Bert Kaempfert - Mombasa Rock

"Good music makes the mind imagine, the emotions pulse and the memory remember."
― E.J. George ▼

BERT KAEMPFERT
With its haunting solo trumpet, muted brass, and lush strings, the single "Wonderland by Night" topped the American pop charts in 1961 and turned Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra into international stars. Over the next few years, he revived such pop tunes as "Tenderly," "Red Roses for a Blue Lady," "Three O'Clock in the Morning," and "Bye Bye Blues," bringing them all high onto the pop charts internationally, as well as composing pieces of his own, including "Spanish Eyes (Moon Over Naples)," "Danke Schoen," and "Wooden Heart," which were recorded by, respectively, Al Martino, Wayne Newton, and Elvis Presley (with Joe Dowell charting the hit single of "Wooden Heart"); For an old American jazz fan like Kaempfert, however, little may have brought him more personal satisfaction than Nat King Cole recording his "L-O-V-E."
Soon, he had become so successful as a recording artist that he was forced to give up his duties as a producer -- his records were selling by the hundreds of thousands, the album of Wonderland by Night even topping the American charts for five weeks in 1961. By 1965, he'd joined the ranks of film music composers with the soundtrack to a movie entitled A Man Could Get Killed -- the title song from the movie became "Strangers in the Night," which Frank Sinatra propelled to the top of the American and British charts. He followed this up a year later with another hit for Sinatra, "The World We Knew (Over and Over)." For Kaempfert, whose admiration of American music began with the big-band pop sound whence Sinatra had begun his career, those hits must have represented a deep personal triumph, transcending whatever money they earned -- indeed, he was selling records during the early '60s in the kind of quantities that rivaled Tommy Dorsey or Harry James' successes 20 years before, and he'd proved himself a prodigiously talented composer as well, an attribute that few of the big-band leaders possessed.
Television viewers and casual radio listeners might well have heard and hummed the Kaempfert tunes "That Happy Feeling" (an early piece of world music pop, adapted from a piece by Ghana-born drummer Guy Warren), "Afrikaan Beat," or "A Swingin' Safari" (which, in a recording by Billy Vaughn, became the theme for the long-running game show The Match Game). His success as a composer was reflected in the five awards that he received from BMI in 1968 for "Lady," "Spanish Eyes," "Strangers in the Night," "The World We Knew," and "Sweet Maria." Kaempfert's chart placements vanished in the 1970s as the music marketplace (especially on radio) finally squeezed out the adult and older dance music listenership he'd cultivated. His records continued to sell, however, and his bookings remained healthy for another decade, and Kaempfert piled up awards in Germany. As he had with rock & roll, he also changed somewhat with the times -- when disco became popular in the mid-'70s, Kaempfert recorded a disco version of Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" that even impressed the composer. His sales were always healthy, if not substantial, in America, but in Europe he was still a top concert draw as well. Bert Kaempfert died suddenly, at the age of 56, of a heart seizure while at his home in Mallorca, resting up after a triumphant British tour. In the years since, he has finally been recognized for the breadth of his achievements -- virtually his entire album catalog (and all of his hits) from the late '50s through the end of the 1960s and 1970s remains in print on CD.

MOMBASA ROCK
Composed and arranged by Bert Kaempfert for his album "Safari Swings Again" - an album that revived memories of his first "Safari" album, "A Swingin' Safari" which was released in 1962.

MHO
It takes a musical genius to write (and arrange) more than 400 original compositions. Some songs, with lyrics, became international hits and boosted the careers of many world stars. But what about all the remaining instrumental works that Bert composed ..? About the phenomenon of "hits" Bert once said : " I'd like to think that all my songs are hits......it's just that people don't realize "......(He said that while winking...)
Rest assured dear Bert : there are many people all over the world who DO realize ! And though some pieces might be preferred to others by some, it's a simple fact that all Kaempfert songs have one thing in common : a genuine quality and an immediate appeal to the listener. A Kaempfert song can always be hummed or sang along and it's that "apparent simplicity" that is so typical for compositions written by a true "Maestro of Music".

Видео Bert Kaempfert - Mombasa Rock канала Socratess2007