Lili Marleen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

"Lili Marleen" is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

love song

Love song

A love song is about falling in love and the feelings it brings. Anthologies of love songs often contain a mixture of both of these types of song. A bawdy song is both humorous and saucy, emphasizing the physical pleasure of love rather than the emotional joy...

which became popular during World War II.

Written in 1915 during World War I, the poem was published under the title "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

for "The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch") in 1937, and was first recorded by Lale Andersen

Lale Andersen

Lale Andersen was a German chanson singer-songwriter born in Bremerhaven, Germany. She is best known for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen" in 1939, which became tremendously popular on both sides during the Second World War.- Early life :She was born in Lehe and baptized Liese-Lotte...

in 1939 under the title "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" ("The Girl under the Lantern").

Following Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia, from 1941 Radio Belgrade became Soldatensender Belgrad to entertain German armed forces; the song was played frequently and became popular throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops.

Creation

The words were written in 1915 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

by Hans Leip

Hans Leip

Hans Leip , was a German novelist, poet and playwright, best remembered as the lyricist of Lili Marleen....

(1893–1983), a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

. Leip reportedly combined the names of his girlfriend and another female friend. The poem was later published as "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" ("The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch") in 1937, now with the two last (of five) verses added. It was set to music by Norbert Schultze

Norbert Schultze

Norbert Arnold Wilhelm Richard Schultze was a prolific German composer of film music...

in 1938. Tommie Connor

Tommie Connor

Tommie Connor was a British songwriter, credited with several hit songs over his long career. Most notable among these was "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", which has been recorded by many artists, including the Jackson 5 and is among the top 25 Christmas music songs...

later wrote English lyrics. It was recorded by Lale Andersen

Lale Andersen

in 1939.

Exposure and reception

After the occupation of Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

in 1941 Radio Belgrade

Radio Belgrade

Radio Belgrade is a state-owned and operated radio station in Belgrade, Serbia.The predecessor of Radio Beograd, Radio Beograd-Rakovica, started its program in 1924 and was a part of a state wireless telegraph station. Radio Beograd, AD started in March 1929...

became the German forces' radio station under the name of Soldatensender Belgrad (Soldiers' Radio Belgrade, with transmissions heard throughout Europe and the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

.

While on leave in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, a lieutenant working at the station was asked to collect some records for broadcast. Amongst the pile of second-hand records from the Reich radio station was the little known two-year-old song "Lili Marleen" sung by Lale Andersen, which up till then had barely sold around 700 copies. For lack of other recordings, Radio Belgrade played the song frequently.

At one point the Nazi government's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

, ordered broadcasting of the song to stop. Radio Belgrade received many letters from Axis soldiers all over Europe asking them to play "Lili Marleen" again. Goebbels reluctantly changed his mind, and from then on the tune was used to sign-off the broadcast at 9:55 PM.

Its popularity quickly grew. Soldiers stationed around the Mediterranean, including both German Afrika Korps

Afrika Korps

The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...

and British Eighth Army

Eighth Army (United Kingdom)

The Eighth Army was one of the best-known formations of the British Army during World War II, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns....

troops, regularly tuned in to hear it. Erwin Rommel

Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....

, commander of the Afrika Korps, admired the song and asked Radio Belgrade to incorporate it into their broadcasts, which they did.

Many Allied soldiers made a point of listening to it at the end of the day. For example, in his memoir Eastern Approaches
Eastern Approaches
Eastern Approaches is an autobiographical account of the early career of Fitzroy Maclean. It is divided into three parts: his life as a junior diplomat in Moscow and his travels in the Soviet Union, especially the forbidden zones of Central Asia; his exploits in the British Army and SAS in the...

, Fitzroy Maclean describes the song's effect in the spring of 1942 during the Western Desert Campaign

Western Desert Campaign

The Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War, was the initial stage of the North African Campaign during the Second World War. The campaign was heavily influenced by the availability of supplies and transport. The ability of the Allied forces, operating from besieged Malta, to...

