with scenes from old New York

So what does some German trumpeter have to do with the Beatles? 

You didn’t ask. I’m going to tell you anyway.

This just in from our Pennsylvania correspondent, Bert Kaempfert was a radio hit maker in the early 1960’s. I grew up with him on the radio.

An immigrant from Hamburg, he led an orchestra and blew a horn so well he caught the attention of the labels while writing “Strangers in the Night” for Sinatra and hits for Elvis, Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis.

Kaempfert went on to hire the Beatles in 1961 as the back up band to another recording artist of the era, Tony Sheridan. 

Within a few years they were doing just fine.

bbc.co.uk/1965

By 1980 at the age of 56, the cigarettes finally got him.

Here’s one of his easy listening hits, Wonderland by Night. Check out his cup work at 1:44.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Kaempfert