Could a bunch of balloons end humanity? The German band Nena thought so in 1983, and somehow made one of the best songs of the '80s. Support Todd on Patreon! www.patreon.com/toddintheshadows
as a german-adjacent person, it feels absolutely wild to me to call nena a one-hit wonder. they were everywhere for so long and with so many different songs
I'm firmly after her hayday, but even I knew any place anywhere anytime. It might be my own music taste biasing things, but 99 luftballons feels like NENA's Lovefool. (And irgendwie irgendwo irgendwan is favorite game)
The songs Todd covers in this series are from a US-Chart perspective, where Nena only had this one hit. He always says in his videos, that especially the foreign artist he covers often are big names in their home country. Even in this video he talks about Nena's other hits up until 2021. Same with Falco who nobody with German as their mother language would call a one hit wonder but once again only had one smash hit in the US.
When I was in HS, we did talent shows. We had a super cute German exchange student in the ‘83-‘84 schoolyear. So naturally she sang the German version of this song. Everyone went NUTS!
Ngl, being an exchange student that's a minority in the country, it is a total high-class power move to kill it in a talent show in your native language.
Fun fact: The last note of the song is EXACTLY the same sound the fire-alarm at my work makes (which goes off way too often, mostly false alarms). So the song always gives me a small heart attack at the end.
@@balecalduin1993 My guess is big commercial kitchen, either for catering or mass ghost kitchening. If fire alarm was cheaped out on (and you would be surprised how many buy the cheapest one just to pass regulations), it could easily fire alarm on heavier steam/smoke from all the food prep, and you would have mini non-false alarms like someone's sleeve or paper towels or what not catching on fire. Nothing serious, still an actual alarm.
It's quite better in the german original verses..."Heute zieh ich meine Runden - seh die Welt in Trümmern liegen - hab 'n Luftballon gefunden - denk an dich und lasse ihn fliegen" - today I'm doing my rounds/walking around, see the world turned into debris - found 1 balloon - and let it fly..."
I learned just enough German to understand this song, and "neun und neunzig jahre krige liessen keinen platz für sieger" is even better. Worth all those hours of Duolingo just for that line.
I don't care if Nena or anyone doesn't care for English translation, that's fine, but there's no denying "the war machine springs to life, opens up one eager eye" is a lyric that slams so goddamn hard
I was surprised to hear that they didnt directly do the english translation! Those lyrics absolutely SLAP! but in a way that I really feel like whoever wrote them really cared about what they were saying, I just assumed it would still be the band!
The ending of the German version sounds so much more genuine than the English one, likely due to just how much more subtle it is. For context (summarized), she finds one balloon in the rubble, and lets it go, watching as it flies off. I took German all 4 years of high school (I just graduated college in December), and I attended my state German convention in my senior year. We all sang this song VERY loudly. It was chaotic but fun.
In the English version, it's her and her boyfriend letting the balloons fly and causing the mayhem. At the end of the song (after an indefinite time of war, maybe weeks, maybe years), she finds one of her balloons in the rubble. In the German version, it's unclear who let the balloons fly originally. At the point of narration, there was already 99 years of war, and the narrator finds a balloon in the rubble. I always perceived the German version to be much more post-apocalyptic because of the "99 years of war" bit.
The German one gets into more detail about the destruction- it mentions that there's no more fighter planes or defense ministers, and that the world has been destroyed. The English version does mention that she's in dust that is was once a city but doesn't mention that the militaries were destroyed. I prefer the German version too, as I prefer the German version of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom".
What's funny about this song is that when it got a single release in the US, the English version was the A-side and the German version was the B-side. The German version was the one that hit No. 2 on the Hot 100 and topped Cashbox's chart, while the English version didn't chart at all, which means that people were buying the single specifically for the B-side.
Another good example would be Madonna's "Angel", the 12" single went Gold, mostly because "Into The Groove" was the B-side and it was the only way you could get it in the states.
For the life of me, I cannot recall which version they typically played on the pop stations here in my typically suburban market. I know they played both versions on the radio, but seems like they probably favored the English version I literally cannot remember, because aging sucks (but it sure beats the alternative).
NB: Actually what probably mattered more was which version MTV favored, since that's where most of us heard it first. It was def the German version, although they weren't afraid of the English one.
The thing I love about Todd in the shadows is he never stopped giving us the content we love & expect from him. This format literally can give content for years and this channel continues to prove it.
