Horst Jankowski on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Horst Jankowski (30 January 1936 – 29 June 1998)
was a classically trained German
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, most famous for his internationally successful
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
music.
Biography
Born in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Jankowski studied at the
Berlin Music Conservatory
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituen ...
and played
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
in Germany in the 1950s, serving as bandleader for singer
Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931) is a French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer of Italian ethnicity. Valente is a polyglot; she speaks six languages, and sings in eleven. While she is best known as a performer in Europe, Valent ...
.
Jankowski's fame as a composer of easy listening pop peaked in 1965 with his tune "Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt", released in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
as "A Walk in the Black Forest". The tune became a pop hit, reaching #1 on the US
easy listening chart, #12 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100, and #3 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
.
The track was featured on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's review of the 1960s music scene, ''
Pop Go The Sixties'', broadcast on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and
ZDF, on 31 December 1969. It can be heard years before 1965 in episodes of ''
Perry Mason (1957 TV series)''.
''The Genius of Jankowski'' album, released in 1965, was also a million seller.
This track has become a signature song at
Plymouth Argyle F.C.
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
, being played at the end of each game as the fans leave the grounds. The song also featured as a running joke in the episode
Radio Goodies of the 1970s BBC TV series The Goodies, as the only record possessed by the group's radio station.
Jankowski went on to score a string of successful
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...
s, but moved on in the 1970s to concentrate more on jazz, including
covers of pop and rock hits. Between 1989 and 1994 Jankowski composed and performed easy listening music for
Sonoton, Germany.
Jankowski died of
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
in 1998, at the age of 62.
[Thedeadrockstarsclub.com](_blank)
Accessed March 2010
Discography
* ''My Fair Lady Mit Horst Jankowski'' (1964; Mercury Records)
* ''
The Genius of Jankowski!
''The Genius of Jankowski!'' is a studio album released by Horst Jankowski in 1965 on Mercury LP record
The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a spee ...
'' (1964; Mercury Records) US #18
[ Billboard Allmusic.com. ''passim.'']
* ''More Genius of Jankowski'' (1965; Mercury Records) US #65
* ''Still More Genius of Jankowski'' (1966; Mercury Records) US #107
* ''
So What's New?'' (1966; Mercury Records)
* ''And We Got Love'' (1967; Mercury Records)
* ''With Love'' (1967; Mercury Records)
* ''Baby, But Grand'' (1967; Mercury Records)
* ''Piano Affairs'' (1967; Mercury Records)
* ''The Many Moods of Jankowski'' (1968; Mercury Records)
* ''The Horst Jankowski Scene'' (1968; Mercury Records)
* ''Play A Simple Melody'' (1968, Mercury Records)
* ''Jankowski Plays Jankowski'' (1969; Mercury Records)
* ''A Walk in the Evergreens'' (1969; Mercury Records)
* ''Jankowski Meets Beethoven'' (1970; Mercury Records)
* ''Piano on the Rocks'' (1970; Mercury Records)
* ''Jankowskingsize – For Nightpeople Only'' (1970;
MPS)
* ''Jankowskeyboard'' (1970; MPS)
* ''Jerusalem'' (1971; Rediffusion)
* ''Jankowski Plays Latin'' (1971; Columbia Records)
* ''Follow Me'' (1972; Intercord)
* ''International'' (1973; Intercord)
* ''Happy Polka'' (1973; Intercord)
* ''Return to the Black Forest'' (1975; Rediffusion)
* ''Yes Sir, That's My Baby'' (1976; EMI Records)
* ''Happy Blue Piano'' (1982;
Sonoton / Intersound)
* ''The Best of Mr. Black Forest'' (1989;
Sonoton / Intersound)
* ''Piano Interlude'' (1994;
Sonoton / Intersound)
* ''Black Forest Explosion!'' (1997;
Motor Music
Motor Music is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany providing a wide range of music services including music publication, artists management, producing music for films and business and music advertising. Motor Music was founded in ...
)
* ''Eine Schwarzwaldfahrt'' (1998; Mercury Records)
* ''Jankowskinetik'' (2003;
Universal)
* ''Jankowskeynotes'' (2004; Universal)
* ''Remember Mr. Black Forest'' (2015; Memorylane / Intersound)
With
Johnny Hodges
Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on soprano ...
*''
Johnny Hodges and His Strings Play the Prettiest Gershwin'' (Verve, 1958)
See also
*
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart
References
External links
Detailed information on Horst Jankowski*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jankowski, Horst
1936 births
1998 deaths
Musicians from Berlin
German jazz pianists
German jazz composers
Male jazz composers
Easy listening musicians
20th-century pianists
20th-century German composers
Deaths from lung cancer
Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor people
German male pianists
20th-century German male musicians
20th-century jazz composers