Burt Kaempfert
b. Berthold Kaempfert, 16 October 1923, Hamburg, Germany, d. 21 June 1980, Majorca, Spain. A conductor, arranger, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Kaempfert played the piano as a child, and later studied at the Hamburg Conservatory of Music. By the time he joined Hans Bussch and his Orchestra during World War II, he was capable of playing a variety of instruments, including the piano, piano-accordion and all the reeds. After the war he formed his own band, and became a big draw in West Germany before joining Polydor Records as a producer, arranger and musical director. In the latter role he had some success with Yugoslavian, Ivor Robic's version of Morgen, which made the US Top 20 in 1959, and Freddie Quinn's Die Gitarre Und Das Meer. A year later he made his own global breakthrough when he topped the US charts with his studio orchestra's recording of Wonderland By Night. It was the precursor to a series of similar recordings in which a solo trumpet (usually Fred Moch) and muted brass were set against a cushion of lush strings and wordless choral effects, all emphasized by the insistent rhythm of a two-beat bass guitar. This treatment was effectively applied by Kaempfert to several of his own compositions, which were also successful for other artists, such as Spanish Eyes (Moon Over Naples) ( Al Martino), Danke Schoen ( Wayne Newton), L-O-V-E ( Nat King Cole), A Swinging Safari ( Billy Vaughn), and Wooden Heart, which Elvis Presley sang in his film, G.I. Blues, and Joe Dowell took to the US number 1 spot in 1961. Two other Kaempfert numbers, The World We Knew (Over And Over)' and Strangers In The Night benefited from the Frank Sinatra treatment. The latter song, part of Kaempfert's score for the James Garner/Melina Mercouri comedy/thriller, A Man Could Get Killed, topped the US and UK charts in 1966. Lyrics for his most successful songs were written by Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder, Carl Sigman, Kurt Schwabach, Milt Gabler, Fred Wise, Ben Weisman and Kay Twomey. Kaempfert himself had easy listening world-wide hits in his own inimitable style with revivals of ‘golden oldies’ such as Tenderly, Red Roses For A Blue Lady;, Three O'Clock In The Morning and Bye Bye Blues. In 1961, WONDERLAND BY NIGHT spent five weeks at number 1 in the US, and Kaempfert continued to chart in the US and UK throughout the '60s, but his records failed to achieve Top 40 status in the '70s, although he still sold a great many, and continued to tour. Apart from his skill as an arranger and orchestra leader, Bert Kaempfert has another claim to fame in the history of popular music—he was the first person to record the Beatles. While they were playing a club in Hamburg in 1961, Kaempfert hired them to back Tony Sheridan, a singer who had a large following in Germany. After supplying the additional vocals on My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean and When The Saints Go Marching In, Kaempfert allowed Lennon & Co to record Ain't She Sweet and Cry For A Shadow. When the beat boom got under way, My Bonnie, as it was then called, made the US Top 30 in 1964, and Ain't She Sweet became a minor hit in the UK. By the end of the decade the Beatles had split up, and Kaempfert's best days were behind him, too. In 1980, after completing a successful series of concerts in the UK, culminating in an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, he was taken ill while on holiday in Majorca, Spain, and died there on 21 June. The New Bert Kaempfert Orchestra was advertising its availability in UK trade papers in the early '90s.