Questions about SUPREMES' GERMAN VERSION OF "COME SEE ABOUT ME"

Over half a century ago, while stationed in Germany, I bought a 45 rpm record of the Supremes singing "Come See About Me" in German. But the title was "Johnny & Joe".

I had a friend who spoke German, and he said that the song was jibberish and made no sense. I always thought that the girls had the words printed for them phonetically and they were singing from that. Did they just do a bad job of singing in German? Does anyone understand the lyrics that they are singing? If you do, is this an entirely different song with new lyrics about Johnny and Joe just using the track of "Come See About Me"? And if it is not jibberish, what are the lyrics about?
And who is Johnny and Joe?

And one final question. Since I once believed that the Supremes sang songs like "Someday" and "Love Child", I will now take nothing for granted. So I ask the experts here who can disect every note and sylable of a Supremes' song. Is this Diana, Flo and Mary on the record, or just Diana with session singers?

So many questions. :confused::confused: One more. What about Marion? Will she ever leave Conoga Falls? :;);)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EB6rEKc2f0

I had one day of German in high school and dropped the class when it was clear me and the teacher were going to have issues. But your post is the only reason I wish I had stayed and learned the language because if someone who speaks German says the lyrics are actually gibberish, I find that hilarious!!

I also now wonder if this isn't in fact a German version of "Come See ABout Me", but is instead an entirely different song set to the CSAM track, as you suggest. So far as we know, "Thank You Darling" doesn't have an English version, so maybe both songs were created specifically for the German market. But that doesn't explain a lyrically gibberish song targeted at that audience. And if that song is gibberish, I now wonder if "Thank You Darling"'s lyrics are as well.

As for the backing vocals, those are definitely Flo and Mary.

AS mentioned previously here by other members. It’s funny how is in the German version of Where Did Our Love Go, Flo is heads clearly, but in the English version she is either absent or turned WAYYYY down

Johnny and Joe both invite her on a date, but she cannot choose because unfortunately she loves them both, so the guys get angry and they fight over her, and still she cannot choose. Very romantic!

So why the lyric change?

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Originally Posted by milven

Over half a century ago, while stationed in Germany, I bought a 45 rpm record of the Supremes singing "Come See About Me" in German. But the title was "Johnny & Joe".

I had a friend who spoke German, and he said that the song was jibberish and made no sense. I always thought that the girls had the words printed for them phonetically and they were singing from that. Did they just do a bad job of singing in German? Does anyone understand the lyrics that they are singing? If you do, is this an entirely different song with new lyrics about Johnny and Joe just using the track of "Come See About Me"? And if it is not jibberish, what are the lyrics about?
And who is Johnny and Joe?

And one final question. Since I once believed that the Supremes sang songs like "Someday" and "Love Child", I will now take nothing for granted. So I ask the experts here who can disect every note and sylable of a Supremes' song. Is this Diana, Flo and Mary on the record, or just Diana with session singers?

So many questions. :confused::confused: One more. What about Marion? Will she ever leave Conoga Falls? :;);)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EB6rEKc2f0

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That is Florence, Diane and Mary on this recording LOL! It is so clear.

Perhaps this can shed some indirect light...in 1960 Connie Francis who was having massive success in English speaking markets noticed
that English language recordings were with the exception of Elvis
absent from the German top seller lists. Germany was the largest record buying market in Europe. Since she had massive success
and was a the time the top selling female vocalist, her current contract with MGM included her personally deciding what recordings got released, and where. She had her current USA #1 record Everybodys Somebodys Fool quickly translated into German and recorded it phonetically. Polygram, who at the time was MGM's German distributor refused to release the record...When they were made aware that it was up to Connie and she insisted, a compromise was reached
to lop off the entire 1st verse because it didn't make any sense and pronunciation was an issue..The record wen on become the top selling record of the year in Germany....very, very often direct translation cannot be used...the lyrics can't be fit into the musical arrangement due to the shift in language...so an entire new set of lyrics are used, most often provided by local composers....GLORIA
by Laura Brannigan is a good well known and more modern example...the original lyrics were Italian and very different

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Originally Posted by Jaap

Johnny and Joe both invite her on a date, but she cannot choose because unfortunately she loves them both, so the guys get angry and they fight over her, and still she cannot choose. Very romantic!

