Agreed. In Europe, it feels like Nena was so omnipresent for decades and had so many hits.

So much this

There's not many actual true one-hit wonders left. Most of the recent ones actually had other hits as Todd always points out, sometimes at length.

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.

I just love the rhyming of Kriegsminister (minister of war) with Benzinkanister (gas can)

The translation might have changed the story of the song significantly, but there are still some amazing lines in there, yeah!

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.

Captain Kirk: "Red Alert!" (in his head he thinks.... I need to beam down and investigate!)

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.

Perfect timing for her!

i.e. the good version

Did she win?

You asked her out right?

No it doesn't

Where do you work where fire alarm goes off way too often and they're just MOSTLY false alarms?

@@jhutt8002 I was going to ask just that. What is "mostly"? 95% still means the place is on fire quite often!

not always false alarms? sometimes theres actual fires?

@@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.

That line definitely feels reminiscent of World War I like Todd said about the German version. Calls to mind the oft-repeated "powderkeg"

actually a rly cool line but "99 Kriegsminister, Streichholz und Benzimkanister" is so simple yet somehow elegant

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!

ikr.

Also, “This is what we’ve waited for, this is it boys, this is war”. Fabulous lyric

This and the Macarena

Now all I need is a Marcy Playground and Crash Test Dummies episode

Accurate! Especially since I took German in high school and university.

Also still waiting for Stacy's Mom, Teenage Dirtbag, A Thousand Miles, Possum Kingdom, and also bad ones like Headstrong and Ice Ice Baby

As a German person i wasn't even expecting this to be a one hit wonder, as Nena is fairly known in Germany and definitely not a one hit wonder here.

That's how the English version ends, as well.

The German version is generally more on point. I guess that's always the way with translations.

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.

I mean, its her finding the baloon and remiscending and has a tell you a story of old vibe. in a post apocalypse world

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".

Keep in mind: That's the same thing happened with Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" several years earlier.

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.

My mom was a teen around that time and she vastly preferred the German version so I'm not exactly surprised

It's weird, I would have said, "Eww", too. But since I married a woman from the Netherlands, it's growing on me (pun most def intended).

@@PapaVanTwee5 did you know that women, human females, naturally exist with body hair? crazy.

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 love having hairy pits. Men don't care. Only lil immature boys do ;)

Yes, which Todd mentions in the video.

There's no synth pop without Germany, after all.

@@todesziege True. Almost forgot about Kraftwerk!

@@SleepFan771WHO FORGETS ABOUT KRAFTWERK?

German New Wave songs are very memorable

love ur username

...hielten sich für schlaue Leute, witterten schon fette Beute...

god the German version is so good

@@jseipp Amen to that. It's fantastic!

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

Quatre vingts dix neuf ballons

Unless you’re in Switzerland….nonante neuf

​@@n.b.1483 Or Belgium

It was fun to make the connection, many years after french classes, between 80 and the old-timey 'four score.' Four score and 19 more balloons.

@@Jikkuryuu Four score and seven balloons ago...

Sht I did not expect honestly

And there’s Song vs Song, so even more content!

@@beautifulmidnight exactly!

@@beautifulmidnight I really should start listening to that podcast 😅 I think I would probably really enjoy it

Also the silhouette gimmick will keep future generations from questioning "Why is this 80 year old man weighing in on the current state of pop music?"

@@baumhauser lol! It's genius!

That song came out before 99 red balloons.

@@MaLoDe1975 Not the version anyone remembers. That was in the early 2000s.

@@yoursonisold8743 that is your perception. Every club i attend plays the original.

the version with Kim Wilde I like even more than the original. Together with nur getraumt it is my number two

I also know the original only. The one they played in the series Dark

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.

wir sind helden is really good, and clean to listen lol oh and die ärtze are funny

I don't think the part about confidence is as true today, but maybe I'm biased. Many European artists seem to prefer making songs in English, either because it has much more reach or in my case because I like the language better for poetry than I do my native language.

@@randomusername1735 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.

Na klar, dank Jan Delay 😉

Listen... Listen... Gran Turismo. All I have to say.

Luftballons bodies easy

​@@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.

I guess featuring this song in "Dark" also helped with it's popularity.

It always sounds like they are singing "wrap your penis 'round my neck' at the refrein.

@@MisterCasket that's because they actually sing it

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.

7 seconds version is iconic but ur righty Goldfinger's spin on it is better

@@ikesours6558 I saw them preform it live years ago and it was sick as hell

Love that he played a clip of it at the end.

YES I came here to find this. It fucking rips.

Agreed, Just a Dream is fabulous. I love all the slower songs, they had some kind of magic

As a german, Nur geträumt weirdly enough is basically the only Nena song where I prefer the english version over the original

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.

I agree about the German lyrics flowing better; Iregendwie... goes so much harder in German 😂

Reminds me how in the 50s and 60s Nazi-themed erotic literature (known as "stalag") was relatively popular among young adult men in Israel.

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.

There's a video of The Clash covering that song live in Japan with bassist Paul Simonon's then girlfriend Pearl Harbor (I know) on vocals.

Thats easy to explain: Wanda rocks!

On the topic of how Japan handles the bombs, may I remind you of the existence of the Godzilla franchise?

