"Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" und "Sie Liebt Dich"

A question for German members (or people here who speak fluent German): did The Beatles do a good job or a bad job in singing these tracks in German in terms of accent and pronunciation?

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-on-63-64-singles.400585/page-2#post-11533549
See post #40 by Helmut.

 

A Luxembourger was responsible for that mess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Felgen

 

When I was in high school, there was a German exchange student named Sabine that I was friends with. One day I was listening to some Beatles on my cassette walkman and "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" came on, so I handed the walkman to Sabine and told her to have a listen. She was grooving along for a few seconds and then she suddenly exclaimed, "Zis is German!" She didn't recognize it as her mother tongue immediately.

 

IIRC, some short parts of the two songs are sung almost without any accent, while other parts are pronounced a bit rougher ...

 

Even zee orkestra iss beautifool

 

The Beatles all spoke German, especially McCartney and Harrison could do whole interviews in Deutsch, so singing in German wasn't that difficult to them. Other artists (like Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye or Willie Nelson) were coached phonetically to sing – they didn't understand a word.

 

But what was John's German like? It's always sounded to me as if Paul is much further forward vocally on the German songs (compared to the English versions), maybe because his German was better than John's?

 

Not being German but living only a bit over 1 hours drive away, and being in Germany quite often i can safely say that their accents are not too good. It's that not much better than when english speakers makes fun of Germans speaking english with a german accent.

 

I have a few radio interviews from their Bravo Beatles Blitz Tour from 1966. John is merely clowning around in the background shouting "Achtung" and "Dankesehr", while Paul and George mostly answer in German. George even sings a few German schlager songs from the current hit parade. Even nowadays McCartney has fun surprising German talk show hosts (and their translators) with replies in quite good German.

 

I always wondered if someone translated for them.

I have a number of EP's and singles of French versions of English songs, and most have the translator's name listed next to the songwriter credits, but in brackets or something to indicate it's a translation or "adaptation" credit. I guess that must've been a practice unique to France?

Mark

 

I assume that after performing in Germany for extended stretches they had a certain level of functional conversational ability, but were a long way from fluent. I never cared for these two tracks musically, but I admire the gesture toward a fan base that dug their work and provided them a livelihood before they became phenomenal.

 

It wasn't a gesture. They had their arms twisted to do it. They even tried to cop out on the morning of the session.

 

Makes me think of this little gem

 

Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
-----------------------
O come, come to me
You drive me out of my mind
O come, come to me
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
O you are so pretty
as pretty as a diamond
I want to go with you
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
In your arms I'm happy and glad
It was never that way with anyone else
never that way, never that way
O come, come to me
You drive me out of my mind
O come, come to me
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
Come give me your hand
In your arms I'm happy and glad
It was never that way with anyone else
never that way, never that way
Oh you are so pretty
as pretty as a diamond
I want to go with you
Come give me your hand...

Sie Liebt Dich
--------------------
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
You think she only loves me
I saw her yesterday
Yes, she only thinks about you
And you ought to go to her
Oh, yes she loves you
It couldn't be any better
Yes, she loves you
And so you should glad
You hurt her
She didn't know why
You weren't to blame
And didn't turn around
Oh, yes she loves you
It couldn't be any better
Yes, she loves you
And so you should be glad
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
Because only with you alone
Can she be happy
You have to go to her
Apologize to her
Yes, she'll understand that
And then she'll forgive you
Oh, yes she loves you
It couldn't be any better
Yes, she loves you
And so you should glad, oooo
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
Because only with you alone
Can she be happy
Because only with you alone
Can she be happy
Because only with you alone
Can she be happy
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

 

The Beatles could speak German? Woah. I never knew that.

 

This seems somehow fitting. Think John is about to sneeze...

 

That's from an intervirw during the '66 tour? Does the whole thing circulate?

 

Looks like I need to get a copy of the Lewisohn book in about 6 days.

 

Did you ever hear The Beatles sing "Get back" in German (and French)? This was difficult (and hilarious at the same time).

 

It's on the label of 'Something New' the US Capitol album Komm Bibb Mir Deine Hnad is on.

 

Wow, flashback.....I haven't heard these German versions in decades.

 

The translators/adaptors are fully credited on the German Odeon single.
By the way: Bear Family issued a big book, "1000 Nadelstiche" by Bernd Matheja, about German-language versions of international hits. The book includes hundreds of biographies of the people "behind the scene" who did the arrangements and translations.