This German singer/songwriter (not known to many outside Europe, I reckon) died recently (June 9) at the age of 60.

Deutschers career started in the early 1960s, and his first successes were limited to Germany. But this all changed in 1965/966, when he scored his first international hit with "Marmor Stein Und Eisen Bricht". The song reached #7 position in Dutch Top 40, for example.

There was also an English version of the same song, called "Marble Breaks And Iron Bends", which reached #80 position in US Billboard Hot 100. I have reason to believe Drafi Deutscher also was a popular artist in Australia at the time.

His career got a serious dent when he was caught urinating from the balcony of a hotel room in 1966.
It would cost him 10 years to return to the international charts, but in 1976 he was back (for a short while) with a song called "Be My Boogie Woogie Baby" (as Mr. Walkie Talkie). It reached #2 in Dutch Top 40, but it got stuck at #36 in German charts...

Only one year later, he wrote "Belfast", a big international hit for Boney M.

Deutscher would make two more comebacks in the international chart scene, but not under his own name.
In 1984, he was (part of) Masquerade, who scored a hit with "Guardian Angel"
(#9 in Dutch Top 40). This song was a free translation of "Jenseits Von Eden" by German singer Nino de Angelo.

And finally, he was half of Mixed Emotions, who scord two Top 40 hits in The Netherlands:
"You Want Love (Maria, Maria...)" (#1, 1987) and "Bring Back (Sha Na Na)" (#20, 1987), which is basically the same song but with different lyrics.


And that's just about all I know about Drafi Deutscher. Any comments and supplements (like chart positions) are welcomed. :)

Great stuff Henk :)

I love that song "You Want Love (Maria, Maria...)" by Mixed Emotions.  I got it on some old 80s German Dance cassette I found at a flea market

This German singer/songwriter (not known to many outside Europe, I reckon) died recently (June 9) at the age of 60.

Sadly, not known in this bit of Europe, Henk...but...

Deutschers career started in the early 1960s, and his first successes were limited to Germany. But this all changed in 1965/966, when he scored his first international hit with "Marmor Stein Und Eisen Bricht". The song reached #7 position in Dutch Top 40, for example.

There was also an English version of the same song, called "Marble Breaks And Iron Bends", which reached #80 position in US Billboard Hot 100.

This became a very minor British hit (#46) for a guy named Peter Fenton (about whom I know nothing whatsoever!)...

I'd imagine that if Drafi re-recorded it in English, it may have been released here...but no hit!

It's a very good song and should really have been a bigger hit, IMHO (although our 'Pirate' radio stations loved it!), but it just goes to prove how many very good songs there were around at the time!

...he wrote "Belfast", a big international hit for Boney M.

Yep...heard of that one, but didn't know that he wrote it...

Everything else of his was, sadly, ignored here... :-\\