Danke Schoen

"Danke Schoen"
"Danke Schoen"
Single by Wayne Newton
from the album Danke Schoen
B-side	"Better Now Than Later"
Released	June 17, 1963
Recorded	May 6,1963
Genre	Standard
Length	2:35
Label	Capitol
Songwriter(s)	Bert Kaempfert, Kurt Schwabach, and Milt Gabler
Producer(s)	T.M. Music, Inc.
Wayne Newton singles chronology

"Danke Schoen" (/ˈdɑːŋkə ʃeɪn/ DAHNG-kə shayn, German: [ˈdaŋkə ʃøːn] ^ⓘ) is a pop song of German origin. Bert Kaempfert, who composed the melody, recorded it as an instrumental, in 1959 and later in 1962, under the title "Candlelight Cafe". Kurt Schwabach wrote the German lyrics. The words "danke schoen" themselves translate to English as "Thank you very much". The song gained international fame in 1963 when singer Wayne Newton recorded an American version, with English lyrics by Milt Gabler. The song achieved renewed popularity when it was featured in the 1986 American comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, lip-synced by the main character, Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick).

Newton's version

Wayne Newton's first version was released when he was 21 years old. The song was originally intended for singer Bobby Darin as a follow-up to his hit single "18 Yellow Roses" in the spring of 1963, but after seeing Newton perform at the Copacabana, Darin decided to give the song to Newton and transposed the key of the recording to fit Newton's voice. It has been featured in many television commercials and motion pictures, such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Meet the Parents, Matchstick Men, Vegas Vacation, Fools Rush In as well as the French-American comedy Crime Spree. In 2015 it was used in a television commercial for Bank of America, and in 2017 in a trailer for the video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. In 2016 the song was used in a series of commercials for Australian insurer AAMI.^[3] The Newton version peaked at No. 13 on Billboard's pop chart, and No. 3 on its easy listening chart. In the song, Newton pronounces the words as "dunke shane", rather than "danke schön", and it has been postulated that this is a regional accent variation that may have been prevalent in communities of German immigrants to the USA.