:
"Husky, sensuous, nostalgic, sugar-sweet, her voice seemed to reach out to you, as she lingered over the catchy tune, the sickly sentimental words. Belgrade...The continent of Europe seemed a long way away. I wondered when I would see it again and what it would be like by the time we got there."

Nor did it end there. The next year, parachuted into the Yugoslav guerrilla war, Maclean wrote: "Sometimes at night, before going to sleep, we would turn on our receiving set and listen to Radio Belgrade. For months now, the flower of the Afrika Korps had been languishing behind the barbed wire of Allied prison camps. But still, punctually at ten o'clock, came Lale Andersen singing their special song, with the same unvarying, heart-rending sweetness that we knew so well from the desert. [...] Belgrade was still remote. But, now that we ourselves were in Yugoslavia, it had acquired a new significance for us. It had become our ultimate goal, which Lili Marlene and her nostalgic little tune seemed somehow to symbolise. 'When we get to Belgrade...' we would say. And then we would switch off the wireless a little guiltily, for the Partisans, we knew, were shocked at the strange pleasure we got from listening to the singing of the German woman who was queening it in their capital."

In the autumn of 1944, the liberation of Belgrade

Belgrade Offensive

The Belgrade Offensive or the Belgrade Strategic Offensive Operation was an offensive military operation in which Belgrade was conquered from the German Wehrmacht by the joint efforts of the Yugoslav Partisans and the Soviet Red Army...

seemed not far away. "Then, at ten o'clock, loud and clear, Radio Belgrade; Lili Marlene, sweet, insidious, melancholy. 'Not much longer now,' we would say, as we switched it off. It was a stock joke but one that at last began to look like coming true." As the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

was advancing on Belgrade

Belgrade

, he reflected again on the song. "At Valjevo

Valjevo

Valjevo is a city and municipality located in western Serbia. It is the center of the Kolubara District, which includes five other smaller municipalities with a total population of almost 180,000 people...

, as at so many other places, in the desert, in Bosnia, in Italy, Dalmatia, and Serbia, we would tune our wireless sets in the evening to Radio Belgrade, and night after night, always at the same time, would come, throbbing lingeringly over the ether, the cheap, sugary and almost painfully nostalgic melody, the sex-laden, intimate, heart-rending accents of Lili Marlene. 'Not gone yet,' we would say to each other. 'I wonder if we'll find her when we get there.' Then one evening at the accustomed time there was silence. 'Gone away,' we said."

Allied soldiers in Italy later adapted the tune to their own lyrics, creating the D-Day Dodgers
D-Day Dodgers
The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's song...

song. A cartoon by Bill Mauldin

Bill Mauldin

William Henry "Bill" Mauldin was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from the United States...

in the American army newspaper Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes (newspaper)
Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...

shows two soldiers in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica, while the other comments, "The krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene' tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?"

Connie Francis version

Lili Marleen was released by U. S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

entertainer Connie Francis

Connie Francis

Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

as her seventh German

German language

single in 1962 and would peak at # 9 of the German charts. Francis also recorded the song in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

and French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

Amanda Lear version

French singer and disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

queen Amanda Lear

Amanda Lear

Amanda Lear is a French singer, lyricist, composer, painter, TV presenter, actress and novelist....

recorded a German-English language version of the song for her 1979 album Never Trust a Pretty Face
Never Trust a Pretty Face
Never Trust a Pretty Face is the third studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, released in January, 1979 by West German label Ariola-Eurodisc...

. French editions of the album included a German-French version of the track. "Lili Marleen" was released as a promotional single

Promotional recording

A promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...

only in Argentina, although earlier it became the B-side of the single "Gold". The singer performed it in the 1978 film Zio Adolfo in arte Führer.

Lear has made "Lili Marleen" a repertoire standard on her performances. She re-recorded the song on her 1993 album Cadavrexquis
Cadavrexquis
Cadavrexquis is the teenth studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in France 1993 on label Chène Music. This including her European comeback dance hit "Fantasy" plus updated versions of three of her hits from the seventies, her signature tune "Follow Me", "Fashion Pack " and "Lili...

as well as on her 2001 Heart
Heart (Amanda Lear album)
-Personnel:*Amanda Lear - lead vocals*Cécile Maestre - backing vocals*Sandrine Foguère - backing vocals*Judith Flessel-Toto - backing vocals*Stefano Meghenzani - piano, Rhodes & accordion*Patrick Bacqueville - trombone*Nicolas Baudino - flute, saxophone...

album.

