turns in a circle and does not stop. For me, it's all about Madeleine. ”Wolf Kabitzky produced the song on June 3, 1960 in Berlin-Lichterfelde with Vico Torriani and the Klaus Wüsthoff dance orchestra. It was released in the same month by the Decca record company under number 19075. Despite the simple text, the song was well received by the audience. The single reached position two in the German single charts and stayed in the top 10 for four months and in the hit parade for six months. The Calcutta song was awarded a gold record by the German record industry . No other record company operating in Germany felt compelled to produce their own version of Calcutta lies on the Ganges parallel to Decca . Only the cheap label Tempo brought out a version with the famous actor Gerd Fitz .
literature
- Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits , Billboard Publications New York 1988, p. 84, ISBN 0-8230-7545-1 .
- Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit balance sheet German chart singles 1956–1980. Taurus Press 1987, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 .
swell
- ↑ Chart sources: Calcutta is located on the Ganges on Chartsurfer.de
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 446 .