Wait - "Streichholz"? I've always thought it was "streichelten" (because the image of ministers petting their personal gas cans was just bizarrely funny to me) 😂.
@@fermintenava5911 complete different things. A "Streichholz" is a match, "streicheln" means to pet. There is a relation between these two words, they both refer to the movement of the hand
I was a teen when Nena had their big hit, and I can tell you that the armpit issue was just as big in the States, trivial as it was. There was a video and/or an MTV concert where she was in a sleeveless tee, then for a couple of days after, everyone was "Did you see that?! Eeew!" then that was it, no one ever heard from them again.
Back in the seventies when I was a little kid I saw female armpit hair in Nat Geo on a late teen in a beach in Crimea. I learned that most American women except my older hippie cousin were unreal and Soviet teens were the ideal woman. Hey, I was like six. Got plenty of what I wanted in the eighties and nineties because the tradition lived in America. And wanting women how they really are is never a fetish. Wanting how women are not is.
@@Bacopa68 idk I find it gross personally because I found I sweat and smell faster. Plus, it takes less than a minute in the shower. Shaving my legs is more infuriating. Luckily I have blonde hair so it blends in if I go without shaving for a bit, but I spent a summer in Europe in 2005 and don’t remember seeing women with hairy armpits.
I speak near zero french, but the french cover of this fascinates me because of their insane number system. 99 is four twenty 10 nine and the syllables of that insane construct fit perfectly into just saying ballons after that and the number of syllables stays consistent with the german version.
99 Luftballoons is better than 99 Red Balloons, mainly because Nena sounds less confident singing in English than in German (though that's probably the case for almost all non-native English speakers). As you said, a banger of a track from the sweet spot when new wave was mainstream, but hadn't been completely consumed by pop.
@Random Username Some of my favorite songs are from Dutch artists, and they belt that stuff out no problem. Trijntje Oosterhuis's "Wrecks We Adore" album is a treat, teaming with Anouk was a fabulous idea. Anouk as well has great pipes and sings mostly in English. Krystl, Maan, Ilse de Lange, Laura Jansen, Lisa Lois and much more all sing in English, and they belt that shit out, although some have made some Dutch albums as well.
I was totally shocked to discover Tove Lo is Swedish. It seems like there are plenty of European singers who sound totally comfortable and have clean American signing accents.
True, but honestly I’ve always liked her delivery on the English version. It kind of adds to the paranoid energy of the song. 99 Luftballoons still rips tho
@@KeyDash753 Yes, but I'm sure if you heard her singing in Swedish, she'd sound more confident than singing in English. That tends to be noticeable regardless of how fluent an artist is at English.
That's true, and this reminds me of song "Acidland" by Polish band Myslovitz, this song also has English version, but personally I really, really prefer original, because I feel like there's zero emotions in vocal on English version, performance on the original version is just better, both versions are sang correctly, in tune, English translation is good, doesn't drift from the original that much, unlike for example English versions of Lady Pank songs, rest of the track is same in both version, it's just the vocal performance that makes one version better than another. This is also worth to remember when being a producer, performance can make so much different and it's important that musicians make the best out of their performance.
Oh. My. God. I randomly heard this song at the start of the week and thought, "I wish Todd would cover it in his one hit wonder series". This is honestly the best end-of-week surprise.
I love it when you have a song with dark, serious lyrics and a happy, upbeat melody, but Nena's '99 Luft Ballons' was destined to be misunderstood because of that hook, and especially because it wasn't (originally) in English.
"Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgenwann" is honestly Nena's second best song and it's strange to me that it happened decades after their original big hit. And yeah... she's been pretty crazy lately.
Great song. In Germany, Nena was always considered one of the biggest pop stars ever as far as I can remember. The German lyrics definitely flow much better, the same is true for "Irgendwo/Irgendwie/Irgendwann", where I prefer the original to the modern (slower) performance with Kim Wilde. Nur Geträumt/Just a Dream works in both languages, imo (and is my personal favorite Nena song).
I bought her English album in 83, and it had 5 German songs on one side and 5 English on the other, and every one of them was a banger. Of course I didn’t know it was basically a greatest hits album at the time until I just watched this vid.
I was introduced to "Irgendwo/Irgendwie/Irgendwann" with the modern version, and it's the only reason I know it means "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime". I do like the synth opening of the new one more, and hearing both 80s icons sing it in their own language just pops with me.
This song has always seemed so metal to me, its the juxtaposition of the hopelessly dark & depressing imagery with such a catchy beautiful pop song is what makes it even more dark. Adore this one. Highly recommend everyone to listen to the 2009 remake, its harder
I remember watching a Goldfinger covid isolated livestream in 2020 and they played it. I never forgot how much I loved that cover but that performance was pretty special all these years later.
I love it when music from other countries makes it to the US and opens doors to other languages, cultures and styles of music. This song is an enduring example of that. It’s one of the things that spurred my interest in learning Deutsch.
When I was learning German in college, I was listening to this song for inspiration. That is also when I discovered she has other kickass hit songs like Leuchtturm, Kino, Fragezeichen, etc. In the context of the USA, it kinda makes sense to call her a 1-hit-wonder. In in the context of at least the German-speaking world, I don’t think you can really call her a one-hit-wonder.
As a bona fide younger generation whose parents had little interest in music, this is one of the relatively small number of songs covered on One Hit Wonderland that I have a lot of nostalgia for, as it was in the PAL versions of Donkey Konga. Besides that, this song still comes on at house parties I've been to full of teens and early 20 year olds. An absolute banger that'll last forever!
This song has had a lot of staying power to be honest. If you listen to any station that plays 80's music, there is a 90% chance it's going to come up.
As a German, there is an argument to be made that in recent years Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann has somewhat surpassed 99 Luftballons if not in icon status, then in popularity. It's easily one of the best German language pop songs ever written. Loved this video!
@@LithFox Yay, someone else remembers this song from Gran Turismo! I just wrote my main comment about that being where I discovered 99 Red Balloons, lol.
Being a German kid from the 90s this song was a huge part of my childhood and karaoke. Her comeback song "Liebe ist..." was the intro song to the German Betty Telenovela version. Her stance on COVID hurts the child in my heart, especially since she used to be one of the more down to earth celebs we have in Germany. Thanks for doing this video ❤
Ich will nicht arschig klingen, also verzeih mir bitte falls ich das tu: Aber vielleicht akzeptierst du einfach dass auch Promis andere/dumme Meinungen haben können. Ich stimme dem auch nicht zu, verstehe aber dieses Dämonisieren nicht. Dann denkt sie halt so...
My favorite fun fact about this song is the music video was filmed on an actual military base and the explosions were real, which terrified Nena and the other band members so much they had a group cry after filming wrapped
Not exactly. The promotional video, which was originally made for the Dutch music programme TopPop and broadcast on 13 March 1983, was shot in a Dutch military training camp, the band performing the song on a stage in front of a backdrop of fires and explosions provided by the Dutch Army. Towards the end of the video, the band are seen taking cover and abandoning the stage, which was unplanned and genuine since they believed the explosive blasts were getting out of control.
Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann has had a big revival as an iconic song in Germany. It was used alot in the German Netflix series Dark - which despite its English name is an extremely German show with tons of depressive deterministic philosophy. It's really brilliant, yet quite annoying. Almost like contemporary Germany itself.
@@warxdrum I was born in 1980, and Irgendwo, Irgendwie, Irgendwann is my favorite song of hers. "99 Lufballons" always felt a bit...okay, you hear it once, you get the point, and you're good.
Always preferred the German version despite my ineffective four years of German classes. I’m surprised how catchy their other stuff was. And how good Gabriele still looks 40 years later. Hopefully they still make money from “99 Luftballons”.
Goldfinger's pop punk cover of this song is immaculate, especially the third verse when they belt out the original German lyrics. Highly recommended. EDIT: Todd uses this version in the vid's outro. Real recognizes real.
Nena's version will always be the best, but there is something about Goldfinger's version that speaks to my eternal teenage pop punk soul. Truly one of the greatest covers of all time.
Glad you mentioned the "went a little crazy" because that SURE happened. She did some genuine covid denial on stage during the heights of when that was a bad idea until security had her shut down, and all we can tell is that she uh... just had better "DO NOT POST THAT" people than SOME other public figures.
I wanna hear her and Rick Derringer scream about how horse dewormer paste is all you need to the man who eats Rolexes and drinks the tears of the parents of the victims of school shootings Because then at least reality would fold upon itself
In this great review, you didn't once mention the real glue that kept this song stuck to us - that mysterious rising tone at the very end. It played you out of the song like you'd been on a spiritual journey. If the boogie didn't make a big enough impression, that final touch ensured the song would be remembered when it was over.
I was born in the early nineties in Germany and this Song was still absolutely inescapable. I know the lyrics by heart, just from hearing it on the radio or even at clubnights. A lot of other Nena Songs like "nur geträumt" (which you also mentioned) had really long staying power aswell. Nena is a househould Name even in my Generation.
Another song for the "How the heck could this get popular in Japan??"-category is "Fujiyama Mama" by Wanda Jackson. A song talking about how Wanda is a sexually charged atom bomb that can blow you away like they did with Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It was the first Rock'n'Roll Hit to top the charts in Japan. It was #1 for 6 MONTHS. Not even a Generation after the Bomb dropped. Wild.
I can't tell whether the Japanese have a strange sense of humor or are just so incredibly flattered by other countries acknowledging them that they embrace anything and everything that mentions Japan or Japanese culture.
The 2000’s have been good to her. She is extremely popular in her native Germany to this day with sold out biannual tours. Still very entertaining, Todd! Good job with the history…I lived there in West Berlin from 81-85 freshman thru Senior year. My father was US Air Force there. I remember that Stones concert as well.
I was born in the US but my family emigrated to Germany when I was two years old. Nena's self-titled debut album at the time was actually given by the state to every immigrant in Germany to help them learn the language. "Nur geträumt" then was my favorite song when I was four years old. The nostalgia...
@@sunny1992s absolutely. Sounds utterly ridiculous 40 years later, but this at the time at least for my parents actually did lift some bad stereotypes about Germans and their language. For many decades, Hollywood and others hadn't done the greatest job portraying the country as a whole unfurtunately.
I'm so glad you explained the different stories in the English vs German versions! I only knew the German version until recently, and was so confused by the lyrics telling a different story.
I grew up in Australia and I always assumed that the the English version a hit in the USA like Australia, and didn't know the German version existed until Goldfinger's cover.
The songs "Major Tom" and "Völlig Losgelöst" by Peter Schilling is the same way - subtly but importantly different, not just translation. I love that about both these songs
Your pronunciation of German words is surprisingly good! And by the way, even though we tend to take English versions, most of Europe listens to the German original version.
I’m Canadian but I’ve always preferred the German version. Probably because I never needed to understand the lyrics to enjoy it. Plus I think the singer sounds better singing in German
I love this video so much. As an Austrian that's really into all this around 80s music stuff, i am really happy that there're people like Todd talking about this era. I appreciate the mentions of Falco, Christiane F. Berlin and NDW! Great.
I swear, the Goldfinger version, if you write it down in musical notation, is actually slightly different. Nene, the version is "start->up, start->up" and the Goldfinger is "start->up, start->down" or something.
I was thinking the ending credits would be either Goldfinger or 7 Seconds. And because I'm not sure Todd knows the existance of the latter, I put my eggs in the Goldfinger basket.
I was stationed in Germany during the 80's. I liked several of her hits. I bought the English lp. She didn't want to sing in English. The Beatles didn't want to sing in German. Just things the record companies pushed. Nena was quite happy to stay in Germany. I went and saw her in concert in Stuttgart. The band was very good. The crowd was very young. I didn't see any other Americans there besides me. Not every band cares if they make it in the US. UK has plenty of bands who never cared either.
This may be the best episode of OHW ever. I lived in Germany for about 10 years. Her songs were still on German radio when I moved back to the US in 2016. I moved back so I don't know how her views on Covid have impacted her career. But it's hard for me to imagine her ever losing popularity there. They love her more than they love The Hoff.
I was hoping you'd talk about the differences between the original version and the English version! That kind of shit makes me happy. Also, this song is exactly 40yrs old this month, so doing this episode is timelier than you probably expected.
i'm actually proud of folks in the US for going for the German version over the English one, and perhaps there's not a lot to be proud of us for, but I'll take this. And much appreciation for your deep dive here. This is a perfect song; always awakening the intelligence on several levels and so much fun.
"there's not a lot to be proud of us for" America. There's not a lot for Aerica to be proud of. America. 🤷️ And this from a guy for whom the bar is so low that you're proud we listened to a foreign language song. You CAN be proud of that trivial, virtually meaningless fact, but you CAN'T think of many other things for the United States to be proud of?🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂ Landing on the moon. Most money spent on humanitarian aid of ANY nation's government in the world. Most money spent on humanitarian aid by the private sector of any nation in the world. Producer of countless numbers of the finest scientists AND artists in history. Home to many of the finest universities in the world. But FU@K all that! We listened to a foreign language song that one time. I have sincerely never read anything so utterly nonsensical in YT comments. Ever.
