Sandie Shaw's German recordings

Sandie Shaw was one of the UK’s most successful singers of the 1960s, enjoying three number one hits in Britain. She also recorded much of her material in German and scored several hits with the results.

She was born Sandra Goodrich in Dagenham, Essex, east of London, on 26 February 1947. After leaving school she worked at the nearby Ford factory and did some part-time modelling. However, as a result of coming second in a talent contest, she got to appear at a charity concert in London at which singer Adam Faith was singing. He spotted her potential and introduced to his manager, Eve Taylor.

Within a fortnight, the singer had a contract – and a stage name – with the Pye record label.

Her willingness to record covers of her songs in German helps explain why Sandie Shaw became a firm favourite in the Fatherland. Her first UK hit, (Always) something there to remind me, was also the first song she recorded in German. Sadly, Einmal glücklich sein wie die Andern missed the German charts altogether.

She fared better with her second UK chart topper, Long live love, which gave the erstwhile Ford car factory worker her first German hit, both in English and in its translated version, Du weißt nichts von deinem Glück, with both versions making the top 30.

Minor success with the original German

composition Wir seh’n uns ja wieder in late

1966, which scraped into the top 40, reflected

a fall from favour both in Germany and at

home.

However, 1967’s Puppet on a string gave her

a second wind. The song won the 1967

Eurovision song contest – the UK’s first win –

and became the most successful winner to

date. It made number one throughout Europe.

In Germany, it spent eight weeks on the top

spot and became the biggest-selling single

of the year. (The song remains popular in

Germany, where, in 2008, the public voted

it the best Eurovision song of all time.)

Even a subsequent German translation, the curiously titled Wiedehopf im Mai, charted too.

Unfortunately, second-rate material prevented her from capitalising on her win, and only one more single, Du bist wunderbar, a translation of her You’ve not changed, managed to grace the German charts. Other releases such as Heute, a cover of her Today, were considered pale imitations of her earlier work (though, arguably, the phrasing of Heute works better in German).

Even An jenem Tag, a German cover of her version of Those were the days, was ignored in favour of the Mary Hopkin original.

Interestingly, Sandie’s last brush with the UK’s top ten was with an English-language cover of a German song, Monsieur Dupont, in 1969. The original had been a hit for German star Manuela two years earlier.