[Fiji Hill]

In the fall of 1961, I didn't often have access to a radio, and the only place where I could hear American pop music was from the juke boxes at the American Youth Activities Association (AYA) snack bar or the cafeteria on the army base.

German radio stations didn't play a lot of American music, but they often played German versions of American songs. I recall hearing Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Honolulu Strand [beach] Bikini on a German radio station in November, 1961. This version of Brian Hyland's smash Stateside hit was sung by Caterina Valente, an Italian songstress who had a string of hits in Germany.

Some American singers also released songs in German. Connie Francis scored big in Germany with Die Liebe ist ein Seltsames Spiel (Love is a weird game), better known to Statesiders as Everybody's Somebody's Fool.

However, German musical tastes were considerably different from American, and pop music fans in the Federal Republic went for songs like Peter Kraus's Schwarze Rosen, Rosemarie (black roses, Rosemarie), from December, 1961. Oddly enough, the setting for this song is somewhere in the Missouri River valley.

[simpson96]

Interesting stuff! Thanks.