Sure, but it's true that the reason Americans could listen to the German version is that we would never tolerate the politics of the English version. At the time, I heard the song quite often but had only the vaguest idea what it was about.
@@colonelweird They seem to do fine with Springsteen, who sings about politics on about the same level. I think her English is pretty incomprehensible anyway.
Todd's channel is a such a great resource for musicheads. I've gotten into the Carpenters, Klaatu, and now this band because of these videos. They're just the best.
That's one of the reasons I love this channel. He introduces you to songs, even entire artists, which you end up absolutely loving, whether or not they're a part of the main event!
As soon as I realised that the North American balloon events were eerily reminiscent of this song, I thought "Todd has to cover this on OHW". Todd, you did not disappoint.
great video Todd! I'm a long time Nena fan, and I have the group's first four German CDs, a greatest hits collection, and some of Nena's solo stuff all on CD. Love that you got the pronunciation of her name right. I hear so many people say "knee-nuh", but since her nickname is Spanish for "little girl", it's not pronounced that way. In 2016 Nena did a 3-show "tour" in the US called "99 Luftballons Across America", playing in NYC, San Fran, and Los Angeles. I was able to get a ticket for the NYC show, she was great!
I listened to this pretty much nonstop growing up. My dad was stationed on a missile site in West Germany when it came out and he basically made it his personal anthem to be played in between ABBA songs
I had heard the song on the radio when I was a child, but when I first really listened to it, it was in German class in 8th grade. The first few seconds with that omnious dark tone definitively makes it seem like everything is lost and there’s no hope for the world. The up-beat melody that comes after just seems ironic or mocking.
I think this song is very fitting of the 80s. It really encapsulates the fears of young Germans at the time. Germans knew that if a war broke out Germany was ground zero.
I had a phase where I was really into european pop music and would listen to a lot of italian, french and German music. Nena was one of favorite artist out of Germany. It's so awesome to see you cover her music.
Finally, after more than 10 years of watching Todd we made it to Nena. Us Germans salute you Todd, thank you for your service preserving our one hit wonder history.
I was 13 in 1984 when this was massive in Australia. Fortunately we had the German version and I didn't hear the English version until some years later. The English version never sounded quite right to me. If we were well behaved in my year 8 German class our teacher, Frau Murray, would play the song for us. And man, what a crush I had on Nena... the hairy armpit thing was never really noticed here. It's still an absolute banger of a tune
@@richardfan7157 I don't really recall hearing it much through the 90s. I'm talking about the early 80s when it was on high rotation on Top 40 radio (6PM was the station in Perth)
I remember first hearing the German version in early post-soviet Moscow on a mixtape that you had to buy illegally from weird people camping in a railway station. What a breath of fresh air. Hope one day you'll make a "Common People" by Pulp episode
My dad is a second generation immigrant, with both of his parents being from Germany and Austria respectively. In addition, he was in highschool in 1983, so right at the demographic for loving rock. This song is kinda special to me because it connects my german roots with music I love too. Thanks for doing this video!
Of artists that had German-language hits in the US covered on OHW (so that would be Nena and Falco), Nena were definitely the ones who deserved to have a second hit, yet it was Falco who got the second hit in "Vienna Calling", a song which I only knew of from a youth spent with the TV constantly on VH1 Classic.
This is a good one. I remember how well it captured the tensions of the era. I do remember by the 80s there was popular knowledge of a couple incidents with advance detection systems in North American giving alerts for migrating geese as Soviet bombers and phenomena like meteor showers as ballistic missile launches.
This song has been present at so many notable moments in my life. The Soundtrack of Mr. Nobody, Driving home from security work at 5 am & hearing the German version on the local radio station in the middle of Canada, exploring Australia & meeting Germans at the hostel down the street that I convinced to perform the song at karaoke that night. So many cherished memories. This song goes hard & absolutely rules
This just made me realized “Racing into the night” by Yoasobi is the modern 99 Red balloons. It’s a catchy pop tune that everyone dances too until someone translates it, then the band releases an English cover but it’s not as subtle as the original language version.
