Friday, August 8, 2014

German "Happy Days are Here Again" Wochenend Und Sonnenschein - Comedian Harmonists

I thought Judy Garland's version of "Happy Days are Here Again" was the saddest and creepiest, or at least ironically poignant:




and in case the above link breaks:




but this 1930 German version is orders of magnitude creepier and weirder, especially considering two years later the majority of Germans would elect mass murdering psychopath Hitler to take over their country and attempt to ruin the world:




A cludgy recording in case the above link breaks. Artists were the Comedian Harmonists singing the   Milton Ager and Jack Yellen song "Happy Days are Here Again" translated into German by Charles Amberg "Wochenend und Sonnenschein"



As the clip from the Ginger Roger 1939 film "Bachelor Mother" illustrates, the song was, in retrospect irony, used by FDR all through the Great Depression as his administration theme song, making it further ironic that Germans would try to coopt the theme song whose administration would work to ultimately defeat their Third Reich:


 


British people must have also realized the creepy irony, they used the German language version of "Happy Days Are Here Again" as background music in the BBC documentary "The Nazis: A Warning From History":



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