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So it is a completely different song? Interesting!

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Originally Posted by gman

Perhaps this can shed some indirect light...in 1960 Connie Francis who was having massive success in English speaking markets noticed
that English language recordings were with the exception of Elvis
absent from the German top seller lists. Germany was the largest record buying market in Europe. Since she had massive success
and was a the time the top selling female vocalist, her current contract with MGM included her personally deciding what recordings got released, and where. She had her current USA #1 record Everybodys Somebodys Fool quickly translated into German and recorded it phonetically. Polygram, who at the time was MGM's German distributor refused to release the record...When they were made aware that it was up to Connie and she insisted, a compromise was reached
to lop off the entire 1st verse because it didn't make any sense and pronunciation was an issue..The record wen on become the top selling record of the year in Germany....very, very often direct translation cannot be used...the lyrics can't be fit into the musical arrangement due to the shift in language...so an entire new set of lyrics are used, most often provided by local composers....GLORIA
by Laura Brannigan is a good well known and more modern example...the original lyrics were Italian and very different

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Great information! Thanks!

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Originally Posted by gman

Perhaps this can shed some indirect light...in 1960 Connie Francis who was having massive success in English speaking markets noticed
that English language recordings were with the exception of Elvis
absent from the German top seller lists. Germany was the largest record buying market in Europe. Since she had massive success
and was a the time the top selling female vocalist, her current contract with MGM included her personally deciding what recordings got released, and where. She had her current USA #1 record Everybodys Somebodys Fool quickly translated into German and recorded it phonetically. Polygram, who at the time was MGM's German distributor refused to release the record...When they were made aware that it was up to Connie and she insisted, a compromise was reached
to lop off the entire 1st verse because it didn't make any sense and pronunciation was an issue..The record wen on become the top selling record of the year in Germany....very, very often direct translation cannot be used...the lyrics can't be fit into the musical arrangement due to the shift in language...so an entire new set of lyrics are used, most often provided by local composers....GLORIA
by Laura Brannigan is a good well known and more modern example...the original lyrics were Italian and very different

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Very informative post. Did not know that Connie had that power. Connie had a lot of success with foreign language albums including Jewish and Italian. Thanks for the info

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Originally Posted by marv2

That is Florence, Diane and Mary on this recording LOL! It is so clear.

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Clear to you. And I am such a fan of the group that it should be clear to me too. But I just listened very carefully, and I could not tell. That is why I asked. Thanks for the confirmation that it is indeed all three Supremes on the record.

Thank you...I've been reading for years and that was my first post.
I'm a huge Connie fan...she was a bit before my record buying time..I was born in '59, but had 4 siblings 16-24 years older than me and my parents were fans too..I have I think 72 CF Lps..she released 6 LPS and 8 singles a year from 59-68 I believe...and she is the only other artist [[with more than 10 issued LPS) in my collection other than the Supremes that I have every domestic
release by....despite the fact that she is best/well known for her Italian songs, her success in Germany was greater...with songs by German writters... specifically recorded for release only in Germany there is a 5 CD set of her German recordings...mostly up tempo twist beat or fast Polka style... she remains the best selling female recording artist either German or foreign in Germany. The British
Invasion killed off the careers of pop and early rock an rollers here in the USA but on the continent the Twist died a very slow death and many had hits continue far later in their careers in Europe

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Originally Posted by milven

Very informative post. Did not know that Connie had that power. Connie had a lot of success with foreign language albums including Jewish and Italian. Thanks for the info

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I still love her foreign language recordings. Of course, she recorded most of them in Italian. I think she had 3 Italian language albums and I believe they have all come out on CD. But her German and Spanish albums are good too. And as the earlier poster stated, she also did Jewish Favorites as well as Irish Favorites. She really did a great job on all these recordings, especially as I imagine they were recorded very quickly. I think, like the Supremes, in a given year she released as many as 5 albums.

