Der Mann Im Mond - Kuu-ukko

We interrupt the Finnpicks Country Jamboree for a special announcement. Now is the 40th anniversary of the Man In The Moon! We celebrate it with Pirkko Mannola (see previous entry) who recorded several records with the vocal group Four Cats (see previous entry). And one of those was "Kuu-ukko" (Mister Moon) in 1962. The original song "Der Mann Im Mond" (The Man In The Moon) was composed by an Austrian composer and musician Carl "Charly" Niessen, who wrote over 1000 songs. Best known of his schlager -songs is perhaps the "Banjo Boy" fron the 1959. "Der Mann Im Mond" was performed by our old Finnpicked friend Gus Backus (see previous entry), who once was one of the members of the famed vocal group Del-Vikings. This 'moon song' was his third huge hit in Germany for in 1960. He did also a version in English "Queen of the Stars", but it sunk without trace. Perhaps he should have stuck with the moon instead of stars ...

Da sprach der alte Häuptling der Indianer - Viimeinen Mohikaani

Lasse Liemola lost his pole position as pop idol in the wake of guitar bands in the first years of the sixties. But in 1961 he was still going strong. In the B-side of his big hit "No niin Mary Lou" (see this entry), was "Viimeinen Mohikaani" (The last of the Mohicans). The singing group Four Cats was helping Lasse on this one. I don't know if it was meant to be a childrens song, but it has since been a little folks favourite and that re-released in many childrens song compilations. The original song came from Germany. It was called simply "Da sprach der alte Häuptling der Indianer" (There spoke the old Indian Chief). The song was composed by a genuine German, Werner Scharfenberger, but it is performed by an US-born Gus Backus. Gus was drafted into the United States Air Force in 1956, and soon transferred to Germany, where he married and settled down. He was always interested in rock'n roll and even cut a couple of records in US, but they were not successful. Anyway, he found success in Germany, and in 1960 had a string of 3 huge hits sung in German language. This song is the second one of those. It is the simple story of "how the west was won", and what happened to Indians.

Here's the pair: