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27 December 2012

Leni, wenn du Geburtstag hast?

Happy birthday to Marlene Dietrich, whose sultry birthday song, "Johnny," should have replaced the insipid American one. In honor of this day, I'll post my favorite cover of her song. Please share your favorite versions--by Marlene or by others--in the comments section.

12 comments:

  1. Ute Lemper or Milva ? Milva.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLT9TgnJZDI

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    1. I must confess that Katiana Balanika's disco version of "Johnny" (in Greek, I assume?) is a guilty pleasure of mine!

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  2. What I find fascinating about "Johnny": later on in her live shows, Dietrich would introduce it by saying I'll tell you what this song is about because it's never been translated into English, then sing it in German. But in Song of Songs Dietrich does sing "Johnny" with English lyrics! It's one of the highlights of the film.

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    1. The Gospel of Marlene is not to be doubted! Surely, that was Claudette Colbert in The Song of Songs. Who better to play a shopgirl?

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  3. Never seen the Ines Torelli performance, love it! very well done.

    Marlene always performs Johnny in such a delicious erotic way, lets have one of her own performances as well. Love the one from her Berns performance also due to the excellent quality of the material, but since I couldn't find an excerpt of this one, here "Johnny" live performend in the Netherlands, 1963 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu9UR8JexXM

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    1. That's one of my favorite Marlene performances ever! I'm sure a few men's trousers got tighter when she winked at about 0:45 (don't mistake it for the blinking before that), and then at about 1:45 when she started stroking the tip of the microphone with her finger.

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    2. no doubt about it ;) she's nicely suggestive in her expressions, her performance is effective and sophisticated at the same time.

      Who could pull this off nowadays? I have the feeling that many "artist" consider showing skin as sexy or erotic hence, dancing practically naked on stage or in video's which is in my humble opinion often banal.

      Who reaches the level of this kind of erotism nowadays, enlight me!

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    3. I can't think of anyone nowadays who performs with Marlene's eroticism--except for this young lady, whose sensual elegance rivals Dietrich's. Why would entertainers suggest sexual acts when they can simulate or perform sexual acts without facing obscenity charges or any other serious repercussions? Marlene would have faced lots of legal woes if she had done what women nowadays do onstage. If a contemporary entertainer did perform with Marlene's suggested eroticism, I would probably regard their act as anachronistic or as a nostalgic tribute to an entertainer like Dietrich.

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    4. I know you have a point. I would enjoy it because of the juxtaposition of what is happening these day and therefor find it refreshing, but ofcourse it depends on how it is done, looking for some authentic performer(s). It shouldn't be an exact copy of how Marlene does it. But perhaps I'm just too old fashioned and have sehnsucht for something that will never belong to "my" time.

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  4. Joseph,
    What in the world did I just watch? This is one of those times I'm glad I don't speak fluent German. ha ha
    I can't think of anything to top that in awesome but given that it's the divine Ms. D's birthday I can only think of her fabulous performance in Blonde Venus.

    Happy New Year to you! Can't wait to see what clever ideas you have in 2013.
    Page

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    1. Happy New Year to you, too, Page! I don't speak any German at all but have listened to Marlene's songs enough times to learn the words. You've seen A Foreign Affair, haven't you? I consider Marlene's performance of "Black Market" her best movie musical number. She is like Circe!

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