Answer Me, My Love

"Answer Me" is a popular song, originally titled "Mütterlein" with German lyrics, by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch in 1952. The English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman in 1953, eventually becoming "Answer Me, My Love".

"Mütterlein"
Song
English title"Answer Me, My Love"
Written1953
Songwriter(s)Gerhard Winkler, Fred Rauch


Religious-themed song

Sigman originally wrote it as a religious-themed song, Answer Me (in which the first line reads "Answer me, Lord above"), as a question posed to God about why the singer has lost his lover. After the song was recorded by David Whitfield and Frankie Laine in 1953, the "religious" version was banned by the BBC after complaints.[1] Nevertheless, it still reached number one on the UK Singles Chart,[2] after another version was written by Sigman in which, instead of directing the question to God about why the singer has lost his love, the lyric is addressed directly to the lost lover.

Answer Me, My Love

Whitfield re-recorded the song with the new lyrics so as to get BBC air-plays. Both his versions have appeared on CD. Laine went back into the studios of Columbia Records and recorded "Answer Me, My Love", which was released in the UK but failed to overtake the original; many considered that this was due to the poor quality of the backing which lacked the "atmosphere" of the original Paul Weston arrangement.

In the new lyric, "Answer me, Lord above..." is changed to "Answer me, oh my love..." with other appropriate changes. The new song was again recorded by Laine and Whitfield, but became a bigger U.S. hit for Nat King Cole in 1954.[3]

Joint hit

Whitfield's version reached the top spot in the UK Singles Chart first, followed swiftly by Laine's. On 13 November 1953, for the first but not only time in chart history, one version of a song was knocked off the top by another version of the same song.[2] Four weeks later, for the only time in British chart history, the two versions of the same song were at number one together.[2]

The best-selling version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1954. The recording was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 2687. The record first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on February 24, 1954, and lasted 19 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 6.[4]

Recorded versions

German versions

Performance-only
  • The song was performed in concert (but not recorded) by Bob Dylan in the early 1990s.
  • The song is in the Keith Jarrett live repertoire; he has performed it at least 15 times with his trio and solo from 2010 onwards.

See also

References
  1. The Times Online August 6, 2008 "The music the BBC banned"
  2. Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 12. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954. Wisconsin, USA: Record Research Inc. p. 89. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
  4. Whitburn, Joel (1973). Top Pop Records 1940-1955. Record Research.


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