February 15, 1975 Episode Question

[markmcneil]

I heard this episode back when it originally aired. I was 13 at the time.

On that episode, Casey told a story about "a song that could stop a war". It was a song from the World War II era. Casey played a piece of that song and he mentioned that the singer of that song had passed away recently at that time. I don't remember what the song was or the singer. Does anyone here know?

He told the story between #15 ("Nightingale" by Carole King) and #14 ("Get Dancin'" by Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes).

Thank you.

[jdelachjr2002]

Answer: "Lily Marlaine" by Lolly Anderson

[donwa001]

I own the stereo records of that countdown so here is what Casey said:

"This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood on AT40 and now I'm gonna tell you about that popular song that actually stopped a war just about every time it was played. Early in World War II a German actress and a singer named Lolly Anderson recorded a song called Lili Marlene. It was about a girl who had promised to be true to her lover while he was away at war. Now can you imagine the appeal that song would have for a soldier away from home no matter what army he was in? Lili Marlene really hit home on both sides of the lines in Europe. And in North Africa, every night, the troops in both the German and the British armies would tune their military radios to the German Army Radio station in Belgrade to hear Lolly Anderson sing her song. Well a man who was there in 1942 told his story to Reuters News Service when Lolly Anderson died two and half years ago. Ludwig Schoeder, now a citizen of West Germany, heard Lili Marlene for the first time when he was a Second Lieutenant in the German Army's Africa Corps, fighting the British in the Sahara Desert. He said, 'We were in bivouac and I went over to the radio truck to send a message to headquarters. The operator asked me if it was urgent because Lolly Anderson was coming up in a couple of minutes. Well I waited with the message and the troops gathered around the truck to hear Lolly Anderson's voice. I was a bit worried that the radio vehicle was not dug in and we might be shelled by the British artillery. But an old Sargent said "That's alright sir. The British don't shoot during Lili Marlene. They're all listening to it themselves." He was right. There was absolute silence. And no shooting at all during the song. <part of the song was played here> And it was the same almost every night.' What an incredible story. Several American artists, by the way, recorded Lili Marlene when word of its popularity got back here to the US. But the version that World War II veterans remember best was the original by the late Lolly Anderson. And the countdown continues".

[markmcneil]

Cool! I sometimes wondered if that was the song Casey was talking about although I knew it couldn't have been Marlene Dietrich's version. Thank you, donwa001 and jdelachjr2002!

[pandy]

There was another song that stopped a war briefly that Casey or Shadoe did mention was "Oh Holy Night" for a Christmas AT40 extra. I do not know the chart date it came from, but I remember the true story about a soldier that came out of a foxhole, stood up straight in all the gunfire and sang that song. "In this man made hell, there was peace on earth and good will toward gentlemen"

[vto66]

Mar 2, 2010 8:08:11 GMT -5 pandy said:

There was another song that stopped a war briefly that Casey or Shadoe did mention was "Oh Holy Night" for a Christmas AT40 extra. I do not know the chart date it came from, but I remember the true story about a soldier that came out of a foxhole, stood up straight in all the gunfire and sang that song. "In this man made hell, there was peace on earth and good will toward gentlemen"

As I recall, it was on the 12/16/1978 and 12/20/1980 shows.

[jdelachjr2002]

As I recall, it was on the 12/16/1978 and 12/20/1980 shows.

It was 12/13/1980, not 12/20.

[donwa001]

I also own the stereo records of the Dec 13th, 1980 countdown, so here is what Casey said:

"This is Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in Hollywood and now an AT40 extra. A Christmas carol. And the story of the Christmas miracle that it brought about. A hundred and ten years ago, back in 1870, the Franco-Prussian War was being fought. On the outskirts of Paris, the French and German troops, in their muddy trenches, fired at each other across the no-man's land between them. It was Christmas Eve. A cold, dark night sporadically lit up, not by the twinkle of Christmas candles, but by the flash of cannon fire. On Jesus' birthday, men were dying. Suddenly in the middle of the battle, a young French soldier leaped out of his trench and standing in the open, exposed to the gunfire, he began to sing an old French Christmas carol. On both sides of the battlefield, the soldiers were stunned. They stopped shooting and listened. When the Frenchman finished his song, there was silence. Then a German soldier climbed out of his trench, stood facing his enemy, and began singing a German carol. He finished and again there was silence. In the middle of one of mankinds periodic, insane rituals of death, the spirit of Christmas had touched men's souls. For a brief instance, in that man-made hell, there was Peace on Earth and Good Will among men. Here is that carol the French soldier sang in that Christmas Eve, a hundred and ten years ago. <O Holy Night - Nat King Cole was played> An American Top 40 extra, O Holy Night by Nat King Cole and the countdown rolls on."

[at40petebattistini]

Just bringing back an old thread that's current again...

[dukelightning]

Pete, I have your book and you did not indicate if that was a different version of "To the Door of the Sun" in this countdown. But was it? I thought it was too short and maybe a foreign language version.

[pandy]

The original version was "Alle Porte Del Sole" sung by Gigiola Cinquetti from 1973. I have the 45 in the Pi label (red label black letters). YouTube has a video of that. When Al Martino had his version on AT40 I spoke to Ben Merichel and he asked me to send a tape of the song to use on the show. By the time the tape arrived it was too late to be used as the song fell off the top 40.

[dukelightning]

Was the intention to play a portion of that record as AT40 sometimes did when a cover of a song was in the countdown?