Beat mit Tempo, Vol. 2 [Digipak]

by Various Artists

1-CD Digipak with 44-page booklet, 33 tracks. Most of the musicians copying beat music for the Munich company remained nameless, working under pseudonyms. Although the Blue Cats, the Venture Five, the Gamblers, the High Tops, or the Four Kings bore English names, they most likely had never been to England or America. In most cases you could easily detect their German accent. It may well be, though, that one or another Englishman played in the Beat Kings. At least we know something about Jimmy Field's bio: the singer, real name Claus Herwig, later changed his name from Jimmy Fields to Teddy Parker (see also Bear Family CD 'Nachtexpress nach St. Tropez', BCD 15965). While studying law he won an amateur vocal contest and signed a contract with TEMPO RECORDS. He received his stage name, Teddy Parker, from Telefunken in 1962, a pseudonym he's using until today. It is interesting to learn that the man behind the Tempo productions, Christian Bruhn, later became one of the leading managers in Germany's Schlager scene. Under his pseudonym, Teddy Todd, Bruhn worked as a bandleader for TEMPO. In 1957, he started his career at Tempo as an assistant recording engineer. Later he became a music producer. And he also wrote several songs. Apart from that, songs originally recorded by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Spencer Davis Group, and actually almost everything popular during the mid-sixties, was covered in Munich - even American hit records were sold under the 'Beat' moniker at Tempo. The results, although not of consistent quality, deserve to be heard.