We want to be friends for life

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We want to be friends for life is the referee of a tango song that Will Meisel composed on a text by Günther Schwenn and Peter Schaeffers in 1934 for the German-Swiss sound film “ Der Springer von Pontresina ”. Eric Helgar played a leading role in it.

background

With the song he interpreted in this film, Eric Helgar achieved a popular hit and the beginning of a career as a chorus singer.

The tango song was published in the same year by the composer's music publishing house, Edition Meisel GmbH, Berlin, and quickly enjoyed great popularity.

In the film, which confronts the ascetic, performance-oriented world of winter sports enthusiasts with the hedonistic, liberal “high society” of entrepreneurs and artists in St. Moritz , the popular hit “stands for the collective element of the comradeship ideology” and as opposed to it as foreign to the big city and therefore threatening perceived phenomenon of modern jazz-influenced dance music.

Meisel used his composition again as a choral work in his operetta “ Queen of a Night ”, for which Just Scheu and Ernst Nebhut had written the libretto. It was premiered on November 13, 1943 in Berlin. Kurt Hoffmann filmed it in 1951 with Ilse Werner , Hans Holt , Georg Thomalla and Käthe Haack in the leading roles. In the 1970s it was produced by ZDF as a color television operetta with Dagmar Koller , Peter Minich , Peter Weck , Gretl Schörg , Theo Lingen and Klaus Havenstein .

“We want to be friends for life” was recorded on gramophone records by well-known orchestras in the 1930s. B. by Ludwig Rüth, formerly Lewis Ruth , and by the Hungarian violinist Barnabás von Géczy .

After the Second World War , the song was part of the repertoire of the Schöneberg Boys' Choir and the Günther Arndt Choir. Singers like Gerhard Wendland and Dieter Thomas Heck picked it up again. The orchestra of the well-known accordionist Will Glahé also recorded it again in 1967. It has now become an evergreen , while the film to which it once belonged is almost forgotten.

The line of text “We want to be friends for life” is quoted several times in literary works.

Sheet music editions

  • We want to be friends for life; Tango, words Günther Schwenn u. Peter Schaeffers, music: Will Meisel, op. 109. Edition Meisel & Co., G. mb H.; Copyr. Jan. 1, 1934. Publisher number: 15/1116/111
  • We want to be friends for life! / Will Meisel. For (4stgn) according to Choir a capp. or m. Companion (Klav.) V. Friedrich Zimmer . Text: Schwenn u. Schaeffers. Recklinghausen: Iris-Verlag [1970]; Volume 5 pages; Ch. 8 °
  • We want to be friends for life: the world success of Will Meisel; from the operetta “Queen of a Night” / [movement] for women's or youth choir a cappella or with accompaniment, by Otto Groll . Recklinghausen: Iris-Musik- und Theater-Verlag [1993]; Volume 4 pages; 27 cm (= Iris Choir Collection No. 1457)

Audio documents

  • We want to be friends for life. Lied and Tango (Meisel, Schwenn and Schaeffers) from the sound film “Der Springer von Pontresina”. Eric Helgar with the Ludwig Rüth chapel . Electrola EG2943 (60-2490)
  • We want to be friends for life. Lied and Tango (Meisel, Schwenn and Schaeffers) from the sound film “Der Springer von Pontresina”. Barnabás von Géczy with his orchestra and refraing singing. Telefunken A 1612 (mat. 19 633)

