Lili Marleen

"Lili Marleen" is a famous German song which became very popular on both sides during World War II.

A Lili Marleen and Lale Andersen memorial in Langeoog

The words were written in 1915 during World War I by Hans Leip (1893-1983), a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army. Leip reportedly combined the names of his girlfriend and another female friend. The poem was later published as "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" ("The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch"). It was set to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938. Tommy Connor later wrote English lyrics.

The song was originally titled "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" (German for "the girl under the lantern"), but it became famous as "Lili Marleen".

Recordings by Lale Andersen in 1939 and Marlene Dietrich helped to raise the song's profile. It achieved popularity despite the opposition of the Nazi regime, in particular Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis' propaganda secretary. Nevertheless, after capturing Belgrade in 1941, Radio Belgrade became the German forces radio station and could be received throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. The station played Andersen's recording every evening at 9:55 PM. Both German and Allied soldiers around the Mediterranean regularly tuned in to hear it, quickly spreading its popularity.

Allied soldiers in Italy later adopted the tune to their own lyrics, creating the D-Day Dodgers song.

The earliest English language recording of the song was probably Anne Shelton's, but a number of cover versions followed.

A recording was made by Perry Como on June 27, 1944 and issued by RCA Victor Records as a 78rpm record (catalog number 20-1592-A) with the flip side "First Class Private Mary Brown," and later reissued as catalog number 20-2824-A with flip side "I Love You Truly." The song reached chart position #13 on the United States charts. The song was recorded during the musicians' strike and consequently has a backing chorus instead of an orchestral backup.

Other artists who covered the song included Hildegarde (on Decca) and Martha Tilton (on Coral). Al Martino revived the song for Capitol Records in 1968

Carly Simon recorded the song as the third track on her 1997 Arista CD Film Noir.

Most recently it was covered by Neil Hannon of the Irish pop group The Divine Comedy as a B-side to the 2006 single "A Lady Of A Certain Age".

The specialty label Bear Family has released a 7-CD box set featuring 195 different versions of the song.

Lili Marlene has been adopted as the regimental slow march by the Special Air Service, Special Air Service Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

References

• Wilson, Patrick Maitland, Where the Nazis Came, ISBN 1-904244-23-8, (2002)

External links

• The Lili Marleen Homepage
• Lili Marleen, sung by Lale Andersen from German History Museum website
• Lili Marleen in "Antiwar Songs" with versions in 18 different languages
• Lyrics of the song as sung by Perry Como in 1944