"Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops after being regularly broadcast by Soldatensender Belgrad, a German military radio station in occupied Belgrade. Written in 1915 as a poem, it was set to music in 1938 and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 as "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" ("The Girl under the Lantern"). The song is also well known in a version performed by Marlene Dietrich.
In 2005, Bear Family Records released a 7-CD set Lili Marleen an allen Fronten ("Lili Marleen on all Fronts"), including nearly 200 versions of "Lili Marleen" with a 180-page booklet.
Creation
The words were written in 1915 as a poem of three verses by Hans Leip (1893–1983), a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army. Leip reportedly combined the nickname of his friend's girlfriend, Lili, with the name of another friend, Marleen, who was a nurse.Johann Holzem: Lili Marleen und Belgrad 1941. Der lange Weg zum Ruhm, 3. Auflage, 1997, S.9 ff.Ernst Probst, Superfrauen 10 – Musik und Tanz, 2008, S. 28. The poem was later published in 1937 as "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" ("The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch"), with two further verses added.
It was set to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938 and recorded by Lale Andersen for the first time in 1939. In early 1942, she recorded the song in English, the lyrics translated by Norman Baillie-Stewart, a former British army officer working for German propaganda.Christian Peters / Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Lili Marleen, Ein Schlager macht Geschichte, Bonn 2001.
Songwriter Tommie Connor also wrote English lyrics with the title "Lily of the Lamplight" in 1944. Another English translation was done by Theodore Stephanides during World War II and published in his memoir Climax in Crete in 1946.Theodore Stephanides, Climax in Crete, London: Faber and Faber, 1946, pp. 47–48.
Exposure and reception
After the occupation of Belgrade in 1941, Radio Belgrade became the German forces' radio station under the name of Soldatensender Belgrad (Soldiers' Radio Belgrade), with transmissions heard throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.
While on leave in Vienna, a lieutenant working at the station was asked to collect a pile of second-hand records from the Reich radio station. Among them was "Lili Marleen" sung by Lale Andersen, which up till then had sold around 700 copies. Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the German officer in charge of the station, began playing the song on the air. For lack of other recordings, Radio Belgrade played the song frequently.
The song was published in South Africa, in a wartime leaflet, with an anonymous English translation, as "Lili Marleen: The Theme Song of the Eighth Army and the 6th Armoured Division"."Printed: G.P.W. – Directorate of Map Printing, U.D.F., Union of South Africa".
Lale Andersen was awarded a gold disc for over one million sales (His Master's Voice – EG 6993). It is thought she was awarded her copy after hostilities ended. HMV's copy was discarded during renovations to their Oxford Street store in the 1960s, but the disc was recovered and is now in a private collection.
Many Allied soldiers made a point of listening to the song at the end of the day. For example, in his memoir Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean describes the song's effect in early 1942 during the Western Desert Campaign: "Husky, sensuous, nostalgic, sugar-sweet, her voice seemed to reach out to you, as she lingered over the catchy tune, the sickly sentimental words. Belgrade... The continent of Europe seemed a long way away. I wondered when I would see it again and what it would be like by the time we got there."
The next year, parachuted into the Yugoslav guerrilla war and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans, Maclean wrote: "Sometimes at night, before going to sleep, we would turn on our receiving set and listen to Radio Belgrade. For months now, the flower of the Afrika Korps had been languishing behind the barbed wire of Allied prison camps. But still, punctually at ten o'clock, came Lale Andersen singing their special song, with the same unvarying, heart-rending sweetness that we knew so well from the desert. [...] Belgrade was still remote. But, now [...] it had become our ultimate goal, which Lili Marlene and her nostalgic little tune seemed somehow to symbolise."
In late 1944, the liberation of Belgrade seemed not far away. "Then, at ten o'clock, loud and clear, Radio Belgrade; Lili Marlene, sweet, insidious, melancholy. 'Not much longer now,' we would say, as we switched it off." As the Red Army was advancing on Belgrade, he reflected again on the song. "At Valjevo, as at so many other places [...] we would tune our wireless sets in the evening to Radio Belgrade, and night after night, always at the same time, would come, throbbing lingeringly over the ether, the cheap, sugary and almost painfully nostalgic melody, the sex-laden, intimate, heart-rending accents of Lili Marlene. 'Not gone yet,' we would say to each other. 'I wonder if we'll find her when we get there.' Then one evening at the accustomed time there was silence. 'Gone away,' we said."
Allied soldiers in Italy later adapted the tune to their own lyrics, creating the "D-Day Dodgers" song. A cartoon by Bill Mauldin in the American army newspaper Stars and Stripes shows two soldiers in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica, while the other comments, "The krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene' tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?"
Marlene Dietrich version
In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Muzak Project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Marlene Dietrich, the only performer who was told her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded several songs in German for the project, including "Lili Marleen".McIntosh, Elizabeth P. (1998). Sisterhood of spies: the women of the OSS, p. 58. Dell., London. . Dietrich performed it, as well as many other songs, live in Europe for Allied troops, often on rickety, makeshift stages.
