Versions in German and Dutch
The tune was adopted twice for German songs. Both songs deal with trains, and both songs start with (different) translations of "pardon me".
The first was created and performed in 1947 by the German pop singer Bully Buhlan (Zug nach Kötzschenbroda). The lyrics are humorously describing the bother of a train ride out of post-war Berlin: no guarantee to arrive at destination due to coal shortage, passengers traveling on coach buffers, steps and roofs, never-ending trip interruptions including a night stop for delousing.
The second, Sonderzug nach Pankow, created by the German rock musician Udo Lindenberg in 1983 became very popular and had various political implications. Lindenberg was a West German singer and songwriter with a suitable fan community in East Germany. He had applied for years to tour the GDR but was rejected several times. The 1983 cover version of Chattanooga Choo Choo was directly asking the GDR's Chairman of the Council of State Erich Honecker for permission to hold a concert in the Palace of the Republic (Berlin). The song was released on February 2, 1983 and was repeatedly featured in the West as well in the East. The song itself and the Glenn Miller original were temporarily interdicted in the GDR. Just playing the first keys could cost someone a job. Nevertheless Lindenberg finally succeeded in getting an invitation to the GDR rock festival Rock for Peace on October 25, 1983. Honecker, a former brass band drummer of Rotfrontkämpferbund and Lindenberg exchanged presents in form of a leather jacket and a metal shawm in 1987. Lindenberg's success at passing the Inner German border peacefully with a humorous song gave him celebrity status as well as a positive political acknowledgement in both West and East Germany.
Lindenberg's version was adapted by Dutch singer Willem Duyn as De Eerste Trein Naar Zandvoort ("First train to Zandvoort") chronicling chaos and mayhem on the first seaside train (which he chooses to miss). It was a hit in the summer of 1983. Barry Manilow performed the song "Singin With The Big Bands" with Chattanooga Choo Choo's tune in 1994.
Read more about this topic: Chattanooga Choo Choo
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