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"Autobahn" is a 1975 song by German electronic band
Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...
, being the second and lead single from their studio album of the same name. The song was composed by
Ralf Hütter Ralf Hütter (born 20 August 1946) is a German musician and composer best known as the lead singer and keyboardist of Kraftwerk, which he founded with Florian Schneider in 1969. On May 12, 2021, Kraftwerk was announced as one of the inductees of ...
and
Florian Schneider Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 194721 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008. Early li ...
of the band, with
Emil Schult Emil Schult (born 10 October 1946) is a German painter, poet and audio-visual artist. Biography After studying Sinology in Münster, Schult joined the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf in 1969 to study Fine Arts in the printmaking class of Diete ...
collaborating on the lyrics. It is co-produced by
Conny Plank Konrad "Conny" Plank (3 May 1940 – 5 December 1987) was a German record producer and musician. He is known for his innovative work as a sound engineer and producer in Germany's krautrock and kosmische music scene in the 1970s. Plank was invol ...
, and was the band's first track to use sung lyrics. Recorded in 1974, the song is designed to capture the feel of driving on a
motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
. "Autobahn" is Kraftwerk's biggest hit in the US, reaching number 25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.


Composition and lyrics

Unlike Kraftwerk's later work, "Autobahn" was only released with German lyrics, without a simultaneous English-language release. The main refrain "Fahren Fahren Fahren" was often mistaken for the English phrase "Fun Fun Fun" and thought to be a reference to the 1964
Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
' song "
Fun, Fun, Fun "Fun, Fun, Fun" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1964 album '' Shut Down Volume 2''. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, it was released as a single in February, backed with " Why Do Fools Fall in Love". "Fun, Fu ...
" to which band member
Wolfgang Flür Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pa ...
later commented: Ralf Hütter has said that The Beach Boys were an influence on the band, but described the song as a "sound painting", reflecting the band's experiences on tour. The song also included acoustic elements such as a flute played by
Florian Schneider Florian Schneider-Esleben (7 April 194721 April 2020) was a German musician. He is best known as one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk, performing his role with the band until his departure in 2008. Early li ...
and atmospheric guitars. For this song a
Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first pop ...
was used to play the bass line, and an octave riff with added analogue echo. It also was used of a
vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder ...
to process some of the vocals and use of the '
motorik Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for " motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock ba ...
' beat.


Release and reception

The original version of the homonymous album of 1974 lasts 22 minutes, but the song was reduced to 3 minutes in its single version. The song was Kraftwerk's first hit, it reached No. 11 on the British charts where it was later included in the UK compilation LP ''
Exceller 8 ''Exceller 8'' is the title of a 1975 compilation album of music by Kraftwerk. It was released by the Vertigo label in order to capitalize on both the summer chart success of the single "Autobahn" and the imminent release of the next Kraftwerk alb ...
''. The single was also successful in other countries, it reached No. 25 in US
Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online stream ...
and No. 43 in
Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
. It also reached No. 9 in Germany and No. 12 in Canada. A 12 minute animation video of "Autobahn" by
Roger Mainwood Roger Mainwood (born 31 July 1953 in Canterbury, Kent; died 20 September 2018) was a British animator and film director. He is best known for his work on ''Heavy Metal'' (1981), ''The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends'' (1994), ''Stressed Eric' ...
was released in 1979. "Autobahn" is widely considered to be one of Kraftwerk's best songs. In 2020, ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...
'' and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'' ranked the song number six and number five, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Kraftwerk songs.


Charts

Year-end Charts


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Autobahn (Song) Songs about cars Songs about roads 1974 songs 1975 singles Kraftwerk songs Songs written by Florian Schneider Songs written by Ralf Hütter Songs written by Emil Schult Vertigo Records singles Philips Records singles