Wolfgang Sauer (musician)

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Wolfgang Sauer (born January 2, 1928 in Elberfeld ; † April 26, 2015 in Cologne ) was a German jazz and pop singer , pianist , musician and radio presenter .

Life

Wolfgang Sauer grew up in Wuppertal, where his parents ran an electronics store. At the age of seven months he fell ill on glaucoma . By the time he went to school he was almost blind. Since then he has been wearing dark sunglasses, which later became his trademark. At the age of twelve he came to the German Institute for the Blind in Marburg , where, among other things, he took music lessons and studied piano, choir singing and composition. After the Second World War he graduated from high school in 1946 . On the side, he performed with a student band in American clubs, where he mostly performed jazz music. In 1948 Sauer made his first appearance on the radio. Since Sauer wanted to become a political journalist and then a translator, he studied English and German at the University of Cologne from 1949 . At that time he founded the No Name Band , a jazz ensemble with which he went on tour in 1951.

However, he had to drop out of the course in 1952 for financial reasons. Then he devoted himself to music again and got his first engagement at the then NWDR in Cologne in the show Teemusik . Together with the Eilemann Trio , he was allowed to make music on the radio every fortnight. He also made radio recordings with Kurt Edelhagen in Baden-Baden and Erwin Lehn in Stuttgart . In 1953 he went on tour with Will Glahé and was voted German jazz singer No. 1 . He received his first record deal through Nils Nobach . For Electrola , however, he did not record any jazz titles, but German hits. His first successes were called a melody goes around the world , you've got tears in his eyes , a small dog or Believe me , which sold 500,000 copies and was to become his most successful titles, although that title a few years before been as dear mother of Leila Negra and Rudi Schuricke had been published.

Nevertheless, Sauer continued to sing jazz titles in addition to his hit hits. His recording of For You My Love (1955) with a combo of Carlo Bohländer , Werner Dies , Glen Buschmann and Hans Podehl sold 30,000 copies in the Federal Republic of Germany, making it the most successful German jazz record. The record Night Train with the orchestra Erwin Lehn could not follow it up. In 1955 he also performed the sacred concerto for bass, baritone and jazz orchestra composed by Heinz Werner Zimmermann . With Glen Buschmann he performed several times at the German Jazz Festival until 1958 . His jazz album Sweet and Swing with the orchestras of Paul Kuhn and Berry Lipman from 1959 sold better in Australia than in Germany and was only released again in 2010. Numerous tours and guest performances followed. Until the 1980s he was a star guest as a jazz singer at the concerts of the jazz band Kreisjazzwerkerschaft & Rose Nabinger .

In 1962 Sauer received an offer from Camillo Felgen to work as a presenter for Radio Luxemburg . Prominence on the turntable was the name of his show. Further engagements followed at Deutsche Welle and Deutschlandfunk . In 1964 he made a tour through the GDR with Kurt Edelhagen . From 1965 - until the end of 2006 - he played the transitions on the piano within the program Wiederlisten macht Freude on Westdeutscher Rundfunk . In 1966 Sauer represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the Schlager Festival in Sopot / Poland with the title Girls Without a Name . At the end of the 1960s he sang two long-playing records with folk songs together with a men's choir.

As a pop singer in the 1970s, Sauer had devoted himself to more modern music. At that time he had another success with Tango for the inspector . In various oldies programs on television, however, he mostly sang his old hit titles like Oh, you need so little to be happy and Cindy, Oh Cindy . In 1982 he went on an oldie tour with his singing colleagues Gerd Böttcher , Rocco Granata and Fred Bertelmann . In addition, Sauer was a regular in various entertainment programs in the 1980s, such as Zum Blauen Bock and Melodies for Millions , in which he usually had his biggest hit Believe me! sang. He was occasionally seen on television later. From March 2007 to 2010 he worked at Channel 4 patients radio the Paracelsus Clinic in Marl and presented there every second and fourth Tuesday of the month 18:00 to 19:00 the shipment The good times of remembrance .

With his first wife Gisela († 1988), with whom he had been married since 1954, he had a son. His second marriage was Ingeborg Sauer in 1992 († 2012). Wolfgang Sauer died on April 26, 2015 at the age of 87. He was buried in the family grave in the new Rodenkirchener Friedhof Sürther Str. (Corridor 3 No. 137-139).

honors and awards

Sauer received numerous awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit .

Discography

Albums (selection)

  • Music is my world
  • The good times of memory
  • My Swinging World
  • Memories of Swing
  • 1953: believe me
  • 1958: Sweet and Swing with Wolfgang Sauer
  • 1965: Kurt Edelhagen - Wolfgang Sauer (live recording on June 16, 1964 in the Friedrichstadt-Palast in East Berlin, Amiga )
  • 1968: the old song
  • 1969: A melody goes around the world
  • 1975: I'm here
  • 1995: Believe me
  • 2003: The anniversary gala
  • 2011: The great successes
  • 2014: Cindy, oh Cindy - 50 great successes

Chart successes in the single charts

year title
 Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments) 		Remarks
DE DE
1954 You have tears in your eyes DE12 (24 weeks)
DE
First published: May 1954
Chart entry: June 1, 1954
Believe me DE5 (12 weeks)
DE
First published: May 1954
Chart entry: June 1, 1954
A melody goes around the world DE9 (8 weeks)
DE
Chart entry: August 1, 1954
1956 Oh, you need so little to be happy DE11 (12 weeks)
DE
Chart entry: March 1, 1956
Veni vidi vici DE13 (8 weeks)
DE
Chart entry: March 1, 1956
1957 Cindy, Oh Cindy DE1 (4 weeks)
DE
Chart entry: February 1, 1957
Just because you're with me DE4 (24 weeks)
DE
Chart entry: April 1, 1957
1959 When the bells ring brightly DE7 (20 weeks)
DE
First published: September 1959
Chart entry: November 1st, 1959

Other music titles (selection)

  • 1957: Why do the stars shine so bright tonight
  • 1959: I count my worries every day
  • 1972: Tango for the commissioner
  • Your talking hands
  • 25 years husband
  • A hundred colored ribbons
  • The beautiful old songs
  • The good times of memory
  • Billy Boy (duet with Angèle Durand )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on Wolfgang Sauer ( memento from September 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on May 6, 2012
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Sauer is dead ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Musicians 44. In: knerger.de. Retrieved December 7, 2017 .
  4. ^ Chart successes by Wolfgang Sauer in the German single charts
  5. ↑ a b c Sauer's publication at 45cat.com
personal data
SURNAME Sauer, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German jazz and pop singer, musician and radio presenter
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 2015
Place of death Cologne