Search - Bert Kaempfert :: That Happy Feeling

Bert Kaempfert's best album

Gene DeSantis | Philadelphia, PA United States | 03/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Recorded in '61 and '62, this album (unlike most Kaempferts) was first issued on American Decca, and then several months later on the home Polydor marque (as "A Swingin' Safari" and with the replacement of "Wimoweh" with "Afrikaan Beat" and a different running order). It probably established Kaempfert in the states as much as anything; Goodson and Todman's use of "Safari" as the original "Match Game" theme helped too. So does the album's sprightly, lively tone, far sprightlier than the subsequent Kaempferts, which got weighted down with "big" arrangements and the dreaded padoom-padoom of the rhythm section. Despite the album's liberal and often palpable African influence that German engineering's never far from the surface -- especially in "Wimoweh", which summons up memories of Leni Riefenstahl; The Tokens this isn't. Still these are all early and excellent examples of what would soon be called "world music," and this is by far Kaempfert's best and most entertaining recording.Note: I suspect one reason the CD got deleted was because Taragon, the little reissue label, inexplicably catalogued it as a Christmas album."

He was The Beatles first producer!

Gene DeSantis | 11/29/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bert Kaempfert was the first person to produce The Beatles. I love his music. He was one of the few Germans to find an international audience. He had a very distinctive, bouncy sound. This is a great album-the song "That happy feeling" says it all. How sad that he died in his fities. I miss him!"

Very Entertaining

Stanton Allen | Texas | 06/27/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My parents had Bert Kaempfert's albums when I was growing up. "That Happy Feeling" was one of my favorites. Very special and dear to my heart."