Track listing

7" Promotional Single (1979)

A. "Lili Marleen"

B. "Dreamer (South Pacific)"

Chart performance

Chart (1979)	Peak position
Italy Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy....	12

Other versions

The specialty label Bear Family has released a 7-CD box set featuring 195 different versions of the song.

While the Italian version, translated by lyricist Nino Rastelli and recorded in 1942 by Lina Termini, was probably the first to be released, the earliest English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

recording of the song was probably Anne Shelton's, but a number of cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s followed. A version called "The D-Day Dodgers

D-Day Dodgers

The D-Day Dodgers is a term for those Allied servicemen who fought in Italy during the Second World War, which also inspired a popular wartime soldier's song...

" was sung by the Canadian Army remaining in Italy once the Normandy invasion had begun in 1944. A recording was made by Perry Como

Perry Como

Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...

on 27 June 1944 and issued by RCA Victor Records as a 78rpm record (catalog number

Catalog numbering systems for single records

This article presents the numbering systems used by various record companies for single records.- Capitol :...

20-1592-A) with the flip side "First Class Private Mary Brown". This recording was later re-issued as catalog number 20-2824-A with flip side "I Love You Truly". The song reached chart position #13 on the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

charts. The song was recorded during the musicians' strike and consequently has a backing chorus instead of an orchestral backup. In the late 1940s and early 1950s "Lili Marleen" was recorded in English, as well as German, by Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

. A version with French words by Henri Lemarchand was recorded by Suzy Solidor

Suzy Solidor

Suzy Solidor was a French singer and actress, appearing in films such as La Garçonne.Suzy Solidor was born in 1900 in the Pie district of Saint-Servan-sur-Mer in Brittany, France, under the name of Suzanne Louise Marie Marion. She was the daughter of Louise Marie Adeline Marion, a 28-year-old...

in 1941.

Other artists who covered the song included Hildegarde (on Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

), Martha Tilton

Martha Tilton

Martha Tilton was an American popular singer, best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin' Miss Tilton.Tilton and her family lived in Texas and Kansas, relocating to Los Angeles when she was seven years old...

(on Coral

Coral Records

Coral Records was a Decca Records subsidiary formed in 1949. It recorded pop artists McGuire Sisters and Teresa Brewer, as well as rock and roller Buddy Holly....

), and Vaughn Monroe

Vaughn Monroe

Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...

(on V-Disc

V-Disc

V-Disc was a morale-boosting initiative involving the production of several series of recordings during the World War II era by special arrangement between the United States government and various private U.S. record companies. The records were produced for the use of United States military...

). Al Martino revived the song for Capitol Records

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

in 1968. Another version was recorded in the 1960s by country music legend Hank Snow

Hank Snow

Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...

. Another French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

singer, Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas is a French singer and actress.Kaas is a very successful French-speaking singer, with an International following...

used "Lili Marlene" as an intro

Introduction (music)

In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. In popular music this is often abbreviated as intro...

for her song "D'Allemagne" and sang the entire song during concerts in the 1990s. Matia Bazar

Matia Bazar

Matia Bazar is an Italian musical group formed in Genoa in 1975. The original members of the group are Piero Cassano, Aldo Stellita and Carlo Marrale. Antonella Ruggiero was the first singer in the group. The group represented Italy in the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with a song called Raggio di...

(Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) recorded an uptempo beat song called Lili Marleen on her 1982 album Berlino, Parigi, Londra. The song is a "spoken words" very early 80's dance track. Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

group Olé Olé, led by Marta Sánchez

Marta Sánchez

Marta Sánchez López is a Spanish female vocalist. She was born on 8 May 1966 in Madrid. Her father, Antonio Sánchez Camporro, was a Galician opera singer.- Biography :...

