Drafi Deutscher
| Drafi Deutscher | |
|---|---|
Drafi Deutscher in 1989
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Drafi Franz Richard Deutscher |
| Born |
9 May 1946 Charlottenburg |
| Died | 9 June 2006 (aged 60) |
| Genres | Schlager music |
| Occupation(s) | singer |
| Years active | 1964–1989 |
Drafi Franz Richard Deutscher (known professionally as Drafi Deutscher; 9 May 1946 – 9 June 2006) was a German singer and songwriter of Sinti origin.
Deutscher was born in Charlottenburg, in the western zone of Berlin (Germany). Between 1964 and 1966, Deutscher had a string of hits in Germany, for example Shake Hands (1964 #1), Keep Smiling (1964 #7), Cinderella Baby (1965 #3), Heute male ich dein Bild, Cindy-Lou (1965 # 1).
His best known song was the 1965 Schlager "Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht" (lit. "Marble, Stone and Iron Break") which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a golden record. 19-year-old Deutscher had ad-libbed the tune during an October 1965 audition at Musikverlag Edition Intro Gebrüder Meisel GmbH by humming the melody and only singing the characteristic chorus line of "Dum-Dum, Dum-dum"; asked by present songwriter Christian Bruhn what he intended to do with it to turn it into a complete song, he replied, "Det machst du! ("I want you guys to take care of it for me!"), so songwriter Günter Loose subsequently wrote the German lyrics to the melody.
In the US, the song was released in 1966 under the title Marble breaks and iron bends with English lyrics sung by Deutscher. This English version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1966, peaking at # 80, and sparking a number of English cover versions by contemporary acts such as The Deejays (under the title Dum Dum (Marble Breaks and Iron Bends)), as well as by the two Australian acts Peter Fenton and Toni & Royce (aka Toni McCann and Royce Nicholas), none of which seem to have charted. The song later featured in the 2006 film Beerfest, during the Oktoberfest scene.
After his 1965 hit Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht, his career in Germany was in full swing when it was shaken by a 1967 conviction for public indecency (Erregung öffentlichen Ärgernisses) after he had urinated from a balcony while drunk, in plain view of a group of schoolchildren watching him from street level. After his 1967 conviction for public indecency, he virtually disappeared from the public eye as a singer for more than a decade, writing and producing several worldwide hits for Boney M, Nino de Angelo and Tony Christie throughout the 1970s under a number of pen names instead.
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