"Lili Marleen" became the theme song on the German language OSS MO radio station Soldatensender. After its warm reception by the troops in Europe, the song was re-recorded and released, with the spelling "Lili Marlene" after her name, Marlene, with Charles Magnante on the accordion, as the "orchestra director", with the disk' B-side, as "Symphonie", sung in French. It was released by Decca Records in 1945. The original OSS recording of "Lili Marleen" remained thus unissued.
In 1961, Dietrich starred in the film Judgment at Nuremberg, a dramatization of the war trials. In one scene she walks down a rubbled street, ravaged by Allied attacks, with Spencer Tracy's character. As they approach a bar they hear men inside singing "Lili Marleen" in German. Dietrich begins to sing along with the song, translating a few lyrics for Tracy, referring to the German lyrics as "much sadder" than the English.
While she was touring the world in live one-woman cabaret shows from 1953 to 1975, the song was part of Dietrich's usual line-up, usually following "Falling in Love Again". She always introduced her signature song with some variation of this quote, from a 1960s concert, somewhere in Europe:
Dietrich sang "Lili Marlene" in her television special An Evening with Marlene Dietrich, which aired on the BBC in the UK and on CBS in the US in 1973, and was featured on four of her six original albums. She also recorded and performed it in both the original German version and the English adaptation. Both versions have appeared on many compilation albums worldwide, several of them titled after the song. After 5 shows in Japan, between 15 and 25 December 1974, two singles of the song were released by both EMI and MCA Records in 1975. The MCA Records release (D-1284) peaked #93 in the Oricon charts and spend three weeks there, and sold a total of 8,000 copies, this version has "Falling in Love Again" as a B-side. The EMI release (EMR-10761) peaked #42 in the charts and spend 11 weeks in it, selling a total of 56,000 in the country, this version has "Die Antwort Weiss Ganz Allein Der Wind" (Blowin' In The Wind) as a B-side.
Track listings
English version 10" single Original issuing of the song by Decca Records in the US and Brunswick Records in the UK was on 10-inch. Decca re-issued the single on 7-inch during the 1950s and early 1970s. This is also the version of the single that was reissued by MCA in 1978 and 1980 on 7-inch.
7" Brunswick re-issue Most likely re-issued in the 1970s, it was originally released in the Netherlands on 7-inch by Brunswick Records. This version of the single was re-issued again in the UK in 1989, and in 1992 it was issued in Germany, both by MCA, the 1989 re-issue also having been released by Old Gold Records.
German version 7" EP Philips issue Released in 1959 by Philips Records in association with Columbia Records on 7-inch in the Netherlands, it was intended as an abridged extended play version of an internationally released compilation album of the same name, consisting of songs sung in German by Dietrich.
7" Columbia International issue Released in 1961 by CBS Records on 7-inch in the Netherlands.
7" EMI Italiana issue Released in 1962 by EMI Italiana on 7-inch in Italy.
Personnel List of personnel for the original 1945 single.
Marlene Dietrich – vocalist Charles Magnante – orchestra director, accordion Charles Magnate Orchestral
Connie Francis version
American entertainer Connie Francis recorded "Lili Marlene" on 3 June 1961. She recorded the single's B-side, "Mond von Mexico", on 5 October 1961. Both songs were recorded in Vienna, Austria, at the Austrophon Studio. The single was released in 1962, marking her seventh single in German. Francis also recorded the song in Italian and French. Her version of "Lili Marleen" peaked at number 9 on the German music charts.Richard Weize: Connie Francis, companion book to 8-LP-Boxed Boxed Set Connie Francis in Deutschland, Bear Family Records BFX 15 305, Hambergen/Vollersode (Germany) 1988
Track listing 7" Credits adapted from the liner notes of original release.
Personnel Fini Busch – composer (B) Connie Francis – vocalist Hans Leip – composer (A) Gerhard Mendelsohn – producer Werner Scharfenberger – composer (B) Norbert Schultze – composer (A)
Chart performance Chart (1962)PeakpositionGermany9
Amanda Lear version
French singer Amanda Lear recorded a Eurodisco cover of the song in 1978 and released it as the B-side of the single "Gold" as well as a standalone single. The German-English language version later appeared on her third studio LP Never Trust a Pretty Face. French editions of the album included a German-French version of the track.
Lear performed "Lili Marleen" in the 1978 Italian film Zio Adolfo in arte Führer.
The singer later re-recorded the song for her albums Cadavrexquis (1993) and Heart (2001), the latter version with updated lyrics, written by Norbert Schultze shortly before his passing.
Track listing
Chart performance +Weekly chart performance for "Lili Marleen" Chart (1979) Peakposition Italy (Musica e dischi) 11 France (IFOP) 34
Other versions