Category: Bert Kaempfert

The Bert Kaempfert Decca Collection brings together 23 of the German bandleader’s albums issued in America between 1958 and 1970 plus Pete Fountain Plays Bert Kaempfert (recorded in Germany with Kaempfert’s orchestra). But while the box set adds a whopping 45 “bonus” tracks, it omits five of Kaempfert’s Decca records issued between 1969 and 1972.…

Hal Fein – president of Bert Kaempfert’s American music publisher, Roosevelt Music – had been the one responsible for placing Kaempfert songs with popular singers, such as “Danke Schoen” with Wayne Newton, “Spanish Eyes” with Al Martino and, most famously of all, “Strangers In The Night” with Frank Sinatra. By 1969, Fein had sold his…

In this world of changing musical fashions, sweeping popular styles, and shifting song patterns, there is one thing you can depend on – Bert Kaempfert makes great music. The Kaempfert magic has been working for a great many years and a great many hits. He has sustained, even prevailed, while all others have shifted and…

In writing about Bert Kaempfert, I am often impressed by his American albums’ liner notes. Sure, this sort of thing reeks of record-company p.r.-speak. But the notes written for Kaempfert’s Decca albums are as much puffery as poetry. Indeed, this listener usually agrees with whatever that machine churned out. The notes to Bert Kaempfert Now!…

It’s not unfair to say that America’s love affair with Bert Kaempfert was pretty much over by 1972. But, more to the point, “easy listening” and its musical purveyors were all passé in this country by the early seventies. Record buyers had either moved on to rock or M.O.R. (“middle of the road,” the easy-listening…