I literally had no idea what this song was about till now. Kind of amazing someone could come up with this concept just from seeing some balloons at a concert.
I love the section of Weird Al's "Hooked on Polkas" polka medley where he goes into 99 Luftballons. That's what lead me to learn all about this beautiful, upbeat, sad, depressing song.
I saw a Japanese horror manga that involve red balloons twisting themselves around people's necks and taking them into the air and killing them. This song could be playing in the background🎈🎈🎈
I love Junji Ito's work. He is one of the few writers who can actually scare me through pages. He perfectly captures a feeling of absolute helplessness that really works for me.
Timely video as Nena just celebrated a birthday last Friday (24 March)! I lucked out and got to see her perform back in 2002 when I was doing a semester abroad in Berlin. Her live shows are super energetic and you can just tell she's having a blast on stage. Thank you for including "99 Luftballoons" in this series, Todd.
Great episode as always. Funny you briefly insert Falco here: while Nena barely missed #1 with their hit, Falco would soon after land the only Hot 100 #1 song sung primarily in German.
When that Chinese spy balloon was shot down, I was really hoping that it was red just so we could get memes of it going down while this song was playing in the background.
Deutsch ist verdammt schwer, so don't worry about it. German is probably not well-suited for a school setting hyperfocused on testing anyway. You could be perfectly comprehensible to any German out there, but if you just can't memorise the damn gendered articles or all the irregular verbs, you get a D.
I'm a person who was a 13 and living in the UK when this song came out. I knew the English version and then moved to the USA in 1984 and they were playing the German version . With your analysis giving the closer translation and a proper context , I realize, I had no clue as to what the song was really about ! Great video !
Before watching this let me make one thing clear. Nena is not a OHW. She's a german pop icon. She's been in the business for years and is one of the most recognizable pop artists in german history. She's even in our The Voice assamble!
yeah well Europe thinks Rage Against the Machine is a one hit wonder despite being one of the most influential rock bands of the 90s. So we'll call it even.
Pity you only focused on Nena and not on the rest of the band. Carlo Karges wrote the lyrics and Uwe Fahrenkrog-Peterson (the keyboarder) was the composer. He's actually the one who wrote all of Nena's hits. He had a decently successful career both in the US, Japan, and in Germany after the band split. He wrote a song for N'SYNC, several movies, produced Kim Wilde's album and lots more. Although his brother Lutz was even more successful as a producer.
This came out when I was in elementary school, and pretty randomly I had a class where a couple of students from the local college were teaching us some German. Yes, we did sit around and translate this song. 3rd grade IIRC. In retrospect, that was damn cool. Oh, an Nena was my first celebrity crush... Because of course. I still have an abiding love for happy sounding songs about the end of the world. There are a lot of them out there.
I'll always remember when I was at a party with a friend of mine from Austria and they started playing the English version of this song. She'd only ever heard the German version before and she was horrified!
Todd missed one interesting fact: Carlo Karges had been in the very serious Prog Rock band NOVALIS prior to joining Nena. That would be like someone from Yes or Pink Floyd or Genesis suddenly joining Blondie. Weird career move, but it worked.
It's worth noting that King Crimson's founding guitarist, Robert Fripp, did some session work for Blondie (among other late-'70s & early-'80s acts). One other similar example would be Stewart Copeland having been a member of Curved Air for a few years in the mid-'70s.
This classic came out when I was in high school, the same year high school students across the country were assigned to watch The Day After and discuss it in class. EVERYONE knew exactly what 99 Luftballoons was about, and it was everywhere. The German version was by far the most played - I don't remember the English lyrics but I can still sing along with the German. Great song.
I spent 18 minutes wondering where the hell I had heard the name Nena (I heard the song, but never bothered to check who made it), and then you talked about "Liebe ist" and I remembered. Thank you, B1 German book for talking about Nena and "Liebe ist"!
Man, I always forget how much I love this song until I hear it again. Thanks for such a rad episode. Clearly, I'll have to listen to more Nena, the rest of their discography slaps.
A lot of great songs from that era were about nuclear annihilation. I’ll Melt With You, 99 Luft Balloons, The Walls Came Down. At the same time, it was a great time to be a teenager.
If you want a modern twist, The Decembrist's have one called "Calamity Song." Darlingside also has a whole album called "Extralife" on the subject... Indie-folk stuff, but I love it!
