The 80s-90s Lost Classics Rate - Goodbye Wes! :'-(

berserkboi

berserkboi

He/Him
Shall we get to the first
Songs We Could Have Rated





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Jordy - Dur Dur D'être Bébé!
Credentials - #1 France, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Spain (a little song that could, hey?)
Producer: Claude Lemoine (Jordy’s father)

Delving straight into why this is not here, Dur Dur D'être Bébé! really did not seem palatable to PopJustice at large, to be perfectly honest! With high scores potentially only from @iheartpoptarts & @Sprockrooster and very very low scores from the rest of us - last place was all but a guarantee, so we gave other songs a chance to shine. I mean, was anyone really hanging for a chance to rate Dur Dur D'être Bébé!? If you were, I am sorry this missed the cut - but we are happy to pay it some dues with a Spotlight, as its achievements speak for themselves:

This single broke a record previously held by Les Demons De Minuit (the first of two significant connections to songs we are rating). By spending 15 weeks atop the French Single Charts, it did 2 weeks better than Les Demons De Minuit - setting a new record at the time. Further to this, its subsequent tenure at the #2 spot saw the track last for 26 weeks in the French Top 10 - basically a whole half a year of Dur dur d'être bébé! in your Music countdown - I think I would have lost my marbles dddd

The second connection to be found is with Elsa’s T’en Vas Pas! Jordy broke another record with this #1 - achieving it as the youngest singer to top the chart (previously held by Elsa and her track we are rating) - a record he still holds to this day! Another notable achievement is through charting in the US Billboard Charts at #58, a very rare feat for a French song. Is having a toddler doing baby talk about how hard it is to be a baby the most successful gimmick in history? Looks like it!​



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5T3VClXKAA9QYdsCDLcIXPEfAOQOE9jLZv0Yv1TWNhGzVqcm68JpeMK2O_ACKM9IgrTRCc9HyjYX_bkH0ttddUp0ZaTUG24Cz9rF08oGT9MWDdHj0mmZY62P7kkJdFufBHXvyKa4

We definitely still have some gimmicky songs for you to rate on the list, Continental Europe (especially France) enjoyed a strange banger or two quite often in the two decades we are highlighting. More on those #soon! For now, enjoy some Jordy (who had a Top 50 hit in France as recently as 2006! In PJ00s soon perhaps?) - he followed up this track with another French #1 called Alison, and let me tell you that one is another earworm, so listen at your own peril!​







Claude Lemoine is also known for his work with French Space Rock band Rocket - here's a cut from them!



He's also worked on this for Queen Sheila - which deserves a mention!

 
soratami

soratami

berserkboi said:
Shall we get to the first
Songs We Could Have Rated





fJgkw9yYa3vW0zVkvx4Y56DxQQko2OL4CI041V34aIJ4-8MOenjVMDQGzq25hZhhZ52TsSPj5IROTDZdTnfPjugaXP3PuSZzoHBuebyswZQn-6ekfjHZo0P6KtsaeJH8XRE7Kz-M

Jordy - Dur Dur D'être Bébé!
Credentials - #1 France, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Spain (a little song that could, hey?)
Producer: Claude Lemoine (Jordy’s father)

Delving straight into why this is not here, Dur Dur D'être Bébé! really did not seem palatable to PopJustice at large, to be perfectly honest! With high scores potentially only from @iheartpoptarts & @Sprockrooster and very very low scores from the rest of us - last place was all but a guarantee, so we gave other songs a chance to shine. I mean, was anyone really hanging for a chance to rate Dur Dur D'être Bébé!? If you were, I am sorry this missed the cut - but we are happy to pay it some dues with a Spotlight, as its achievements speak for themselves:

This single broke a record previously held by Les Demons De Minuit (the first of two significant connections to songs we are rating). By spending 15 weeks atop the French Single Charts, it did 2 weeks better than Les Demons De Minuit - setting a new record at the time. Further to this, its subsequent tenure at the #2 spot saw the track last for 26 weeks in the French Top 10 - basically a whole half a year of Dur dur d'être bébé! in your Music countdown - I think I would have lost my marbles dddd

