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

Isn't the story also in the Anthology?

 

Directly from page 38: George Martins own words!

I fixed the session to late morning. Norman Smith, myelf and the translator. All got to the studio on time but there was no sign of the Beatles. We waited an hour before i telefoned their suite at the George V hotel. Niel Aspinall answered, "They are in bed, they have decided not to go to the studio". I went crazy......You tell them that they've got to come, otherwise i shall be so angry it isn't true! I am coming over now". So the german and i jumped into a taxi..... "You are bastards" i screamed.

They were extremely pleased to get it over with, Norman Smith recalls...

Happy now?

 

As I remember, the credits for "Komm" were "Nicolas/Hellmer". So Felgen was "Nicolas", but who was "Hellmer"?

 

It is. Worded a little more subtle than in Recording Sessions though.

 

I hope we can dial down the anger. This is a great thread and I am happy to have my guesses (no matter how educated or logical they seem to me) corrected by somebody who has a sound basis for it.

Thank you for sharing that information, Kim Olesen. I would never have guessed that it was being driven by demand from Electrola/Odeon. Now that I see it, though, it makes sense. KGMDH in particular was heavily and successfully marketed in Germany (as noted above, as a single and by being included on several VA compilations), so the demand for the German versions may have been unnecessary to make the Beatles popular in Germany, but it wasn't wasted effort either.

Most fans know that KGMDH was issued on the Something New LP.

KGMDH and SLD were released as a single in Australia in 1964.

SLD was issued as the A side of a single by Swan Records in the US. The US rights to She Loves You had been licensed to Swan, which issued it as a single in 1963. I assume Swan claimed its license included the German version of the song too. Kim Olesen, what does the Lewisohn book say about Capitol's reaction to this?

Did the German versions of either song get issued anywhere else?

 

He doesn't. But one mystery shrouds the German release. The mixes lewisohn states were made for Germany were made a couple of days after the German single release. So there must be two mixes that alewisohn missed. Possibly (and this is speculation) made in Paris and shipped to Odeon for release. Which means that whoever owns an original Odeon SLD/KGMDH single has unique mixes of these two.

Btw, the Swan single is from 64. The recording took place in Paris on the 29th of january.

On a personal note they are kind of my holy grail. They are the only mix variations i don't have in my collection. They are probably pretty indistinguishable from the Abbey Road mixes, but it irks me that i don't have them nonetheless.

So if anyone has an original single, i will happily pay for a good needledrop.

 

Me neither! I figured that they probably picked up a few German phrases while in Hamburg, but that audio clip of George on Radio Luxembourg was pretty impressive.

 

My wife is Japanese, and she has told me that if an American speaks even one sentence to her in Japanese (no matter how poorly), she instinctively feels closer to that person.

It makes sense; I have felt the same way while in Japan, when someone attempts to speak to me in English (although it's usually easier for me to just complete the conversation in Japanese).

 

Far more interesting to me, is that KDMGH was mixed to stereo in the old two track style, with all the instrumental backing on one channel, unlike IWTHYH, with
Georges lead guitar "noodling" off by itself. Thats how IWTHYH sound have been mixed for stereo.

 

I love that line by Martin "I shall be so angry it isn't true!" It's a line of Martin's that reoccurs later in Lewisohn's book. I look forward to seeing Liam Neeson use it in Taken 4 someday.

 

Thats because KGMDH had the original instrumental track from IWTHYH mixed to mono as preparation for the session. So all instruments were on one track for KGMDH.

 

Komm Gib Mire Deine Dich?

 

Nice one but "It doesn't make sense..." is an understatement here.

 

"Sie Liebt Dich" was released in Canada and reached #20 or near that.


There is a stereo mix of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" which mimics "KGMDH" with vocals and instruments all panned separately. Came out on the Australian "23 Greatest Hits" or something similar.

 

The thing that's neat about the Canadian single is that it correctly states "Recorded in Europe" instead of the usual recorded in England.

 

I meant that Swan released She Loves You in 1963.

 

Probably a mistake, it seems likely that a german EMI producer named Otto Demmler is the mysterious "Hellmer".

There are also quotes to be found by Camillo Felgen, that McCartney demanded a lyric change to avoid the word "dich" because of the ch, but they didn't find a solution. So they were quite aware of the problem....

 

People at Odeon/Elektrola at that time still regarded The Beatles as just another 'pop' act like Cliff Richard or Petula Clark. So it was inevitable that someone thought they should make a German-language recording to establish a 'proper' German career. They didn't realise of course that there were "Beat Music" fans (favouring UK/US bands and German combos like The Rattles and The Lords), and there were "Schlager" fans (who preferred German lyrics), and these two camps drifted apart more and more. (Just read the Beatles press releases from Odeon in the book "Internationale Pilzvergiftung: Beatles in German Newspapers 1963-1967")

I was a ten-year old Beatles fan when the German single was released, and like all my friends I was hugely disappointed – we got the impression that 'our' band had sold out and was now playing the Schlager game of all those old entertainers on the radio and on TV.
Of course the record sold quite well (everything sold well with the name "Beatles" on it), but not as good as the German record company had hoped. (They had also demanded a German song from The Beach Boys, but because of the Beatles flop their effort "Ganz allein" was cancelled and only came out nearly twenty years later on the "Beach Boys Rarities" album). There never was a German-language single from international Beat artists on Elektrola afterwards.

 

Well put, Mychael. I think it is crucial to understand that most young listeners of the Beatles have never heard these German versions. After all, they are not heard often these days. I also agree with your description that Odeon, the German record company aimed to establish them as Schlager artists. It is not as absurd as it may sound, international artists who were willing to play this game had quite successful careers in Germany. Remember that many English and American record companies did not believe that this rock'n'roll-thing would last and squeezed the last drop of energy and creativity out of their artists.

 

Good evening and welcome to Schlager's. featuring Dennis O'Bell...........

 

"Heinz Hellmer", according to the book mentioned earlier "1000 Nadelstiche". Who is it? Camillo Felgen!

 

I thought Ganz Allein came out in the 60s on one of those countless EMI/Electrola pop or schlager compilations.

 

Did it? Then you know more than the Beach Boys.

 

I think I'm gonna combine the recordings of "she loves" with "dich" and see what that sounds like...

 

Here's the sleeve of the first German pressing – with a typo: the b-side translates as "She Loves Me".