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Vol. 9: Traces Of Love

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  1. Traces
  2. Games People Play
  3. Only A Fool (Would Lose You) (Album Version)
  4. The Way It Used To Be
  5. Love Me Happy
  6. I´ve Gotta Be Me
  7. Here´s My Life (Here´s My Love)
  8. I Love You How You Love Me
  9. Send Me Home
  10. Are We Becoming Strangers
  11. You´re Worth It All
  12. Time
About this album: 

2/8/2010 - Nils Folke Persson posted to a music group that the songs "Are We Becoming Strangers" and "Love Me Happy" are switched on both the original Lp and on this CD reissue (as well as on the Taragon CD reissue).

Compact Disc availability: 

Polydor 513 243-2 (deleted)

Liner Notes: 

The “BERT KAEMPFERT COLLECTION”

During 25 years of cooperation with POLYDOR, Bert Kaempfert arranged, composed and produced a countless number of songs. From 1961 until shortly before his death in 1980, close to 40 LP productions with and by Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra were released in Germany alone under the Polydor label.

These albums contain more than 460 productions of his own beautiful compositions together with evergreens and world standards.

Polydor considers it a duty to re-release the more popular albums with the original track listing – and in the approximate sequence – on the 10th anniversary of the death of this exceptional composer and bandleader. At the same time, the facilities of the modern CD-technique are of benefit to reproduce the original recordings.

TRACES OF LOVE

“TRACES OF LOVE” was released in Germany in 1969. Bert Kaempfert was now the most successful international German composer and his orchestra belonged to one of the world’s favourites.

In this same year Engelbert picked “SPANISH EYES” to form part of his repertoire and Herb Alpert selected the Kaempfert composition “THE MALTESE MELODY” for his “Tijuana Brass.” Caterina Valente appeared on TV shows and on stage with medleys of the innumerable Kaempfert hits, and finally that great American singer Johnny Mathis chose Bert Kaempfert songs and made them into something special, his own. In order to equal the excellent quality reproduced on the original recordings, he even went with Bert Kaempfert and Herbert Rehbein to the Studio in Hamburg. Bert Kaempfert’s drummer Rolf Ahrens recalls: “During the recording session, instead of going for normal playbacks, Johnny Mathis chose to sing live, along with the orchestra. The production only took two days and the result was one of the most sensitive interpretations ever, which was called simply, ‘Johnny Mathis sings the music of Bert Kaempfert.’”

The album “TRACES OF LOVE” is just as much of a treat. Bert Kaempfert’s arrangements are first class, and one doesn’t have to be a snob to appreciate the finder nuances and subtle nature of their music. Numbers full of feeling and melodic compositions like “ONLY A FOOL (Would Lose You),” “HERE’S MY LIFE (Here’s My Love),” “SEND ME HOME,” “LOVE ME HAPPY,” “YOU’RE WORTH IT ALL” or “TIME,” never fail to fascinate. And the soaring, swinging “ARE WE BECOMING STRANGERS” is just as typical Bert Kaempfert.

Again and again, as the Rolling Stones and The Beatles were topping the charts, one found their names alongside that of Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra. Shortly after its release “TRACES OF LOVE” was already rated as a number two in the LP hit forecast and a music editor wrote: “The new Bert Kaempfert LP is the ideal background for dinner by candle light, although it is so excellent that one simply has to listen to it. It is just not possible to make better music than Bert Kaempfert.”

(Text translated from German by Ewen Campbell)