Radio james last biography

Especially in the s James Last was celebrated as the “party king”. He created medleys by tying together brief renditions of popular songs with his characteristic dance beat. This party music had an audience ranging from rock music aficionados to traditional dance music lovers.

He also had many guest performers, among them Wencke Myhre, Freddy Quinn, Richard Clayderman, René Kollo, Helmut Zacharias, Gheorghe Zamfir, Edward Simoni, Engelbert, Milva, Fettes Brot and others. For Elvis Presley he composed the song “Fool”, which the King of Rock’n’Roll included on his first RCA record. On the occasion of his 75th birthday, the CD “They call me Hansi” was released in co-operation with RZA, Jan Delay, Herbert Grönemeyer, Tom Jones, Hayley Westenra, Luciano Pavarotti, Xavier Naidoo, Nina Hagen and Till Brönner.

Among his most successful compositions are „Games That Lovers Play“, „Happy Heart“, „When The Snow Is On The Roses“, „Lingering On“, „Happy Luxemburg“ , but also the themes of German television series like „Der Landarzt“ (The Country Doctor) or „Das Traumschiff“(The Dream Ship) and of the successful German music chart show „ ZDF-Hitparade“ by Dieter Thomas Heck. He also penned the soundtracks for German films like „Unsere Pauker gehen in die Luft“ () featuring Wencke Myhre, „The Captain“ () featuring Heinz Rühmann, as well as for „Morning’s at Seven“ () and „At the Height of the Moon“ two films based on the successful novels by Eric Malpass. For the series “Star Parade” with Rainer Holbe, broadcast on the second public German TV channel ZDF from to , he not only composed the theme, but regularly appeared in the shows with his orchestra. His song “The Lonely Shepherd” was performed by the famous pan flute virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir in and attained cult status 25 years later when it featured in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s film “Kill Bill: Vol. 1“.