BERT KAEMPFERT : HOW THE EVERGREENS WERE BORN
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
"Beddy Bye" : that was the original track title as given by Bert Kaempfert to this particular piece of music, which was part of a movie soundtrack Bert had composed for Universal Pictures. The title of this movie was "A Man could get killed" and it was a crime story that was situated mainly in Greece and Portugal. The year was 1965 and Bert Kaempfert had agreed to write the music for this picture, not because he was so enthousiastic to do it, but forced somewhat to do it by his American producer, Milt Gabler. Gabler, who had launched Kaempfert's career in the US, knew that writing the soundtrack for this movie would be a good thing for Kaempfert's "market value" - not only because the name Bert Kaempfert would appear on the movie posters outside cinema theatres nationwide, but also because the project was supported by some quite important people of the entertainment industry, among them Hal Fein, one of the key figures in the American movie and music scene of those days.
And so Bert Kaempfert, his wife Hanne and their good friends Herbert en Ruth Rehbein leave for Los Angeles mid october 1965. They are brought to one of the nicest hotels of Beverly Hills, but soon Kaempfert and Rehbein will discover that the Americans do not consider their visit as a "tourist trip". Interviewed years later about this "L.A. adventure" Bert Kaempfert said : "We kind'a were locked up in that hotelroom. They had put a piano there and just said : well, you have 8 weeks to write that soundtrack, ... you'd better start right away !" The period of eight weeks doesn't bother Bert Kaempfert : he is used to writing music "under time pressure" - actually he admitted later that "writing under time pressure always had a positive effect on the actual final composition".
But writing a filmscore is much more difficult than writing music tout-court. Bert Kaempfert : "It's not easy to come up with the right music to accentuate exciting or passionate scenes. If, on top of that, you also have to write fitting music for some comic scenes which are set in Greece one time and in Portugal the other time, ...it doesn't make things easier. And of course, you have to keep an eye on the timing - chrono or watch in hand ! It really is a hell of a job. " While Mrs Kaempfert and Mrs Rehbein do some shopping in the city, accompanied by Gabler and Fein, the two musicians nearly work day and night to make sure the movie gets the "proper music". They start with the smaller pieces and gradually work towards the most important themes of the film : the main theme and the love theme. One week before the deadline of 8 weeks ends, they come up with the main theme which will be published later under the title "But Not Today". And then, time is nearly up and Gabler, Fein and the two wives of the composers return to the hotel after some extensive tourist activities which have taken them even to Florida and New York.
Hal Fein finds a plastic traffic light on the outside of the room and besides showing the red colour, it also says "do not disturb". When Fein enters the room despite the message, he discovers, to his amazement, that the work is not yet finished. The love theme is still missing. Fein proposes that the two men join him for dinner first and then continue the composer work, but both Kaempfert and Rehbein are tired and want to finish the job first. Hal Fein wants to return to the other members of the party when suddenly Bert Kaempfert starts to play on the piano. Hanne Kaempfert, Bert's wife, describes what happened next : "Suddenly, Hal Fein came running out of the hotel room and shouted "we've got it ! This is the greatest song he has ever written!" History would learn that Fein's words were no other than an exact prediction of the future. Released from their stress, Kaempfert and Rehbein join the party later that evening and together they enjoy a festive dinner, organized of course by Hal Fein.
Bert Kaempfert returned to Los Angeles a few weeks later to supervise the recording of his music. Bert would have preferred to orchestrate and conduct the orchestra himself, but due to the severe labour restrictions for foreigners, the job is given to Joseph Gershenson who, together with the Hollywood Studio Orchestra turns the notes on paper into "living music". Back in Germany, Bert then recorded the music with his own orchestra but Polydor wasn't keen on releasing the music - the movie - described by critics as "a moderate espionage thriller" wasn't exactly a big success and consequently, the soundtrack album didn't score too good either. One of Polydor's chief executives of the time says : "Bert Kaempfert's music didn't need any extra promotion, it always sold quite easily, so the company never organized big campaigns for Kaempfert's music. On top of that, Bert himself didn't like to be in the spotlights, so .... we always were in a kind of "wait and see" position."
But then Milt Gabler, "smelling" the commercial potential of the movie's love theme (then still called "Beddy Bye") came up with lyrics for the piece and end december 1965 he called Kaempfert and told him that he had finalized a nice text, with the title "Love is no stranger". But Hal Fein - having a nose for business opportunities as well - had been busy looking for a textwriter himself. Early 1966 Fein called Gabler and Kaempfert and said he now had the "final" title for this tune : "Strangers in the night". Charlie Singleton, a relatively unknown songwriter had written the words and these lyrics would change his life forever. Charlie Singleton : "Nothing could happen to me after "Strangers" ... for years I had been working for a small fee..... Bert's "present" changed everything for me !"
The story doesn't end there of course. Hal Fein - having lots of business contacts in the industry - succeeded in offering the song to Frank Sinatra in the spring of 1966. Sinatra, who didn't have a major hit at the time, watched his daughter Nancy conquer the charts with "These boots are made for walking" and told his producer Jimmy Bowen that he was looking for some "fireworks". When Fein contacted Bowen and provided him with the music and lyrics of "Strangers in the night" things started moving. When Sinatra heard that Jack Jones was also interested in the song, he urged Bowen to prepare the studio and rent an orchestra. Jack Jones recorded the song on a friday afternoon. His producers then sent copies of the recording to radio stations nationwide - but they did it via regular post service. Sinatra recorded his version with the Ernee Freeman Orchestra the next monday and Bowen, knowing that "speed" was of the essence here, then sent copies of the Sinatra recording to radio stations nationwide, by .... express courrier service. And so, one tuesday morning in the spring of 1966, thousands of listeners heard "Strangers in the night" for the first time, sung by ...... Frank Sinatra.
Rumour has it, that many disc jockeys were contacted already on monday by Hal Fein who "convinced" them that Frank Sinatra's version was the better one .... The movie, "A man could get killed" suddenly became more successful and the producers even decided that extra labels should be added to the posters stating "Including Strangers in the night". (This was somewhat misleading because neither Sinatra's version, nor any other version for that matter could be heard in the movie- the original music "Beddy Bye" excluded obviously) Sinatra's version conquered the world as we all know and Bert Kaempfert's own instrumental version, released on the album with the same title, .... "sold easily" and found it's way to a fast growing number of dedicated fans.
"Stranger in the Night - The Bert Kaempfert Story" Marc Boettcher (biography)
Bert Kaempfert Publishing GmbH - Hamburg
Bert Kaempfert Music
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| LYRICS WRITER CHARLES SINGLETON |
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| BERT KAEMPFERT AND HIS GRANDSON STEFAN |
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SINGLE COVER  FRANK SINATRASTRANGERS IN THE NIGHT |
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| HAL FEIN AND BERT KAEMPFERT GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD BEST ORIGINAL SONG IN A MOTION PICTURE (1967) EXCLUSIVE ! INTERVIEW WITH BERT KAEMPFERT (German-English translation) Bert talks about his world hit "Strangers in the night" EXTRA : COMPLETE VISUAL DISCOGRAPHY ORIGINAL MUSIC BY BERT KAEMPFERT |
