Berlin 1920s: Derby Tanz-Orchester - Auf Java sind die Mädels braun, 1925

Описание

Auf Java sind die Mädels braun (Girls From Java Are Brown) [Original American song: Will You Remember Me?] Foxtrot (Harry Richman - Lester Santly) -- Tanz-Orchester [Uncredited band], Derby 1925 (Germany; accoustical recording)

NOTE: Two mysteries entwine this charmful German recording from the Goldene Zwanziger Jahre. First: who plays that American foxtrot from 1924? Second: how is possible such radical distortion of the original Harry Richman's title: Will You Remember Me? into a mysterious German phrase: Girls From Java Are Brown. Considering the fact how small is the number of people who would deny the dark-skinned Indonesian girls, it must be held that the authors of this title probably succumbed to widespread fashion in the Weimar Germany, for giving songs the strangest titles. I think, it was so under the influence of fashion Dada. Therefore, German pop hits from this period carry the most astonishing titles such as "Mein Papagei frisst harten keine Eier" (My Parrot doesn't Eat hard-bolied Eggs), "Was macht der Meier am Himalaya?" (What's Mr Meier doing in Himalaya?), "Tante Paula liegt im Bett und isst Tomaten" (Aunt Paula Lays In Bed And Eats Tomatoes) or "Die schöne Adrienne hat eine Hochantenne" (Beautiful Adrienne Has a High Antennae). Elsewhere, there were also crazy titles in this period, but the German beat any competition.

Derby 25 cm records with brown labels were issued in years 1925-28 to be displaced after 1928 by smaller 20 cm records with light blue labels. They were issued until the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933, as the cooperative cheaper product of four record-companies grouped in the Carl Lindstroem-Konzern: Grammophon, Lindström, Homocord and Vox. Derby recordings were in most cases the commercial editions of most popular dance-hits of the day, re-pressed from original matrixes and issued under the nick-names (e.g. Karkoff-Orchester served as pseudonym for Marek Weber, Paul Godwin and several other German dance bands) or labeled only as "Tanz-Orchester". In many cases, identification of those orchestras is today very difficult.