Los Shakers In Germany (Part One)
Los Shakers In Germany: July 1965 to October 1965 (Part One)
Much like the rest of the world in the mid 1960s, the youth of Germany was fully consumed by the sounds of the British Invasion. Although many of the groups didn’t tour the country frequently, the sales of their records skyrocketed and began to influence a new generation of musicians in the country with bands such as The Rattles and The Lords as well as enticing overseas talent such as The Liverbirds to relocate to the country.
Being one of the largest markets in Europe, Odeon was keen to push Los Shakers into Germany as quickly as possible. When talk of expanding the group’s music to overseas territory, Germany was one of the first countries discussed and one of the quickest arrangements to be created, being in large part that EMI’s main label for distribution in the country was an international branch of Odeon. Thus the group was (rather quickly) signed onto Odeon Records in Germany with very little hassle.
One slight problem that arose to the engineers at Odeon was the group’s monophonic material, something that would deem unreleasable to a German audience. By the time of the group’s first German release in August of 1965, the mono format had been discontinued by the label in the country due to the lack of demand for releases in the format. Stereo had long reigned supreme in Germany trumping the sales of mono records since the beginning of the decade, to the point where by 1964 record companies across the country made the switch to exclusively stereo releases whilst most other nations were focusing if not only releasing material in mono. As such certain foreign releases made exclusive stereo mixes for sale in Germany and other European nations to be used on their releases, often not being released in their homeland until years if not decades later due to lack of demand and increased expense of stereo titles. Many releases however were presented in fake stereo in Germany often due to the material not being recorded in a way that a true stereo mix could be made. Unlike other territories where often the true mono and fake stereo versions were released, German record companies did not present mono releases as an option, forcing the consumer to endure the often very poor and nauseating fake stereo mixes. The same could not be said for singles which continued to be released in Germany in mono up until the end of the decade due to the added difficulties of the seven inch format which could not be adequately resolved at that time. Often the releases of British artists came out in Germany very soon after their homeland, in some cases such as The Beatles’ second UK album ‘With The Beatles,’ released in Germany before anywhere else. Partly this was because of the geographical proximity between the two nations, whereas countries such as Australia which were much further apart often had to wait six months or more for a release. Unfortunately, since the group’s home of South America was so far away from both the UK and Germany, often there was a gap between releases. In the case of the group’s singles since both countries used the mono mixes for seven inch releases, very often the UK would create a dub of the mono tape they had received from Argentina and send that copy over to Germany for their release resulting in a very sub-par sounding pressing.
This problem proved to be resolved very quickly after a large deal between Capitol Records in the United States that included upgraded recording equipment including an eight-track tape recorder, allowing for the audiophile sound expected for the German record buying public of the time.
‘Keep Searching’ backed with ‘Only In Your Eyes’ was released in August of 1965. The single failed to hit the charts (during the 1960s, GfK Entertainment charts only extended to the top 50 chart positions), with very little press for the band appearing in print or television at that time resulting in very poor sales. The single was originally released with a modification of the picture sleeve used for the original Argentina release, although a reissue dating to late 1968 used an alternate picture sleeve containing a more contemporary image of the group.
The same month as the group’s debut album was released in Argentina, Los Shakers undertook a European tour including their first stop in Germany. Los Shakers’ first appearances in the country were as part of “The Show Of The Year” in August 1965 which also included The Kinks, The Fortunes and Screaming Lord Sutch as part of the roster. Infamously, the first show on the 14th of August erupted into a massive riot during Screaming Lord Sutch’s set, although this occurred after Los Shakers’ set which opened the show.
That following month saw the release of the group’s second single into the country, a single of ‘Break It All’ and ‘More’ with the sides flipped after the immense success of ‘Break It All’ in its home continent. This proved to be the group’s first entry into the German charts although expectations weren’t met with the single hitting a fairly low peak of number 38 on the GfK single charts. The single’s picture sleeve was a near clone of the one used on their debut single in the country, with only the song titles changed between the two releases. A reissue of this single occurred in January 1966 (including the same picture sleeve) coinciding with the group’s recent visit of the country caused the song to hit a much higher peak of number 15 on the GfK singles chart.
After the immense success of Los Shakers’ self-titled debut in South America becoming the best selling album in Argentina and Uruguay at that point of time, EMI was more than eager to release the album across the globe which luckily could be done very quickly and cheaply in most cases. One exception to that was Germany who was unwilling to release the album’s original monophonic mix instead utilising the September 1965 stereo re-recordings intended for Capitol Records for the material on their release instead. This insistence however created a delay on the album’s release, pushing the album to a late October release. The album was represented in its original fourteen track presentation with slightly modified artwork including altered type on the album cover and a German translation of the original album’s Spanish liner notes rather than the newly created English liner notes made for the British release of the album. All of the material was presented in its true stereo glory bar ‘It’s My Party’ and ‘Keep Searching’ which was presented in fake stereo on first pressings as they had not been re-recorded (only self-written compositions were remade), however upon the rediscovery of both songs’ original two-track tapes, the songs were remixed in 1972 and included upon a reissue of the album and subsequent releases of the two tracks in the country.
Ultimately all efforts were in vain as the album failed to make an impact on the GfK album charts not hitting any position on the chart. The failure of the album isn’t too hard a thing to grasp as the band had performed in Germany for one day (14th of August) and that day became infamous and ridiculed by the press due to the riot and rowdy behaviour that occurred. Los Shakers’ album overall was a mixed bag across the globe, with it succeeding heavily in some nations whilst flopping in other nations. The response in Germany however was particularly disappointing and much more concentrated efforts of marketing the group in the country would occur after this, particularly in 1966 and 1967.
Los Shakers (30th October 1965)
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