US-Mudcatters:need some help-Walk in Black Forest

Subject: RE: US-Mudcatters: need some help
From: Leadbelly
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 02:51 PM

Peace - Many thanks, but I recognized these mentions concerning british pirate DJ's playing AWITBF. Might have been helpful for this tune, but I'm not quite sure whether this took place before or after its success in UK.
Manfred

Subject: RE: US-Mudcatters: need some help
From: Peace
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 02:26 PM

Related, but not what you are looking for. Worth a read and maybe an e-mail.

About 60% of the way dowbn the page. Title is Help.

Subject: US-Mudcatters: need some help
From: Leadbelly
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 01:43 PM

Hi there,
it is a very special request for which I need some help. But before asking my question please read what is taken directly from an interview which Horst Jankowski gave to WDR, a radio station in Germany. Notes are made be myself.

" I had originally written that tune (note:A Walk in the Black Forest) as "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt" in 1961 for a radio show. It was a travel programme and I recorded a couple of tracks about famous places like, Paris, the Alps and that kind of thing. "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt" was about a beautiful trip through Germany's Black Forest. It became successful in America first, in 1964 (note: wasn't this in 1965?), three years after I had recorded it. The whole story is a very unfortunate part of my career. In the sixties American producers were coming to Europe to buy music for TV shows."

"This was much cheaper for them than producing it at home since here they didn't have to pay musicians and the union. I sold them four tracks from the radio programme, including "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt" and they paid me 125, - Deutschmarks, which seemed OK at the time. I signed a piece of paper and started work on something else. We musicians were pretty stupid back then. Not long after that, my song was used in an American TV show, and became a huge hit there under the title " A Walk in the Black Forest". It was only then that I realised what exactly I had signed. I wouldn't get any royalties, all rights were owned by an American company. It took me seven years, several lawyers, and lots of money to get the rights back. After seven years, of course, the song was no longer a hit and didn't even make back the money I had spent on the lawsuit. Although I went on to sell lots of albums, I didn't make a penny from "Black Forest!"

Thanks for reading this interview! My special request refers to Horst's statement " my song was used in an American TV show " !!!

Who knows which American TV show (in 1964 or 1965) was meant??

Many thanks in advance,

Manfred