Editorial Reviews

The idea of collecting a slew of German language interpretations of pop songs by non-German speaking artists during the 1960s and 1970s probably wouldn't have been considered a viable approach at all before the days of random playlists and obscure mp3 blogs, but that's a new millennium for you. Sprechen Sie Pop is ridiculous at base, which is part of the point -- celebrating a nakedly economic approach to music (re-record to sell to Deutschland's hip young things) and building on top of such oddities as the Beatles and the Beach Boys approaches to same, it's a look back at a time and place through very skewed lenses. That said, part of the appeal would come down to how much a listener knows German in the first place -- without familiarity with just how much the language is being butchered, one can only imagine what some familiar lyrics are transformed into. Treating the collection as a soundtrack to some sort of 1969-era breezy musical scored by the likes of Gert Wilden might be the best approach all around -- songs like Skalden's "Du Hast Mich Lieb" practically exude some sort of peace-and-love meets the Jet Set vibe. Horn-heavy songs like Adamo's "Zeit Ist Geld" and glossy early-'70s funk like Severine's "Heisser Als Feuer" further capture the time and place. Some performers take to the approach with gusto -- Sandie Shaw gamely goes for it on "Sommerwind" while Juliette Gréco's "Die Gammlerin" uses her breathy delivery to fine effect -- while other songs, such as Joe Dassin's "Sie War Ooh!," sound like timewasters that don't benefit much from an alternate vocal track. Then there's Paul Anka's "Mir Geht Es Gut," which if nothing else shows that the old smoothie knew how to use vocal reverb to help sand down the rough edges of German even more. Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

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