The second connection to be found is with Elsa’s T’en Vas Pas! Jordy broke another record with this #1 - achieving it as the youngest singer to top the chart (previously held by Elsa and her track we are rating) - a record he still holds to this day! Another notable achievement is through charting in the US Billboard Charts at #58, a very rare feat for a French song. Is having a toddler doing baby talk about how hard it is to be a baby the most successful gimmick in history? Looks like it!​



qqmqD6VxegPTs8u0RgGfyHEZnC6hdiOkGSQymv1BsOsXWTc5mrMPkVqEdS8BOVsi7xRekYQKgqtV9zt_1BUKv-7gb6FPyqDPNZHfrLfiX7xdB4m-ihlasbAk8pVpA2YAcrZDlWy6


5T3VClXKAA9QYdsCDLcIXPEfAOQOE9jLZv0Yv1TWNhGzVqcm68JpeMK2O_ACKM9IgrTRCc9HyjYX_bkH0ttddUp0ZaTUG24Cz9rF08oGT9MWDdHj0mmZY62P7kkJdFufBHXvyKa4

We definitely still have some gimmicky songs for you to rate on the list, Continental Europe (especially France) enjoyed a strange banger or two quite often in the two decades we are highlighting. More on those #soon! For now, enjoy some Jordy (who had a Top 50 hit in France as recently as 2006! In PJ00s soon perhaps?) - he followed up this track with another French #1 called Alison, and let me tell you that one is another earworm, so listen at your own peril!​







Claude Lemoine is also known for his work with French Space Rock band Rocket - here's a cut from them!



He's also worked on this for Queen Sheila - which deserves a mention!

Click to expand...


I'm not clicking play on that, but going by the description, I'm pretty sure that, if it was in the rate, I would have given it a 0.
 
klow

klow

I didn't even have to click play on that Youtube for "ALISON ELLE EST CÂLINE ET PLUS COQUINE" to reverberate around my head. War flashbacks to Year 8 French class ddd.

Also, thank you for the tag invitations to take part but as I don't recognise any of the songs in the list I wouldn't count on my participation. Happy to bystand and follow along though!
 
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Remorque

Remorque

He/Him
I remember loving Dur dur d'être bébé! when it first hit the radio and became the hit it was, but even as a 10 year old I was absolutely fucking over it when you were hit with it in the face every single time you played the radio or watched a music channel.

Whitney Houston keeping herself from storming the stage to kidnap and save the boy is a mood and a half though.
 
WowWowWowWow

WowWowWowWow

he/him
I read a snippet in Billboard that Jordy was responsible for 5% of Sony's global income the year that song came out. (I think I am remembering that correctly.)

I was also happy to read that the French government eventually banned airplay of Jordy music because they thought he was being exploited. Although that treatment should have continued once he re-entered the music industry in order to play ... whatever this is.
 
D

Deleted member 26234

Songs we could have rated - Schlager

While Schlager was heavily represented in our charts 'till the 70s, this success stopped abruptly in the 80s. But that doesn’t mean this genre hasn’t been living on ‘till today. On the contrary on each party / wedding etc. I’m invited to, it takes me by surprise how many songs there are and how many people can bawl along sing those songs knowing all the lyrics by heart!

Obviously DJ Ötzi (contender for @DominoDancing ’s zero, I’m sure) is one of the most successful acts, but there were a few more successful songs, we could have rated, but one Schlager in a rate is definitely enough, at least for me.


Andy Borg - Adios Amor (1982)



It’s a bad song, but somehow catchy that you start forgetting how bad it really is. It went to #1 in Austria and Germany and sold about 300.000 copies.

This was certainly the biggest hit of Austrian Andy Borg, but he had a very successful career as singer and is still around as television presenter, I’m glad he is well, but I don’t think we need to waste any time with him.

