The Smiley Smile Message Board

was this ever released as a single?....

it's a nice recording.  what is the background on this song?.....

and if it weren't released.... why?

RickB

It was probably recorded to be released in Germany.
The Beatles did the same thing with "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

yeah... I sorta figured that..... except, what happened with 'the boys'' song?

did it make the release?

RickB

The song was finally released in 1983, on the Beach Boys' "Rarities" album.

Brad Elliott's liners:

"It has long been rumored that The Beach Boys recorded several songs in German during the early stage of their career, but Rarities offers the first concrete evidence. The German version of In My Room (Ganz Allein) was recorded in March 1964 as part of a strategy to “break” the group in Europe. However, before the recording could be used, the group saw success overseas with their English language recordings. In My Room, or 'All Alone' as the German literally translates, remained unreleased until now".

This subject has come up before, with the results inconclusive as to why it wasn't released in 1964, especially in Germany.

Back in the early 90's, I had a roommate who grew up in Germany. I played him "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" and "Sie Liebt Dich" (both recorded January, 1964) by the Beatles, then I played "Ganz Allein" by the Beach Boys. He said, no question, the Beatles did the best translation of the German language in their songs.

The Beatles had an actual native German speaker and songwriter translate their songs, though. He also flew in to coach them on the proper phonetics.

I wouldn't be surprised if the German lyrics for Ganz Allein were done by someone at Capitol with an English-to-German dictionary.

Also, the Beatles were no strangers to the German community and language, having played at different clubs in Hamburg from the Summer of 1960 to the end of 1962.

It was eventually released as a single in Germany...in 1990.

http://www.beachboys45.nl/Germany-Capitol-8189.htm (scroll down to the end, the second version was released by the German California Saga fan club).

I've always thought it sounds as if they're singing 'God's a lie'. They're not of course, which is a shame as it's true.

Time for an actual German to chime in... ;D

Whoever translated the song managed to get across the content and meaning of the original lyrics very well. His lyrical style though is pretty ancient. The way he puts the words into phrases reminds me more of 1920s songs or even 1800s classical poetry. Doesn't fit the 1960s at all.

And as the Beach Boys didn't have a longer German stint before as the Beatles had, their pronunciation is very hard to understand, you have to really concentrate to get what they sing. No way that would have been a hit.

no credit was given for the German translator, who - as already said - put the lyrics into a kind of an 18th century idiom, so that it really sounds strange for a native speaker. Literally retranslated it's something like that:

There is a place (es gibt einen Ort)
There I go (da geh' ich hin)
Whisper joy and grief (flüst're Freud und Leid)
All alone (ganz allein)

Lock and bolt (Schloss und Riegel)
lock out (schließen aus)
fear and worries here (Angst und Sorgen hier)
All alone (ganz allein)

dreaming here (träume hier)
making plans (schmiede Pläne)
without praying for sleep (ohne Schlaf zu fleh'n)
By my crying and my sighing (durch mein Weinen und mein Seufzen)
laughing (I) look back (lachend schau zurück)

It is dark (dunkel ist's)
I am alone, but (ich bin allein, doch)
I am not afraid (fürchte ich mich nicht)
all alone (ganz allein)

Hey du "Hundeohr" :), what's your whereabouts?

 ;D

That's something. Thanks for that, Dogear and Micha!  :)

IYO

Thanks!

"Fürchte ich mich nicht" ... four words in a row with the 'ch' sound was perhaps not the wisest choice for non-German singers to sing. :)

Haha, I'll default to you. Glad to have the perspective of a native speaker on here!

Not what I heard in church this morning.

That would be a weird sermon.

Indeed you are right....... never heard it that way til you mentioned it........ almost ruins my like for the song....

Thanks all for the contributing info........ will try and hunt down a 'german' copy of the 45....

anyone got a spare?

RickB

Weird how Land Ahoy is spelled correctly on the picture sleeve but the label on the 45 is spelled Land Ahoi

Not a big fan of the German version....the harmonies are sour in many places, and that "fürchte ich mich nicht" part is, well, not the most pleasant sounding thing on such a tender record.

BTW, that March '64 recording date pretty much destroys my theory that it was an attempt to follow a Beatles trend...given that, at least in the States, "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" wasn't released until May, and "Ganz Allein" was recorded only two weeks after the Beatles tunes were released in Germany; it's unlikely that the Beach Boys would have even known about that.

It's not out of the question that they'd known about that. Odeon, a subsidiary of Capitol EMI, released the double sided German single on March 5. Maybe somebody at the Tower suggested they record it. It was recorded in German, not French or any other language. The Beatles had the idea first and maybe Dick Rising (the Capitol representative over there) or Capitol brass suggested it. Just a thought.

Assume In My Room was the only song they cut in German? Brad implied more but surely they would have surfaced by now if Boyd & Linett Invetigations had turned anything up?

So the project must have been scrapped at an early stage - if a German language release was really intended  they would have needed a B-side.

Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn!

They could have used one of the instrumental tracks off of the first three albums as the B-side.  The precedent had already been set with the "Spirit of America" / "Boogie Woodie" KFWB promotional 45.

Lee

It seems that whenever Brian tried to sing in a different language he never even bothered to get the pronunciation right. Just listen to the "adieu" in 'Surf's Up' and the Spanish words in 'Mexican Girl'.

Not to mention "At My Window".

Whoever wrote down "fuhnetr" for Brian failed to explain what he meant with "uh".

Well, somebody (or somebodies) who spoke German well probably heard the interpretation and suggested to Brian that it wasn't quite good enough for release. Brian probably thought it was too much trouble after all to get it perfect and gave up on it. I admire him giving it a try. For somebody who was doing an entire song which wasn't in their native language, it still sounded pretty good.

Not sure what you meant on your last post, Lee.

He means they could have picked one of the many instrumentals recorded at the time for use as a b-side, had the decided to release it back then. Like "Boogie Woodie" or "The Rocking Surfer".

Correct.  They didn't necessarily need to record two songs in German -- just release an instrumental on the b-side.

Lee

To compete with The Beatles they would have had to.