, released a song about the film in 1987. It became one of the best-selling singles in Spain

Spain

of the 80s, and paved way for the singer to have a successful career. German blackmetal band Eisregen

Eisregen

Eisregen is a German death metal / black metal band which formed in 1995. The members are from Tambach-Dietharz, a village in Thuringia.- History :In English, Eisregen translates to "Ice Rain"...

recorded a version of "Lili Marlene" on their album Hexenhaus. The German Gothic metal

Gothic metal

Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...

/Industrial metal

Industrial metal

Industrial metal is a musical genre that draws from industrial music and many different types of heavy metal, using repeating metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Founding industrial metal acts include Ministry, Godflesh, and KMFDM.Industrial metal's...

band Atrocity

Atrocity (band)

Atrocity is a German Heavy Metal band formed in Ludwigsburg.-History:First started in 1985 as Instigators and playing grindcore, Atrocity arose as a death metal band with their debut EP, Blue Blood, in 1989, followed soon by Hallucinations, a concept album about drug use...

released the song in both languages (English & German) on Gemini: on the blue edition was the German version, and on the red edition was the English version. Kid Creole and the Coconuts

Kid Creole and the Coconuts

Kid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Its music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular "American and Latin American, South American, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Calloway" and conceptually inspired by the big band era...

included an uptempo, disco-influenced version of "Lili Marlene", with German lyrics sung by Coconut Adriana Kaegi, on their 1980 debut LP release "Off The Coast Of Me". Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

recorded the song as the third track on her 1997 Arista CD Film Noir.Omnia

Omnia (band)

Omnia is a self-described "neoceltic pagan folk" band based in The Netherlands and whose members over the years have had Irish, Dutch, Cornish, Belgian and Persian backgrounds...

It has also been translated into Hawaiian by Kiope Raymond, and recorded by Raymond and Pearl Rose on Rose's 2000 album Homecoming. Most recently it was covered by Neil Hannon

Neil Hannon

Neil Hannon is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter, best known as the creator and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy. The band's official website even goes so far as to say, "The Divine Comedy is Neil Hannon," and Hannon is quoted in an interview as saying, "The Divine Comedy...

of the Irish pop group The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy (band)

The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon. Formed in 1989, Hannon has been the only constant member of the group, playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation bar drums. To date, ten studio albums have been released under the Divine...

as a B-side to the 2006 single "A Lady Of A Certain Age". A haunting, slow-tempo instrumental version can be found on the compilation LP Vienna: City of Dreams by Austrian zither master Anton Karas

Anton Karas

Anton Karas was a Viennese zither player, best known for his soundtrack to Carol Reed's The Third Man.-Early life:...

.

"Lili Marlene" has been adopted as the regimental slow march by the Special Air Service

Special Air Service

Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...

, Special Air Service Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry is one of the three regular force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army. The regiment is composed of four battalions including a primary reserve battalion, for a total of 2,000 soldiers...

.

Humphrey Jennings

Humphrey Jennings

Frank Humphrey Sinkler Jennings was an English documentary filmmaker and one of the founders of the Mass Observation organization...

directed The True Story of Lili Marlene in 1944 about the song.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...

directed the 1980 film Lili Marleen
Lili Marleen (film)
Lili Marleen is a 1981 German drama film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Hanna Schygulla.The screenplay was produced using the novel Der Himmel hat viele Farben by Lale Andersen...

, the story of Lale Andersen and her version of the song.

Spanish pop band Ole Ole, adapted the song for the Spanish-speaking market and released it in 1985 under the name Lily Marlén.

Estonian punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

band Vennaskond

Vennaskond

Vennaskond is an Estonian punk rock band founded in 1984. The band has toured in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Romania, Sweden, Germany, France and the USA .-Members:...

released an Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

version of the song on their album Usk. Lootus. Armastus. in 1993.

The film Bad day to go fishing

Bad Day to Go Fishing

Bad day to go fishing is a Spanish-Uruguayan film directed by Alvaro Brechner and released in 2009. The film stars Gary Piquer, Jouko Ahola, Antonella Costa and Cesar Troncoso...

