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Favorite WWII song? Lili Marleen.

Tiki Tom

Tiki Tom

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Do you have any WWII musical favorites? One of mine is "Lili Marleen", in part because there is an interesting story behind it (and in part because my dad had a crush on Marlene Dietrich!)

Lili Marleen is a (originally) German love song made famous by Berlin-born actress/singer Marlene Dietrich. It was popularized during World War II and became a favorite song of both Axis and Allied troops ---in English, German, and French versions!

Marlene Dietrich moved to the USA (Hollywood) in the early 1930s. Although the Nazis wanted her to return to Germany and make films for them, she turned them down and opted to serve the Allies. In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to help sell war bonds. She toured the US in support of the war effort from 1942 through 1943 and was reported to have sold more war bonds than any other star. She toured with the USO in 1944 and 1945, entertaining US troops in war zones across Europe. She even accompanied General George S. Patton’s troops as they pushed into Germany. When asked why she took such a risk (she would be shot by the Nazis as a traitor if captured) she said: "aus Anstand" or "out of decency".

In 1944, the OSS started a program of propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Marlene Dietrich recorded a number of songs in German specifically for the project, including Lili Marleen. Dietrich also performed "Lili Marleen" and other songs, live in Europe for allied troops, often in hardship conditions. "Lili Marleen" became a massive success and eventually became the theme song of the OSS propaganda station.

For your enjoyment:

Lili Marleen English version: (with some great WWII photos of Marlene Dietrich in uniform.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBi5j7yPwd0

Lili Marleen original German version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhqsezqfuIs

Multi lingual English, French, & German version sung by Marlene Dietrich:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhldSGKDSUg

French version by Suzy Solidor 1942:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toj3YTzSkJc

I’ve listened to an awful lot of music that was performed during the war, but few songs have stories as good as this one.

What is your personal favorite WWII song? (If possible, provide a link to the song.) Is there a story or an association behind the song that gives it extra meaning to you?
 
V.C. Brunswick

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Original version by Lale Andersen. The song was composed by Norbert Schulze who also composed several other well-known German wartime songs such as Bomben Auf England and Panzer Rollen In Afrika Vor.

 
Edward

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I don't have much time for a lot of the 'patriotic' or morale-boosting songs of that era, in large part because of the way WW2 has been repackaged and revised in recent timews over here. Often for political ends, even more often by people who just have no idea what it must have been like to live through a war like that, and want to celebrate it - you know, the usual mythology - "everyone pulled together, we don't have community spirit like it any more, the Blitz was great, really". That sort of dangerous nostalgia is growing in recent years, as those who were alive then pass on and are no longer able to correct it. Still, Lili-Marleen is something else. I love Dietrich's version (fascinating character; I named a cat after her - RIP Marlene Marlowe, 2008-2016). All her stuff, really. I love the notion of conscripted men from all sides enjoying that song- a rare moment of common humanity in the hell of warfare that seems like a triumph. Bit like the Christmas truce of December 2014 in that sense. I also love Lili Marlene because of its style.... more Weimar Cabaret than Andrews Sisters... German cabaret music from the Weimar era is fabulous, so wonderfully melancholic, I find it improbably uplifting.
 
MisterCairo

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Edward said:
I don't have much time for a lot of the 'patriotic' or morale-boosting songs of that era, in large part because of the way WW2 has been repackaged and revised in recent timews over here.
Click to expand...

I have a soft spot for them, as my dad was a Second World War vet, Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regt., and while his recollections of the time were not as saccharine sweet as the contemporary films and news reels would suggest, there was a feeling of collectivity, as a nation working together. My mum was a child at the time, and her recollections centred on people getting together to help in any way. My gran baked and knitted for children evacuated from the southern cities (while her children stayed put, in Paisley, Scotland, which was hit at times as the Luftwaffe had difficulty finding the River Clyde).

Yes, people lived ordinary lives for the most part (yes, they did in fact "carry on"), but there was a backdrop of violence brought directly to their homes, and songs and films played a role in helping to deal with that.