Matthias Reim – Verdammt, ich lieb dich (1990)



German Mattias Reim offered this song to other artists, but nobody wanted it. Even a record company declined it. Bad mistake! It peaked #1 at all the German markets and sold about 625.000 copies. Matthias Reim couldn’t repeat this success in the 90s, went bankrupt in the noughties, but topped the album charts in Germany again in 2013.


And where are the ladies (living in a man's world ...)

The most successful Schlager in the charts in that period sung by a woman is ineligible for this rate, as it topped the charts in the UK as well. This would be of course Nicole with “Ein bißchen Frieden”, winner of the Eurovision song contest in 1982.

So let's turn to good old Connie Francis instead:

Connie Francis - Jive Connie (1992)



US American Connie Francis started recording in different languages, as she realised that she was having troubles being successful in some countries due to the language. In her biography she named Germany as an example. In 1960 she recorded Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool and although it was her first #1 hit in the United States, it didn’t chart in Germany. So she recorded the same song in German “Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel” and it became one of the most successful songs of the year 1960 in Germany.

Jive Connie is a medley of five of Connie Fancis’ German language hits from the 60s. The first two songs are translations of two of her English songs (Someone Else’s Boy and Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool). The other three songs were originally recorded in German for the German market.

Jive Connie peaked at #2 in Germany and Austria and sold about 275.000 amounts.


Die Zillertaler Schürzenjäger - Sierra Madre (1987)



But as already said most of the Schlager-stars of that period didn’t bother with singles, knowing they wouldn’t get played on the main radio station. But there were successful acts nonetheless, e.g. one of the or maybe even the most successful band(s) of the 80s and 90s in Austria are “Die Zillertaler Schürzenjäger”. Reportedly they have sold over 10 mio. records (that would mean more than Falco), but they don’t really disclose these figures. Legendary are the final concerts of their yearly tours in Finkenberg (Austria, Tirol, Zillertal). In 1996 they played before 80.000 to 100.000 visitors and allegedly caused a traffic jam of 100 km (about 60 miles) back to Rosenheim (Germany).

Rest assured that I could sing along to this song as teenager, too. It was played at each family wedding my parents dragged me to and I have awfully many older cousins ... Thankfully today this song doesn't get played anymore (I'm still dragged to too many weddings and Schlager still gets played, but that's a different story).
 
DominoDancing

DominoDancing

Filippa said:
Songs we could have rated - Schlager

While Schlager was heavily represented in our charts 'till the 70s, this success stopped abruptly in the 80s. But that doesn’t mean this genre hasn’t been living on ‘till today. On the contrary on each party / wedding etc. I’m invited to, it takes me by surprise how many songs there are and how many people can bawl along sing those songs knowing all the lyrics by heart!

Obviously DJ Ötzi (contender for @DominoDancing ’s zero, I’m sure) is one of the most successful acts, but there were a few more successful songs, we could have rated, but one Schlager in a rate is definitely enough, at least for me.


Andy Borg - Adios Amor (1982)



It’s a bad song, but somehow catchy that you start forgetting how bad it really is. It went to #1 in Austria and Germany and sold about 300.000 copies.

This was certainly the biggest hit of Austrian Andy Borg, but he had a very successful career as singer and is still around as television presenter, I’m glad he is well, but I don’t think we need to waste any time with him.

Matthias Reim – Verdammt, ich lieb dich (1990)



German Mattias Reim offered this song to other artists, but nobody wanted it. Even a record company declined it. Bad mistake! It peaked #1 at all the German markets and sold about 625.000 copies. Matthias Reim couldn’t repeat this success in the 90s, went bankrupt in the noughties, but topped the album charts in Germany again in 2013.


And where are the ladies (living in a man's world ...)

