His songs were entered into the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson four times and with “Im Wagen vor mir” he scored a hit whose chorus became a catchy tune. Henry Valentino has died at the age of 95.
The pop singer and composer Henry Valentino is dead. The musician, whose real name was Hans Blum, died on March 15th at the age of 95 in Overath near Cologne, as his record company announced to the dpa news agency. “A long life marked by happiness and impressive creativity has come to an end,” said his family. He died peacefully at home at night – just as he had wished.
Valentino was particularly famous for his hit “Im Wagen vor mir”, which he released in 1977 with his duet partner Uschi. The chorus with its characteristic “Rada rada radadadada, rada rada radadadada” quickly became a catchy tune. From today’s perspective, the song seems quite questionable. It’s about a woman, called a “beautiful girl” in the song, who a man is following in a car. The story ends with the woman hiding behind hedges to get rid of the man.
Successful career as a composer
As a composer, Valentino was actually a man in the background of the hit industry. He wrote songs for many artists – from Howard Carpendale (“The Beautiful Girl from Page One”) to Wencke Myhre (“Don’t Bite into Every Apple”) to Hildegard Knef (“The Old Wolf”). His songs were entered into the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson four times. Valentino had its heyday in the 60s and 70s.
Blum, who was born in Hanover, told dpa on his 90th birthday that he never wanted to be famous. The fictional character “Henry Valentino” was created when he couldn’t get a song accepted by a record company. From then on, Blum called himself Henry Valentino, put on a hat, wore a mustache and sang with a fake, grating voice – when he spoke normally, he actually had a very clear, gentle tone.