TTT: Comedian Harmonists

Hello dear Music Community.

It is time for another #ThreeTuneTuesday. For those not familiar with it, here's an explanation.

About 77 Weeks ago @ablaze started this incredible movement:

Every Tuesday I'm going to share 3 songs which I like to listen to and I invite your feedback in the comments below. Or why not have a blast of your own Three Tune Tuesday and mention me in the post and I'll come and find the post and hopefully upvote it. It'll be a sweet way for us all to discover new music.

In 1928 dark clouds started covering the world. In the vortex of recession there was need for distraction of what was about to become one of the darkest chapters in our history books. The Comedian Harmonists entered the stage to become famous and even perform on a US aircraft carrier as a German singer group.

We fast forward and from 1995 to 1998 a young lad is supplementing his allowance by working in a small town cinema in the projector booth. He would see all sorts of movies, that he otherwise never would have thought of buying a ticket for. And discovers in a 1996 movie part of his country's dark history.

The three songs we are about to listen to are even nowadays well known here. And thanks to the movie at least most of my generation now realize the historic context from which they came.

The most iconic song of the Comedian Harmonists is Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus.

Nowadays (or at least when I was growing up) Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus is well known. With its neat and obvious rhythm it attracts young and old, the little jokes in the lyrics make it fun to sing especially for kids. Whenever the cactus is poking someone we went around and poked each other with our index finger.

Whenever I feel like my son needs to let out some energy but the weather doesn't allow playing outside, I put it on and raise my index finger. I chase him around in the house trying to time the poking with the lyrical lines that the cactus "pokes, pokes, pokes".

That way he knows when "it is coming" so he is especially eager to avoid being caught at that moment.

Entertainment is important, especially in dark times. The classic "Happy Days are here again" was covered by the six as Wochenend und Sonnenschein (Weekend and sunshine). It took me a while to figure out the connection. Actually I had it backwards at first.

I knew the German cover but not its origin and I encountered "Happy Days are here again" when I was watching the TV series M * A * S * H, where it was played every now and then.

At some point I made the connection and thought the English version was inspired by the German one. After all, the Korean War was after WWII. It took me several years to realize my mistake.

It is a great tune to have on when taking a bath. The moment when playtime is over and the scrubbing and final cleaning begins my son and I have a nice tune to sing along to.

The song Ein Freund, ein guter Freund about the importance of friendship is often used in German cinema in lots of different versions.

Concluding "A friend, a good friend" with the line "that is the best thing there is in the world" became such an idiomatic phrase, lots of people here know it but forgot its origin.

We only live a few hundred yards away from a sandy beach behind the dike so putting a litte speaker into a trolley with all the sand castle building tools is a must and when my son has his best friend over for a visit and we go to the beach, enacting a movie scene with both of them trying to sing the main chorus line is always funny to watch.

It is almost 100 years ago when the Comedian Harmonists first performed in Germany and despite the terrible times that followed them their songs are now part of our culture heritage. And thanks to the fluke of that movie coming out just when I was working at the cinema I now have a much broader understanding of that.

It made me research those times even more. I had hoped we all learned from that past and yet right now it seems the world has forgotten.

Now I hope I am wrong about my last assumption and maybe soon we will have a reason to sing "Happy days are here again" in whatever language we want.

Thank you for reading and listening.

Keep on rocking 🤘

Bis zum nächsten mal.

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The embedded videos and songs are not mine, nor do I own any rights to them. They are embedded from youtube and serve an illustrative purpose for this article

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