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tomaszposzwinski 2nd Mar 2024
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Redpunk SUBS ● 23rd Jan 2021
| | This comment was from the Notes section of a duplicate record posted by paulview.
"The Happy Wanderer" ("Der fröhliche Wanderer" or "Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann") is a popular song by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller written shortly after World War II. It is often mistaken for a German folk song, but it is actually an original composition. His sister Edith Möller conducted a small amateur children's and youth choir in Schaumburg County, Northern Germany, internationally named Obernkirchen Children's Choir, in Germany named Schaumburger Märchensänger.
In 1953, BBC Radio aired the choir's winning performance at Llangollen International Eisteddfod, an annual arts festival in north-east Wales. The broadcast turned the cheerful encore into an instant hit. On January 22, 1954, the song entered the UK singles chart, and would stay on the chart - only a Top 12 at the time - for 26 non-consecutive weeks. With BBC Radio's strong international influence, "The Happy Wanderer" suddenly turned up everywhere, e.g. as the winning song of the 1955 calypso road march season of the Trinidad Carnival (prompting protest that from now on, only calypsoes should be chosen over foreign music).
The amateur choir, many of whose original members were war orphans, turned into an unlikely international phenomenon in the following years. The group performed on countless international tours under the name Obernkirchen Children's Choir, with performances on TV shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show (November 29, 1964, and December 11, 1966).
First Entered The UK Charts 22 Jan 1954 Reached # 2 And Was In The Charts 26 Weeks |
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Redpunk SUBS ● 20th Apr 2020
| | Added label scans without Speed next to 78. |
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xiphophilos 12th Feb 2017
| | A side ("The Happy Wanderer" / "Der fröhliche Wanderer"):
The story of this unlikely hit is well reported on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Wanderer. |
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xiphophilos 12th Feb 2017
| | Who would have thought that a German children's choir could make it into the UK's top 12, and that just 9 years after the war?
Here's the B side ("Evensong" / "Abendlied"):
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bigyella 11th Feb 2017
| | This was a massive hit, spending a full half a year in the UK top 12, but it was held at a peak of #2 for five straight weeks. It spent the first four behind The Stargazers' 'I See The Moon', before Doris Day's 'Secret Love' leapfrogged it into the top spot the following week. |
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Alan Warby 30th Jun 2013
| | Reached Number 2 in the NME charts, 22 Jan 1954. |
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Alan Warby 29th Jun 2013
| | The Happy Wanderer reached Number 2 in the NME charts, 22 Jan 1954. |
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