Music charts: Udo’s “Komet” is one of the biggest number one hits

Music charts
Udo’s “Komet” is one of the biggest number one hits

2023 seems to have been the year of the over-70s in Germany so far, who, thanks to rappers who are around 50 years younger, can suddenly celebrate their biggest chart successes. First it was Udo Lindenberg (77), currently it is his former flatmate Otto Waalkes (74). In a happy hardcore beat version and at the urging of Ski Aggu and Joost, comedian Otto is currently at number one in the charts. Previously, this was done for many weeks by the old rocker Udo, who teamed up with the popular rapper Apache 207 and is still in second place with the song “Komet”.

The Lindenberg-Apache song “Komet” became one of Germany’s longest-lasting number one hits this year, in the middle of the supposedly fast-paced times of the music business.

Matthias Reim and “Damn I love you”

According to Duden, a “number one hit” is a “piece of music that ranks at the top of a hit list or hit parade”. In Germany, the Official German Charts, which are compiled by the company GfK Entertainment in Baden-Baden, are commonly used.

Lindenberg and Apache’s “comet” quickly flew to number one in early February and barely moved from there for months. Of the 24 weeks so far in 2023, “Comet” has been at the top for 15 weeks.

The rocker-rapper duo almost set the record of pop singer Matthias Reim (65), who has had the most successful German-language number one hit for 33 years. The heartbreak hit “Verdammt, ich lieb’ Dich” stayed in first place for 16 weeks in 1990, the year of reunification – unlike Lindenberg and Apache, it was even uninterrupted.

Apart from “Komet” and “Verdammt, ich lieb’ Dich” only two songs have been at number one in Germany since there were weekly charts in this country.

One was the 2017 summer hit “Despacito” by Latin pop singer Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee. On the other hand it was the 1978 catchy tune “Rivers of Babylon” by the disco formation Boney M.

Caterina Valente and “All Paris Dreams of Love”

“Weekly charts have been determined in Germany since January 1971 (single charts) and September 1978 (album charts),” says GfK Entertainment spokesman Hans Schmucker in Baden-Baden on the music history of the Federal Republic. “Between 1954 and 1965 the German single charts were determined monthly; between 1965 and 1971 every two weeks.”

On the Internet there are also details about long-lasting number one hits from the 1950s in Germany, for example Caterina Valente’s “All Paris dreams of love”, Freddy Quinn’s “Homesickness” or Margot’s “Cindy, oh Cindy”. Eskens.

“Comparing weekly charts with monthly charts from the 1950s only makes sense to a limited extent,” says Schmucker. “On the one hand, only the jukebox retrievals were taken into account for a number of years; after that, there were retailer surveys, which of course were by no means as representative as today’s electronic transmission.”

In addition, in the case of monthly charts, it is sometimes unclear in which week a song reached the charts, i.e. whether, for example, it only sold strongly one week but not in the other three weeks of the month. “Therefore, in our historical comparisons, we focus on the weekly surveys since the 1970s.”

link between the generations

Why in 2023 “Komet” by Udo Lindenberg and Apache 207 is running (or flying) so well in Germany is largely a matter of conjecture and a matter of interpretation. In any case, the musician’s hit with a 52-year age difference can also be understood as a link between different generations, as a connection between German rock and hip-hop, as the overcoming of borders.

The same applies to Otto’s current catchy tune on the one. While there is often talk of a split in society into young and old (sometimes even old against young), here the alleged generational conflict is simply celebrated away. Boomers and Generation Z can also make music together, produce hits and earn money.

dpa