I'm still waiting on Todd to do an OHW on My Friends Over You by New Found Glory as my dumb closseted trans pop punk loving ass waits.

No joke I actually heard this this past Wednesday no less....

And I was wondering if Modern Talking ever had success in the US charts.

​@@freshFerdinand why on earth, pray?😂

@@MrGnuifje I think it would be hilarious if Todd covers them.

Her stance on COVID? 🤷‍♂

Oh my God! There's a German version of that show too? How big Betty is?

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...

@@TheRealNormanBates Sounds like she is a Covid denier.

Omg Liebe ist is a song I discovered while I was trying to learn German and its one of my favorites now!

Only not WW...

Check out Leo Moracchioli channel he does a metal version and there are some good punk versions of it floating as well.

Even when it's sung in German, it just sounded depressing. It made me want to know what were they really singing about.

What is power metal but a triumphant, anthemic backing under seriously bleak lyrics?

Like quite a few Prince songs

@LMN is OP Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?

John said later on how he didn't like the meaning change between the two versions. I get what he's saying.

speaking of good Goldfinger covers of one-hit wonders, their cover of More Today Than Yesterday’s also pretty good, right?

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.

Leo Moraccholi's version is my favorite

The moment I saw this episode was up, I knew exactly what the end credit cover song would be. Didn't dissapoint.

I got bad flashbacks to that Rick Derringer episode.

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

@Hal Emmerich Knowledge Fight has Todd on as a guest.

Right Said Fred were even worse, lucky their episode was before that I guess.

@@TheAlexSchmidt ….well, fuck. Now I have to go look that up. I think Todd’s the reason I found out Hanson were such pieces of shit too.

Yes, I first heard this on Donkey Konga too! Alongside the Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Impression That I Get

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.

I love that people are still drunkly dancing to this at house parties.

Ew European 🤮

I know this song from Gran Turismo 3, as the US soundtrack featured a cover of it.

i've always liked that song more than 99 Luftballons, but that could be because i was born in '93 and heard the newer version first xD

Dark really should've stopped at season 1 IMO, S2 and 3 were not bad, just not as tight as S1.

Dark is an incredible show.

@@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.

@@REDDAWNproject the ending was the best ending to a tv series ever made.

Have you ever heard of Balloon Fest 86?

Don't forget the chinese balloon.

@@artbk I was born in 86, I remember when I first read about Balloon Fest 86. Absolutely wild.

I had forgotten about that one too! In fact, I had forgotten about the Chinese Spy Balloon by the end of the video despite Todd starting out with it!

Something something but it’s weird that it happened twice

Nur Gerrtraumt is probably one of the best love songs ever written. That pure young love is just bliss.

@@sunny1992s Funny I first heard it in 90-something as Blumchen cover version. You know happy hardcore remix.

@@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.

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.

​@@beckigreeninteresting

A group cry is fuckin funny

I always imagined it being the sound of a (perhaps the final of the 99?) balloon going up!

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

Who is Falco?

@@user-hb4zz4gh5e the singer of Rock Me Amadeus. There’s a brief clip of that song towards the beginning of the video.

Well Falco was from Vienna, so he’s probably speaking in its accent

@@user-hb4zz4gh5e There's even an episode about his song "Rock me Amadeus": kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fbemlaafqZiXeWQ.html

And that he named Falco (fron Austria) as hi example of NDW

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.

Strange, I grew up in 90s Australia and I never heard the German version until it was covered by Goldfinger.

2000s Aussie and same, I didn't hear the english version until long after I was familiar with the German version.

@@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)

Ayyy, that was Junji Ito's "The Hanging Balloons" probably :)

​@@UndeadGirlCyber i was just gonna say

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.

@@UndeadGirlCyber of course it's Junji Ito. I don't know who else I was expecting.

"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 or maybe because it just sounded better in its native language

@@KirbyDerbi agreed, she’s a good singer in english, but she sounds way more beautiful in german, and I don’t speak the language

@@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.

Cheers, my 70s fellow

If he does, he has to include the Shatner version too!

​@@TheRealNormanBates and MCR's version.

Common People isn’t a one hit wonder, surely?

​@@TheRealNormanBates The Shatner version is hysterical. He sounds like he's on the the verg of killing the snobby rich girl described in the song.

@@TheBomber15 I know here in the UK definitely not. I guess Common People was the only one Americans know?

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

@mix3k818 did we watch the same video? I'am all for encouraging people but his pronounciation wasnt great IMO.

@@benjaminheering7236 We did. Maybe it's just my German being spotty again, because normally I react badly at improper or exaggerated accents.

german is my native language, and his german is alright! especially since he says he doesnt have a lot of experience with it!

@@Maru-et6of Same, its alright i guess but only if we consider how hard other americans butcher this language.

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.

@@The_Lawnmower_Man That was a one-shot not a career move.

You are pretty much spot on with that comparison.

The main time a covered song in a Weird Al polka sounded like it could have been from an actual polka! Not even "Rock Me Amadeus" went so traditional!

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!

Holy shit!!! This is random. Mike, sheree, do you guys remember the Kennedys?

I'll melt with you

Off the top of my head, add Forever Young and (if you understand Swedish) 800 Grader to the list.

@@JK-gm6kk Your fucking pfp bro