'Splain Please......
 

Merkins, pls 'splain how here -where even British shows are captioned if the accent is anything other than BBC- Nena's German 99 Luftballons was the version that got popular, while Britian enjoyed 99 Red Balloons -an English language version (German version was the "B" side).

Disney corporation spent a pile of money back in the 80's to find out what people, Merkins in particular, liked. To the end that they could make more money with movies and marketing the stuff that movies lend to marketing.

Conclusion of study: There is not accounting for public opinion.

I prefer Goldfinger's version

Freaking AWESOME!!!!

Because every once in a while we like things to be Schtocken Blocken?

I dunno.

It's an interesting phenomenon with crossover (ESL) artists performing songs originally written in their native language. Often it's that the native cultural presentation has a genuineness that the artist doesn't translate quite so well in their English performance. There's usually a correlation to how comfortable the artist is using English in daily life as opposed to just singing in English; but, not always. Sometimes it's that the phonetics of the original language are a better match to the tune, the lyrics, or the meaning. Occasionally it's a matter of fad depending on which other cultures are in vogue when a song is released. Rarely is it just vocabulary; or, grammatical structure as in these cases different lyrics, maybe with entirely different meanings, are written for the tune.

I like several Spanish-English crossover artists who record the same songs in both languages. Some songs I prefer listening to exclusively in Spanish, others in English, and the decision is usually made early on as the subconscious impression quickly forms involving all of the aforementioned factors.

remember numa-numa?

Good times.

I misspelled it.

I meant this:

http://youtu.be/Qo_2ReMNzhU

Probably because the German language version was released first (1983, English version in 1984). MTV was at it's height and put it on, and it took off. Or it could be because the only English words are "Captain Kirk", which was really cool.

A furriner's POV?
People want to understand British comedy - as the best of it is word-based [YMMV]

99 Luftballons relies on sound and music.

You think we all love the stooges, don't you? :lol:

I think spexx has it though. We all tried to sing along with luftballoons, but you heard both versionson the radio, eventually.

Interesting fact: Abba peeps didn't speak a lick of english, they learned the songs phonetically.

I heard that about Golden Earing, too.

Golden Earring loved the Stooges? :lol:

I think the Abba thing is a bit of an urban myth.