Singer Frank Schöbel celebrates his birthday on Sunday. His job has always been a calling: the singer has more than 600 titles in his own repertoire.
Frank Schöbel has been composing, interpreting, writing and singing songs about love, friendship, everyday life and football for 60 years. These twelve songs should not be missing at any Frank Schöbel birthday party:
Looky, Looky (I do day and night when I see beautiful women…) is the first single in 1964 and was an immediate hit in the charts. Songs like “Blonder Stern” or “Party Twist” followed. “Molly, Dolly, Monika – I hope you know, I’m back today, oh oh … yeah yeah at the party twist”. The songs were composed in the typical Twist sound of the early 1960s. After the Wall was built, cultural policy in the GDR was liberalized for a few years. But after a turnaround by the hardliners around Erich Honecker, state leader Walter Ulbricht announced the end of “Yeah Yeah Yeah” in 1965. Critical Defa films went into the “poison cabinet”. But even the actually harmless pop songs of the young Frank Schöbel weren’t played on the radio for a while.
Love me the way your heart likes it was the first duet with singer Chris Doerk in 1967. Doerk and Schöbel were considered a dream couple in the 1960s and early 1970s, and they were also the first public married couple in the GDR. Interest in her private life took on dimensions that were atypical for GDR conditions. After the birth of the son Alexander, reports were even sent directly from the cot. In 1972 and 1973 the couple appeared together on western television shows. But the marriage failed: Chris Doerk and Frank Schöbel filed for divorce in 1974.
A summer song. It is one of the most beautiful songs that Frank Schöbel sang. Composed by Thomas Natschinski, the song is part of the soundtrack of the Defa film musical “Hot Summer” (1968). Music, dance and a carefree attitude towards life made it a cult. In May 2016, the “Freie Presse” published the results of its reader survey for the most popular Defa film of all time: “Hot Summer” was voted number one.
There was gold in your eyes. “There was gold in your eyes/Gold on your hair/You have to believe me today and always/That never was a day so glorious”. In 1971, the tender love song conquered the charts and was never forgotten. In Heiner Carow’s film “Coming Out” (1989), it was the first Defa film to explicitly address homosexuality, “Gold in your eyes” is played in a scene in a Berlin gay bar. In 2009, the song was interpreted in the TV series “Ein Starke Team” in the episode “La Paloma” by the actors Jaecki Schwarz, who embodies the ex-policeman “Sputnik” here, and Florian Martens in the role of Commissioner Otto Garber.
Like a star. The definitive cult hit of the singer, who also stormed the national and international charts in 1971. The well-known composer Moritz Eggert, a representative of so-called serious music, enthuses in his blog for the “Neue Musikzeitung”: “As an outstanding masterpiece, this incredible piece puts the mostly pathetic attempts of other hit composers in their place. The hit with two alto flutes as Main instruments builds up like a symphony, is full of pauses and repeated starts – and the sound is more reminiscent of Pink Floyd or progressive rock.” The star accompanied the singer again and again – in addition to “Blonder Stern” in the 80s, “When a star goes off” was also a big hit.
Friends are everywhere: “Where ears of corn dance in the summer wind/Where cotton fields are full of blossoms/Where hands plant young rice/Where one knows how to forge human happiness…” The chanson-like hit is full of pathos and the officials liked it so much that Frank Schöbel took it to the had to perform the opening show of the legendary football world championships in 1974 (1:0 for the GDR against the FRG) in Frankfurt/Main. Of course, he would have preferred to sing the clearly (glam) rock mood song “Ja, der Fußball ist round wie die Welt”. Schöbel is a big football fan and played football himself into old age. In 1987 he wrote another football hit: “The fans are a force” (if you don’t have one, good night!).
Come on, let’s draw a sun: The song comes from the singer’s very popular children’s album of the same name from 1975 with pop songs that Frank Schöbel sang together with children, without the artificiality and perfection of children’s choir recordings on the radio or on vinyl that were common at the time. There was a touch of anarchy and self-empowerment, which was already clear on the record cover. The children take the instruments and start playing while Schöbel and his band members are bound and gagged to watch.
Between fear and love: With the album “What I dream of” (1981), Schöbel ventured into more rocky realms. “Between Fear and Love”, the song is vaguely reminiscent of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”, still sounds quite fresh 40 years after its release. He’s just not a “pure Schlagerrheinz,” says Schöbel in his current biography, which is well worth reading.
You can do it with me: “I just pull rivets/In all areas/I can’t get anything under my hand/But you need one/And you can’t find one/Then come running to me right away.” In the 1982 fun song, Frank Schöbel presents himself as a clown-esque victim of circumstances. But in truth he never crossed his own lines. Despite attempts to recruit him, he did not spy for state security, and he also refused to join the state party SED.
Christmas in family: A classic is this song from the album of the same name from 1985. With over two million records sold, it is considered the most successful Amiga sound carrier of all time. Several songs are reminiscent of the Christian origins of the festival, which the ideologues would have liked to have forgotten in the 1950s and 1960s.
We don’t need no more lies: Superficially, the song written by Bernd opinioner (“A little peace”) is a love song. But he’s full of allusions to the situation in the summer of 1989. “We’re not hiding anything anymore/Because we’ve learned/By keeping quiet you lose yourself,” it says. Schöbel was unloaded from the big republic birthday show in the Palace of the Republic for the 40th GDR anniversary. Even later he could become political. In “People wake up” from the album “No matter what happens” (2006) it says: “And again and again empty promises and lots of questions/too many wars, too little peace, but the DAX cannot complain.”
Thank you dear friends: a courage song (2020) and a declaration of love to his fans: “Thank you dear friends, no matter what you do/Hold each other, that feels so good now/Thank you dear friends, it wasn’t always easy/Me too can count on you /Especially at this time.”
Service:
Tickets for music history(s) with Frank Schöbel on February 19th at Klaffenbach Castle in Chemnitz are available in the “Freie Presse” shops.
book tip “Thank you, dear friends – an autobiography by Frank Schöbel with heart and attitude”, Verlag Bild and Heimat, 352 pages, 26.99 euros.