FRANKIE LAINE – "Answer Me"

Wow–I spent over an hour searching this on the net. I didn’t find the answer for you, but I found out a lot about the many lives of this song. It was written by a couple of Germans, originally titled “Mütterlein” (for the composer’s mother’s 75th birthday). Given the melody, I fear this would have been one frightening example of German sentimentality (about which I know a little too much) but lacking the broader appeal of a love song. So it was retitled with lyrics about love gone wrong–twice. In the first instance, it was directed to God, asking why the girl left; the second, more common, is directed to the lover herself (or, for that matter, himself). Laine actually recorded English translations of both–“Answer Me, O My Lord” and “Answer Me, O My Love.” I presume the second was the hit, although Nat King Cole’s version (of the latter) was the big hit in the US a year later. I’ve only been able to track down one Deutschephone hit version (as “Glaube Mir”), sung by Wolfgang Sauer–it’s of the worst and clunkiest sort of German singing imaginable, so much so that you’d never know it was about a heartbreak as Sauer seems more intent on enunciating every last consonant with the most exacting German precision. (Achtung, Baby!–well, at least it doesn’t sound like it’s beseeching.)

Alas, I couldn’t find a version sung in German by a woman, though there was a soundtrack album issued for The Innocent. Perhaps one way to find out is to watch the film on VHS or DVD and try to pause on the frames showing soundtrack credits.

In the meantime, I discovered a zillion versions in English, sung by everyone from the usual 1950s suspects to Petula Clark (bland with an incongruous beat) to Gene Pitney (credible) to P J Proby (amazing) to Joni Mitchell (doesn’t sound like herself) to Bryan Ferry (interesting in its way). Weirdly enough, I liked Proby’s rock/beat version the best.

My mother loved that Barbara Dickson version – she said it was great to do the hoovering to!

Anne

With the exception of hymns and classical music, the Reithian BBC of the fifties took a very dim view of the Lord’s name being taken in vain on pop records – their charter at the time ruled against “blasphemy” in any shape or form of which this was apparently one.

Goodness, this is such a brilliant idea: if you’re unhappy with the current chart number one, knock out a superior cover version in time to replace it the following week. Or does this count as the first chart sighting of a “remix”?

Glaube Mir was recorded by Maria Mucke in 1954

And a Spotify link for the Glaube Mir song, sung by Maria Mucke (thanks Alan!): https://open.spotify.com/track/3P5CyxwkxGNhXLHPMYtCqE?si=rkSwe65mRKyjSB2oHn9Abw

There’s a bit of stardust about Frankie Laine, even when performing a dirge like this. A 3, maybe even a 4 on a good day. The early number one singles have almost all been by American artists, and they’ve performed them with a breezy confidence not seen in the more serious and sombre British singers.