- Danke Schoen
-
"Danke Schoen" is a 1962 song first recorded by Bert Kaempfert; however, it gained its fame in 1963 when American singer Wayne Newton recorded his version of it. The music was composed by Bert Kaempfert, with the lyrics written by Kurt Schwaback and Milt Gabler.
Contents
Newton's version
Wayne Newton's first version was released when he was 21 years old. The song was originally intended for singer Bobby Darin as a follow-up to his hit single Mack the Knife, but after seeing Newton perform at the Copacabana, he decided to give the song to Newton and changed the tempo of the recording to fit Newton's voice. Newton's high tenor is sometimes mistaken for that of a female singer by those unfamiliar with the song. It has been featured in many television commercials and motion pictures, such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Meet the Parents, Matchstick Men, Vegas Vacation, and Fools Rush In. The Newton version peaked at Billboard positions #13 pop, #3 easy listening.
Other versions
In the same year as Newton, Laila Kinnunen sang a purely Finnish version. The tone and the words "Auf Wiedersehen" at the end suggest a similar sentiment of this version.
Connie Francis recorded the song in French, Japanese, Spanish and Italian, keeping the original title line "Danke schoen" in all versions except the Italian recording, which was released as Grazie a te.
Brenda Lee recorded "Danke Schoen" for her 1964 album By Request, produced by Owen Bradley.
Both Anita Lindblom and Caterina Valente recorded the song in German.
In 2004, Deluxe (a Spanish indie-rock artist) recorded a rock version for his album If things were to go wrong.
Linguistic details
In German, "Danke schön" is equivalent to the English "thank you very much." It is similar to the English "thank you kindly." The polite response is "bitte schön", essentially a request (bitte, intensified by schön) that the recipient take or keep the item or favor offered; in this respect it is roughly equivalent to "you are very welcome [to the item or favor offered]", in that both replies represent ratification of the recipient's accepting the item or favor.
The word schön (pretty) is pronounced throughout in the song as it is in Yiddish, שיין [ˈʃɛjn], approximately rhyming with "pain," rather than as German schön [ˈʃøːn] (sh-URN). Note that the German letter "ö" can also be written using the older typography "oe", of which the umlauted O is a typesetting contraction, when umlauts are unavailable or not readily accessible.
External links
Categories:- 1962 songs
- English-language songs
- German-language songs
- Songs with music by Bert Kaempfert
- Songs with lyrics by Milt Gabler
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