, directed by Alvaro Brechner

Alvaro Brechner

Alvaro Brechner is a film director, writer and film producer.His debut feature film, Bad day to go fishing has been exhibited in several prestigious festivals such as Critics Week of Cannes Film Festival.-Biography:He attended the Catholic University of Uruguay where he obtained a degree in Media...

, showed an uncontrollable titan of impressive dimensions (Jouko Ahola

Jouko Ahola

Jouko Ahola is a Finnish strongman and actor. He won the 1997 and 1999 World's Strongest Man, and finished second in 1998. Ahola won the Europe's Strongest Man contest twice in 1998 and 1999, and finished fourth in 1996. Jouko won the World's Strongest Team in 1997 and 1999, and was second in 1998...

) who could only be appeased by the melody of "Lili Marlene."

Dutch folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

band Omnia

Omnia (band)

Omnia is a self-described "neoceltic pagan folk" band based in The Netherlands and whose members over the years have had Irish, Dutch, Cornish, Belgian and Persian backgrounds...

recorded a version of the song on their 2011 album Musick and Poëtree.

Original German lyrics

Lili Marleen

Literal English translation

Lili Marleen

In front of the barracks,

In front of the main gate,

Stood a lamppost,

If it still stands out front,

So will we see each other there again,

By the lamppost we'll stand,

As before, Lili Marleen.

Our two shadows

Looked like one.

That we were so much in love,

Anyone could see at a glance.

And everyone will see it,

When we stand by the lamppost,

As before, Lili Marleen.

Already called the guard,

“They’re blowing taps.

That could cost you three days!”

“Comrade, I'll be right there.”

Then we said farewell,

How much would I have rather gone with you,

With you, Lili Marleen.

It knows your footsteps,

Your beautiful walk.

It burns every evening,

Although it forgot me long ago.

And if a mishap should befall me,

Who will stand by the lamppost,

With you, Lili Marleen?

Out of the silent space,

Out of the depths of the earth,

Lifts me as in a dream

Your beloved mouth.

When the nocturnal mists swirl,

I will be standing by the lamppost,

As before, Lili Marleen.

English lyrics (Connor)

The best-known English lyrics are by Tommie Connor

Tommie Connor

, dating from 1944.

Underneath the lantern

By the barrack gate,

Darling I remember

The way you used to wait.

T'was there that you whispered tenderly

That you loved me;

You'd always be

My Lili of the lamplight,

My own Lili Marlene.

Time would come for roll call,

Time for us to part,

Darling I'd caress you

And press you to my heart,

And there 'neath that far-off lantern light,

I'd hold you tight,

We'd kiss good night,

My Lili of the lamplight,

My own Lili Marlene.

Orders came for sailing,

Somewhere over there.

All confined to barracks

was more than I could bear.

I knew you were waiting in the street,

I heard your feet

But could not meet

My Lili of the lamplight

my own Lili Marlene.

Resting in our billets

Just behind the lines,

Even tho' we're parted,

Your lips are close to mine.

You wait where that lantern softly gleams,

Your sweet face seems

To haunt my dreams,

My Lili of the Lamplight,

My own Lili Marlene.

English lyrics (Goring)

Alternative English lyrics were written by Marius Goring

Marius Goring

Marius Goring CBE was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes...

. Goring was English, involved in British broadcasts to Germany during the war and he had a distinguished career in acting, radio and TV post-war (changing his working name to Richardson).

In the dark of evening

where you stand and wait

Hangs a lantern gleaming

by the barrack gate.

We’ll meet again by lantern shine

as we did once upon a time

We two Lili Marlene

We two Lili Marlene

Our shadows once stood facing

a tall one and a small

They mingled in embracing

upon the lighted wall

And passers by could see and tell

who kissed my shadow there so well

My girl Lili Marlene

My girl Lili Marlene

Recordings

Lili Marleen an allen Fronten (Lili Marleen on all fronts). Hambergen, Germany: Bear Family Records, 2006. 7 CDs with 180-page booklet, ISBN 3-89916-154-8 (Includes nearly 200 versions of Lili Marleen).

External links

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