The most successful Schlager in the charts in that period sung by a woman is ineligible for this rate, as it topped the charts in the UK as well. This would be of course Nicole with “Ein bißchen Frieden”, winner of the Eurovision song contest in 1982.

So let's turn to good old Connie Francis instead:

Connie Francis - Jive Connie (1992)



US American Connie Francis started recording in different languages, as she realised that she was having troubles being successful in some countries due to the language. In her biography she named Germany as an example. In 1960 she recorded Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool and although it was her first #1 hit in the United States, it didn’t chart in Germany. So she recorded the same song in German “Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel” and it became one of the most successful songs of the year 1960 in Germany.

Jive Connie is a medley of five of Connie Fancis’ German language hits from the 60s. The first two songs are translations of two of her English songs (Someone Else’s Boy and Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool). The other three songs were originally recorded in German for the German market.

Jive Connie peaked at #2 in Germany and Austria and sold about 275.000 amounts.


Die Zillertaler Schürzenjäger - Sierra Madre (1987)



But as already said most of the Schlager-stars of that period didn’t bother with singles, knowing they wouldn’t get played on the main radio station. But there were successful acts nonetheless, e.g. one of the or maybe even the most successful band(s) of the 80s and 90s in Austria are “Die Zillertaler Schürzenjäger”. Reportedly they have sold over 10 mio. records (that would mean more than Falco), but they don’t really disclose these figures. Legendary are the final concerts of their yearly tours in Finkenberg (Austria, Tirol, Zillertal). In 1996 they played before 80.000 to 100.000 visitors and allegedly caused a traffic jam of 100 km (about 60 miles) back to Rosenheim (Germany).

Rest assured that I could sing along to this song as teenager, too. It was played at each family wedding my parents dragged me to and I have awfully many older cousins ... Thankfully today this song doesn't get played anymore (I'm still dragged to too many weddings and Schlager still gets played, but that's a different story).
Click to expand...


The Andy Borg song is...trash. The singing style combined with the cheap production and ultra-basic melody really is the worst of what Schlager has to offer.
Now Matthias Reim - yes, it sounds a bit cheap to 2020 ears, but it's one hell of a chorus. No surprise that it dominated the charts for weeks and weeks, even if I wouldn't call it a personal favourite.
The other two I hadn't heard before. The Connie Francis one is one of those German-language songs sung by an American (or someone affecting an English accent) which inexplicably were en vogue at one point in the 60s. Doesn't bother me either way.
Zillertaler Schürzenjäger is the kind of "volkstümlicher" Schlager I really want nothing to do with.
 
D

Deleted member 26234

DominoDancing said:
The Andy Borg song is...trash. The singing style combined with the cheap production and ultra-basic melody really is the worst of what Schlager has to offer.
Now Matthias Reim - yes, it sounds a bit cheap to 2020 ears, but it's one hell of a chorus. No surprise that it dominated the charts for weeks and weeks, even if I wouldn't call it a personal favourite.
The other two I hadn't heard before. The Connie Francis one is one of those German-language songs sung by an American (or someone affecting an English accent) which inexplicably were en vogue at one point in the 60s. Doesn't bother me either way.
Zillertaler Schürzenjäger is the kind of "volkstümlicher" Schlager I really want nothing to do with.
Click to expand...

Sums it up perfectly.

I like the Matthias Reim song, it's just such a macho I can't cope with heart ache song ....

You should look into the discography of Connie Francis, I like her or at least some of her songs.
 
DominoDancing

DominoDancing

Filippa said:
Sums it up perfectly.

I like the Matthias Reim song, it's just such a macho I can't cope with heart ache song ....

You should look into the discography of Connie Francis, I like her or at least some of her songs.
Click to expand...
I just put on one of her compilations on Spotify, and from what I hear, a lot of it is really quite pleasureable late 50s-early 60s pop, some doo-wop, some (tame) rock and roll. Really quite pleasureable. It's really strange how cheesy a lot of the very same songs sound to my ears as soon as they're sung in German with that English/American accent.
 
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