Lili Marlene

"Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops. Written in 1915 as a poem, the song was published in 1937 and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 as "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne" ("The Girl under the Lantern"). The song is perhaps best known as performed by Lale Andersen.

In 2005, Bear Family Records released a 7-CD set ''Lili Marleen an allen Fronten'' ("Lili Marleen on all Fronts"), including nearly 200 versions of "Lili Marleen" with a 180-page booklet. ().

Creation

The words were written in 1915 as a poem of three verses by Hans Leip (1893–1983), a school teacher from Hamburg who had been conscripted into the Imperial German Army. Leip reportedly combined the nickname of his friend's girlfriend, Lili, with the name of another friend, Marleen, who was a nurse. The poem was later published in 1937 as "Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht" ("The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch"), with two further verses added.

It was set to music by Norbert Schultze in 1938 and recorded by Lale Andersen for the first time in 1939. In early 1942 she recorded the song in English, the lyrics translated by Norman Baillie-Stewart, a former British army officer working for German propaganda.
Songwriter Tommie Connor also wrote English lyrics with the title "Lily of the Lamplight" in 1944. Another English translation was done by Dr. Theodore Stephanides during World War II and published in his memoir ''Climax in Crete'' in 1946.

Exposure and reception

After the occupation of Belgrade in 1941, Radio Belgrade became the German forces' radio station under the name of ''Soldatensender Belgrad'' (Soldiers' Radio Belgrade), with transmissions heard throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.

While on leave in Vienna, a lieutenant working at the station was asked to collect a pile of second-hand records from the Reich radio station. Among them was "Lili Marleen" sung by Lale Andersen, which up till then had sold around 700 copies. Karl-Heinz Reintgen, the German officer in charge of the station, began playing the song on the air. For lack of other recordings, Radio Belgrade played the song frequently.

The song was published in South Africa, in a wartime leaflet, with an anonymous English translation, as "Lili Marleen: The Theme Song of the Eighth Army and the 6th Armoured Division".

Lale Andersen was awarded a gold disc for over one million sales (HMV - EG 6993). It is thought she was awarded her copy after hostilities ended. HMV's copy was discarded during renovations to their Oxford Street store in the 1960s, but the disc was recovered and is now in a private collection.

Many Allied soldiers made a point of listening to the song at the end of the day. For example, in his memoir ''Eastern Approaches'', Fitzroy Maclean describes the song's effect in early 1942 during the Western Desert Campaign: "Husky, sensuous, nostalgic, sugar-sweet, her voice seemed to reach out to you, as she lingered over the catchy tune, the sickly sentimental words. Belgrade... The continent of Europe seemed a long way away. I wondered when I would see it again and what it would be like by the time we got there."

The next year, parachuted into the Yugoslav guerrilla war, Maclean wrote: "Sometimes at night, before going to sleep, we would turn on our receiving set and listen to Radio Belgrade. For months now, the flower of the Afrika Korps had been languishing behind the barbed wire of Allied prison camps. But still, punctually at ten o'clock, came Lale Andersen singing their special song, with the same unvarying, heart-rending sweetness that we knew so well from the desert. ..Belgrade was still remote. But, now ..it had become our ultimate goal, which Lili Marlene and her nostalgic little tune seemed somehow to symbolise."

In late 1944, the liberation of Belgrade seemed not far away. "Then, at ten o'clock, loud and clear, Radio Belgrade; Lili Marlene, sweet, insidious, melancholy. 'Not much longer now,' we would say, as we switched it off." As the Red Army was advancing on Belgrade, he reflected again on the song. "At Valjevo, as at so many other places ..we would tune our wireless sets in the evening to Radio Belgrade, and night after night, always at the same time, would come, throbbing lingeringly over the ether, the cheap, sugary and almost painfully nostalgic melody, the sex-laden, intimate, heart-rending accents of Lili Marlene. 'Not gone yet,' we would say to each other. 'I wonder if we'll find her when we get there.' Then one evening at the accustomed time there was silence. 'Gone away,' we said."

Allied soldiers in Italy later adapted the tune to their own lyrics, creating the " D-Day Dodgers" song. A cartoon by Bill Mauldin in the American army newspaper '' Stars and Stripes'' shows two soldiers in a foxhole, one playing a harmonica, while the other comments, "The krauts ain't following ya too good on 'Lili Marlene' tonight, Joe. Think somethin' happened to their tenor?"

Marlene Dietrich version

In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Muzak Project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers. Marlene Dietrich, the only performer who was told her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded several songs in German for the project, including "Lili Marleen".

Dietrich also performed "Lili Marlene", as well as many other songs, live in Europe for Allied troops, often on rickety, makeshift stages.

"Lili Marleen" became the theme song on the German language OSS MO radio station ''Soldatensender''. After its warm reception by the troops in Europe, the song was re-recorded and released, with the spelling "Lili Marlene" after her name, ''Marlene'', with Charles Magnante on the accordion, citing him as the "orchestra director" for both it and the single's B-side, "Symphonie", sung in French. The single was released by Decca Records in 1945. The original OSS recording of "Lili Marleen" remains unissued.

In 1961, Dietrich starred in the film ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', a dramatization of the war trials. In one scene she walks down a rubbled street, ravaged by Allied attacks, with Spencer Tracy's character. As they approach a bar they hear men inside singing "Lili Marleen" in German. Dietrich begins to sing along with the song, translating a few lyrics for Tracy, referring to the German lyrics as "much sadder" than the English.

While she was touring the world in live one-woman cabaret shows from 1953 to 1975, the song was part of Dietrich's usual line-up, usually following " Falling in Love Again". She always introduced her signature song with some variation of this quote, from a 1960s concert, somewhere in Europe:

Dietrich sang "Lili Marlene" in her television special ''An Evening with Marlene Dietrich'', which aired on the BBC
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