Drafi Deutscher

Drafi Franz Richard Deutscher (9 May 1946 – 9 June 2006) Between 1964 and 1966, Deutscher had a string of hits in Germany, for example “Shake Hands” (1964 No. 1), “Keep Smiling” (1964 No. 7), “Cinderella Baby” (1965 No. 3), “Heute male ich dein Bild, Cindy-Lou” (1965 No. 1). 1965–1967: Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht and career peak His best known song is the 1965 Schlager “Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht” (lit. “Marble, Stone and Iron Break”), Nineteen-year-old Deutscher had ad-libbed the tune during an October 1965 audition at Musikverlag Edition Intro Gebrüder Meisel GmbH by humming the melody and only singing the characteristic chorus line of “Dum-Dum, Dum-dum”; asked by present songwriter Christian Bruhn what he intended to do with it to turn it into a complete song, he replied, “Det machst du! (“That’s done by you!”), so songwriter Günter Loose subsequently wrote the German lyrics to the melody. In the US, the song was released in 1966 under the title “Marble Breaks and Iron Bends” with English lyrics sung by Deutscher. This English version entered the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1966, peaking at No. 80, and sparking a number of English cover versions by contemporary acts such as