I'm a child of the fifties and bought all her singles. I regret that I never got to see her live. By the time I started going to concerts, I was deeply in love with everything Motown. But I still love all the music of the fifties, including pre-rock.

I enjoyed reading your post and welcome to the forumn. What took you so long?

Hate to crowd a Motown forum with Connie info, but since recording contracts & expenses are so often discussed here some may find it a fun read..In 1958 after 10 flops and a Mega hit Who's Sorry Now? recorded during her last session, other companies presented larger offers...she resigned with MGM out of gratitude for their dedication to her...but wrangled a deal that included no session costs, freedom to record what and wherever she chose, as often, and none of it had to be released if she wasn't happy with it. She had final authority and relied on both her father and a very savy personal manager for advice....she was only 19 years old

The story line of the song is different because translating songs poetically word-for-word is nearly impossible if you're trying to keep it rhyming. Most popular music that is translated into English, or from English, involves major lyrical changes to keep the rhyme and rhythm pattern.

All of the Supremes' foreign singles were recorded by DMF. I believe Mary has talked about working with the foreign producers on the early singles [[the German singles) and how there was such a language barrier between them and the German producer that Gordy eventually had to take over much of the sessions.

Also see the photo of the Supremes in this photo. This is a picture of the girls with the German producer, working with the girls on the German lyrics.

Attachment 13708

Welcome gman. Great Connie Info. Peggy March also became very big in Germany and moved there!

your explanation was clearer than mine was....thanks...ABBA came to mind for me with the language problem....English was not their first language and they are by far the most successful international act I can think of...I asked a Swedish friend about the way Abba sing certain "S" sounds like the word WAS....we more or less say WAZ and they definitely don't pronounce it like that...he told me there is no Z sound used in Swedish therefore when they say ZOO they say SUE.I guess it was very time consuming to record in foreign languages that you are not fluent in..that's possibly why most English speaking artists gave it only a shot or two [[Beatles, Elvis, Motowners) and that's it...however on the continent many are taught 2-3 languages from an early age and there are a bevy of French Italian and German artists who did record in more than one language very frequently

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Originally Posted by milven

Clear to you. And I am such a fan of the group that it should be clear to me too. But I just listened very carefully, and I could not tell. That is why I asked. Thanks for the confirmation that it is indeed all three Supremes on the record.

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I just know Florence's and Mary's voice very well. I got use to how they sound even before they became nationally famous.

The official American copyrights for foreign language versions often have translators listed. In a number of cases, there is more than one translation, into the same or different languages.

Jonny und Joe is attributed to Kurt Felte.

It seems like Fini Busch and Werner Scharfenberger were the go-to people for German-language versions during the middle of the decade. [[They also produced Jonny und Joe.)

Attachment 13714
Attachment 13715

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Originally Posted by lefty

The official American copyrights for foreign language versions often have translators listed. In a number of cases, there is more than one translation, into the same or different languages.

Jonny und Joe is attributed to Kurt Felte.

It seems like Fini Busch and Werner Scharfenberger were the go-to people for German-language versions during the middle of the decade. [[They also produced Jonny und Joe.)

Attachment 13714
Attachment 13715

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That is great information. Thank you Lefty!

I enjoyed reading that too....thanks for including the Connie piece as well...I remember my Beatle-mania tranced cousin had the German language single She Loves You / I Want To Hold Your Hand. And she was able to sing along perfectly. She was a screaming, hair pulling, out of control "oh my god! the Beatles are on Ed Sullivan!" fan.