It wasn't all propaganda you know, and as for how the film industry treats it now doesn't change how it was. I'm just turned 49 but only one generation away from it. It was a pretty shitty time, and in our comfortable homes (occasional terrorist attack notwithstanding) we find it difficult to understand that.
 
filfoster

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All good tunes. Lili Marlene, Long Ago (and Far Away), White Cliffs of Dover, We'll Meet Again, Foggy Day in London Town my top five in about that order.
Love the big band tunes of the Glenn Miller USAAC band.

Thirty-plus years ago, annually, we'd visit the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH for their commemorative, open-air evening concerts, featuring the Airmen of Note orchestra. Behind the band, the Museum would open the hangar doors of their WW2 exhibits so the B-17 and other planes were just visible. Glenn Miller's actual wartime vocalist, Johnny Desmond-still sounding great-would sing. He always covered 'Long Ago' and 'A Foggy Day in London Town'.
Near the end of the concert, about dusk, the lead trombonist would be handed Glenn Miller's trombone (he had more than one), that spends the rest of the year in a display case in the museum. Of course, the opening bars of 'Getting Sentimental Over You' and 'Danny Boy' pretty much reduced the crowd, imagining we were listening to the ghost of Major Miller playing, to teary-eyed, lump-in-the-throat sad sacks. I just got teary eyed and lump-in-the-throat typing this. Pathetic.
 
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V.C. Brunswick

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Kay Kyser and his Orchestra -- He Wears A Pair Of Silver Wings (1942)

wings.jpg


 
GHT

GHT

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The first time that I heard Minor Swing, I was 15. It was on a 78rpm record, being ignorant of record label detail, I didn't realise that I could have seen all the release details on the label.
My father told me it was both popular, and subversive amongst POW's. Reason being, Reinhardt was a Romany and the gypsy community was another target of Hitler's ethnic cleansing. He found that out from a prison guard after being warned that all Gypsy Jazz music had been banned by The Nazis.

"Minor Swing" is a popular Gypsy jazz tune composed by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. It was first recorded by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1937. I'm sure that VCB will concur that the composition was first released as a 78 single on the French Swing label in 1937, featuring Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli under the group name Quintette du Hot Club de France.

 
GHT

GHT

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Yay, Glenn Miller, here's one you don't here too often, unless of course you are heavily into that late thirties swing.
"You clap your hands
And you swing out wide
Do the Suzie Q
Mix in a step or two
Put 'em all together
And you're doin' the jive".
 
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V.C. Brunswick

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LizzieMaine said:
I have always loved the fact that Harry Babbitt sings the vocal on that, with no attempt to modify the lyrics. "Don't ask, don't tell."
Click to expand...

Darn, I didn't even notice that. Though I do recall reading somewhere that often, much to the embarassment of the vocalist, representatives from the music publisher were present at the recording sessions to make sure that the song was recorded exactly as written with no modification of the lyrics.
 
Tiki Tom

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Wow. Thank you all. Those are some amazing links you provided. Certainly some good stuff that I was unaware of. "People like you and me." Love it. And I had completely forgotten about "right in der fuhrer's face." I enjoyed listening to every single one of them.

I agree that WWII is often romanticized in this day and age, and I try to keep that firmly in mind as I ponder the momentous events of the 1940s. Still, i think it was F Scott Fitzgerald who said something like "a sound mind is one that can hold two conflicting ideas at once without exploding" (or something like that, I,m not going to bother to double check the quote right now.) All this to say, that even as I know the reality of the ugliness and hardship (my dad spent years in a pow camp), there is also some truth to some elements of the myth. On that note, I enjoy sitting on my patio, sipping a whiskey, listening to the music of the 40s, and trying to take myself back to a mindset of people pulling together and rising above themselves in the name of an undeniably good cause. Such stories of heroism and self sacrifice. Maybe a good bit of it is exaggerated, but on this certain evening (in the current mess of a world), I can live with that.

Thanks again for those wonderful vintage tunes!
 
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