[78-L] Lili Marleen

[Kristjan Saag]

Al Simmons wrote:


> As far as I know, it was  "Lili Marlene"
> Where did this "Marleen" come from?
> Probably the same place as "nucular"
--
Marlene is the English spelling (used on English versions).
Somewhere along the way the German spelling changed from Marlen to Marleen. 
You can see it on
http://www.lale-andersen.de/index1.htm
(press "TONTRAGER" and then "Deutsche Singles"- you'll see pictures of 
original issues).
>From late 1940's on most of Lale Andersen's own rerecordings use the 
spelling Marleen.
This is also the spelling Bear Family (a German label) has chosen for their 
7 CD-set with nearly 200 recordings of Lili Marleen and related songs.

--
David Lennick wrote:
>Dudes, you're all wrong..it was a hit in 1936. Sez so right here.
> http://halfhearteddude.blogspot.com/2007/08/german-hits-1930-42.html

--
At that time Lale Andersen actually sang the song, but not to Norbert 
Schulze's melody. Composer Rudolf Zink had set music to Hans Leib's poem - 
but Lale Andersen never recorded that version, although she is said to have 
liked the ballad style song better than Schultze's march-tempo version.
It's fascinating, BTW, to hear the way she tries to "civilize" the song at 
the end of the choruses, but is stretched up by the drum beat again and 
again...

Some sources say that Schultze wasn't very fond of the recording either - it 
might well have been the arranger or producer who put the decisive military 
touch to it. Goebells had his thoughts about how useful the song was for 
fighting moral, but that was later.
There were, however, soft ballad versions of "Lili Marleen" recorded in 
Germany even in the war years. Some of these are found in the Bear Family 
compilation.
http://www.bear-family.de/index.php?sid=3072e2923f3e7cd728ecf261862161ec&cl=details&anid=059cd098ccc98158e3a32562df61b8b8&listtype=search&tcsong=Lili%20Marleen%20&tcinterpret=ANDERSEN%2C%20Lale&tcexact=
Kristjan