Songoftheday 6/5/13 - Hast Du etwas Zeit fuer mich, Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich..

Nena - "99 Luftballons" 
from the album 99 Luftballons (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the German singer and her namesake band Nena, who had the biggest foreign-language pop hit in quite a while with a little anti-Cold War imagery. Nena (the woman), born Gabriele Kerner in West Germany, formed her band with her boyfriend and a couple other musicians in the early 80s in Berlin. They released their self-titled debut in 1982, and the first single from it, "Nur geträumt" ("Only Dreamed"), was a big hit in their home country, reaching #2.

The followup, inspired by the band attending a Rolling Stones concert with balloons floating to the sky, became a surprise international breakthrough, as the story of an errant kids' toy being mistaken for an incoming attack in her on-edge split country transcended language, as the German version was the one that became a hit in the States (even though my local station would play the English version as well). The music was written by Nena's keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, while the German lyrics were by guitarist Carlos Karges...

"99 Luftballons" became Nena's first and only Hot 100 hit, peaking at the runner-up spot (behind Van Halen's "Jump") in March of 1984. It also managed to edge onto the adult contemporary chart at #42, the dance chart at #22, and the rock radio format chart at #23. An album including part-English/part German songs from her first two German-released albums was released, but a followup single "Just A Dream" missed the big chart at #102 that same year.

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An English version of the song was also released for the album, and that is what ended up topping the charts in England, Canada, and Australia in 1984..

Although Nena's success stopped pretty much after that, in Germany she continued to have a much longer career than most Americans know. With her band Nena proceeded to have five more top-40 hits, and after they split she went solo with lesser success for a while, until a "comeback" in 2002 led her to have a huge international hit in 2002 with "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime" with fellow 80s veteran Kim Wilde ("Kids In America"), along with 3 top-40 remakes of previous hits. One of those was a redo of "99 Luftballons", which returned her to the chart at #28 in 2002...

She tried again in 2009 with more of a rock edge, though it missed the chart that time...

Nena right now is getting her biggest exposure from her stint as a mentor on Germany's version of The Voice, where she's been for the past two seasons, where she's been the runner-up "team" both times...

In 2000, American punk group Goldfinger covered the song...

and proving the song universal, rapper Scarface interpolated it for his "Goin' Down" (NSFW)...

Up tomorrow: A guitar god grabs the keyboard.