(despite the frequent Doug Moody comparisons, we should stress that Hitler did not own a copy of the above recording. We think.)
From the Independent’s Allan Hall :
Relatives of a Russian officer who looted Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s Berlin bunker in 1945 have unearthed the Führer’s personal record collection among his belongings.
What they found does not make sweet music to those who still worship the racial quackery of mankind’s greatest tormentor. For amid the Wagner and the Beethoven, were works by Jewish and Russian composers – Hitler’s greatest enemies – including Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Borodin.
Throughout the 12-year lifespan of the Third Reich, Hitler forbade his followers to listen to anything other than German composers. Even jazz was banned as “negro swamp music” and orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic were forbidden from playing anything other than Teutonic classics. The rest Hitler labelled “sub-human music”
Now the pillaged recordings, taken by a Red Army officer, Besymenski, after Berlin fell in May 1945, show that Hitler was a hypocrite as well as a monster.
Besymenski, himself a Jew, was fluent in German and conducted the interrogation of Field Marshal von Paulus after the Sixth Army was destroyed at Stalingrad in 1943. When Berlin fell, the Russian officer was despatched with others to make an inventory of artefacts in the bunker and Hitler’s destroyed Reichschancellery above it.
Nothing against Borodin (or Besymenski), but if Hitler’s bunker had been invaded and occupied by the Count Basie Orchestra instead of the Red Army this might be a very different list.
Also, I remember that 7″ as having a white cover. “Teenage S&M” was the better song.
The back cover is mostly white, I’m sure it’s worth a mint today. I thought both songs were crap. Memorable somehow.