Ricky Shayne (4 June 1944 – 8 November 2024) was an Egyptian-born pop singer and actor of French and Lebanese descent who was popular in Europe in the

1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the Woodstock, 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong ...

, especially in

Germanophone German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

countries.

Life and career

Shayne was born George Albert Tabett on 4 June 1944 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, to a Lebanese father and a French mother.Ich bin ein Rock'n'Roller: Ricky Shayne gibt Kiosk auf
("I'm a Rock'n'Roller : Ricky Shayne gives up kiosk"),

n-tv n-tv (styled ntv) is a German free-to-air television news channel owned by RTL Deutschland. n-tv broadcasts news and weather every hour and half-hour in the morning. It also broadcasts magazine shows and documentaries. History n-tv began a ...

, 3 November 2010 (in German) Young Tabett moved to Paris when he was 15 years old, with his mother, and took music lessons for two years. He then moved to Italy where, in 1965, under the stage name "Ricky Shayne," he had his first hit with the single "Uno dei Mods" ("One of the Mods"), written by Gianni Meccia and

Franco Migliacci Francesco "Franco" Migliacci (; 28 October 1930 – 15 September 2023) was an Italian lyricist, producer, and actor. Biography Migliacci studied in Florence where his family had settled, here he entered in a competition for young players, in ...

. It was featured in the Italian-German 1966 musical film ' (a.k.a. ''Crazy Baby'') in which Shayne played the role of a "disaffected young man" and sang. The film also featured

Udo Jürgens Jürgen Udo Bockelmann (30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014), generally known as Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, ...

, Joachim Fuchsberger,

Elga Andersen Elga Andersen (née Helga Hymen or Hymmen) (2 February 1935 – 7 December 1994) was a German actress and singer. She starred in more than one dozen French films in the 1950s and 1960s and also debuted as a recording artist in the 1950s. She per ...

, and others, and Shayne moved to (Germany) for the duration of the production. While in Germany, Shayne recorded the single "Ich sprenge alle Ketten" ("I bust all the chains"), composed by then-unknowns

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work ...

and

Michael Holm Michael Holm (born Lothar Walter; on 29 July 1943) is a German singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is primarily known as a singer of Schlager music. Although his first appearance in the hit parade was in 1962 ("Lauter schöne ...

, which became a national hit and made Shayne an idol among young German fans of pop music. Shayne followed this success with the 1967 singles "Das hat die Welt noch nicht gesehn" ("The world has not yet seen that"), "Es wird ein Bettler zum König" ("Beggar becomes king"), and "Ich mache keine Komplimente" ("I make no compliments"). In 1971, Shayne released his German version of the international hit song "

Mamy Blue "Mamy Blue" is a 1970 song by French songwriter Hubert Giraud. Originally written with French lyrics, the song was rendered in English in 1971 to become an international hit for the Pop-Tops, Joël Daydé ( fr) and Roger Whittaker. A hit in It ...

" that was originally composed in French by

Hubert Giraud Hubert Yves Adrian Giraud (3 March 1920 – 16 January 2016) was a French composer and lyricist. Career Giraud began his career playing the harmonica with Django Reinhardt's jazz group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France. In 1941, he was recr ...

, which became his greatest success, peaking at No. 7 in the country's national chart. His English version of "Mamy blue" was a No. 8 hit in France, top ten hits in French Belgium and Japan and No. 1 in Argentina and Brazil. The same year, he starred in the German comedy ''Hurra, wir sind mal wieder Junggesellen!'' ('). Shayne moved to the United States in 1975, occasionally returning to Germany for business ventures and nostalgia concerts. He died in Berlin on 8 November 2024, at the age of 80. His death remained unreported until June 2025.

Discography

Singles

* 1967: "Ich sprenge alle Ketten" * 1967: "Heiss wie ein Vulkan" * 1968: "Du bist zu schön, um allein zu sein" * 1968: "Buona Notte, Maria" * 1969: "Ich mache keine Komplimente"

References

Other sources

* "Ricky Shayne" by Roberto Ruggeri, in G. Castaldo (editor) ''Dizionario della canzone italiana'', Curcio, 1990 (in Italian)

External links

* *
Mods v Rockers: Two tribes go to war
by

Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage, 2 September 1953) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his definitive history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'' (1991). Early life and educati ...