literature

  • Jürg Frischknecht, Thomas Kramer, Werner Schweizer: Film landscape: Engadin, Bergell, Puschlav, Münstertal. Verlag Bündner Monatsblatt, 2003, ISBN 3-905342-07-3 .
  • Werner Gille: Dark is the color of homesickness: a story of flight and reconciliation. Verlag Langen Mueller Herbig, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7766-8222-9 .
  • Volker Kühn: Schwenn, Günther. In: New German Biography. Volume 24, 2010, pp. 69-70 (online version URL )
  • Thomas Krämer, Dominik Siegrist: Terra: a Swiss film company in the Third Reich. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-905278-73-1 .
  • Stefan Kursawe: From the leading medium to the accompanying medium: the radio programs of the Hessischer Rundfunk 1960–1980 (= media in past and present. Volume 21). Verlag Böhlau, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-412-17903-5 .
  • Rolf Schroers: Jacob and Longing. Novel. E. Diederich publishing house, 1953.
  • Kai Marcel Sicks: Stadium romances: the sports novel of the Weimar Republic. Königshausen & Neumann publishing house, Würzburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8260-3745-0 .
  • Manfred Weihermüller, Rainer E. Lotz (Hrsg.): German National Discography. Discography of the German vocal recordings. Volume 1, Verlag B. Lotz, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-9803461-1-0 , p. 115.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. filmmuseum-potsdam.de  : “Der Springer von Pontresina” is an important film for Eric Helgar in several ways. He sings one of the first hits written especially for him , which has sold millions of copies on records: "We want to be friends for life". On the other hand, Helgar plays his first major film role as a member of a winter sports team. (Filmmuseum Potsdam © 2016)
  2. ↑ cf. “Der Schellack-Prinz” on filmmuseum-potsdam.de  : “Eric Helgar's singing exudes something very un-German and modern. His voice and appearance are those of an international jet-setter , have nothing to do with German piety and the ideological corset of the thirties. " (Filmmuseum Potsdam © 2016)
  3. ↑ cf. music.com
  4. ↑ cf. Sicks p. 51, 53.
  5. ↑ cf. Krämer-Siegrist p. 59, 69 and p. 72 “The popular film hit« We want to be friends for life »stands for the element of comradeship ideology ...”
  6. ↑ cf. Frischknecht, Kramer, Swiss: “As a musical antithesis to wicked dance music, the film builds the song“ We want to be friends for life ”."
  7. ↑ cf. Theaterverlag felix-bloch-orben.de  ; Theater bill from February 12, 1944. at dhm.de
  8. ↑ cf. wiki queen of a night (film)
  9. ↑ Schöneberger Boys' Choir: We want to be friends for life, to be heard on youtube
  10. ↑ Pseudonym of the RIAS Chamber Choir for recordings in the field of pop music, cf. discogs.com and Kursawe p. 156 January 1962 half of the 40 songs had English-language titles, but only 6 were described with vocals. [...] “Annenpolka” by the Hubert Wolf Sextet or “We want to be friends for life” by the Günther Arndt Choir.
  11. ↑ in his LP album "Man is as old as one feels" (Philips 6305 261 from 1975, track B 6), cf. discogs.com
  12. ↑ cf. CD "Schlager Deja Vu" (label: Monopol, order number: 3513745, published June 13, 2005), track 12, at jpc.de
  13. ↑ to be heard on youtube from the LP "Tango Notturno - 16 tender evergreens"
  14. ↑ Rolf Schroers wrote in his novel “Jakob und die Sehnsucht” in 1953 on p. 156: He laughed at himself and then fell into the song in which he had interrupted himself for this remark: “We want to be friends, for life -! "The NCOs up at the table had hooked themselves under and were shaking." And in 2015 Hans-Werner Gille reported in his souvenir novel “Darkness is the color of homesickness: A story of flight and reconciliation” from a trip to Silesia: “Hot broth is served in the dining room. Pianist Jan Wojciech plays: "We want to be friends for life". He speaks German almost flawlessly. I like to talk to him. "
  15. ↑ cf. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions, Part 3, No. 14886, p. 623.
  16. ↑ Iris Choir Collection No. 898, licensed edition. d. Music publisher Meisel Berlin, cf. DNB
  17. ↑ Otto Groll (* 1935), German music director, choir director and composer. See ottogroll.de
  18. ↑ cf. DNB
  19. ↑ listen on youtube
  20. ↑ listen on youtube