Song:A Walk In The Black Forest
Album:The Golden Age of American Popular Music: Hits with Strings and Things
German pianist Horst Jankowski scored a top 20 pop hit with A Walk In The Black Forest in 1965 right in the middle of the British Invasion. Most of his success was on the Easy Listening chart. He was born Jan. 30, 1936 in Berlin, Germany. He studied at the Berlin Music Conservatory. He started out as a jazz musician in Berlin clubs backing up singer Caterina Valente. He also composed the German version of Muzak. Jankowski recorded jazz in the late 50s with guys like clarinetist Rolf Kuhn. In the early 60s he started recording with an orchestra and singers. His 1965 single Eine Schwarzfaldfahrt was a big hit in Europe. Mercury Records released it in the US as A Walk In The Black Forest. it reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it topped the Easy Listening chart. It's not clear why the song was a hit but Jankowski wrote it as background music or Muzak in 1962. The song was intended to be part of a stock music library. Jankowski continued to have success on the Easy Listening chart until 1968. The 1965 album The Genius of Jankowski has never been released on CD. The one comp CD I saw does not contain the original version of A Walk In The Black Forest. You can get the original version on this Ace Records various artists comp. As I said, Jankowski had a long music career in Germany. He returned to jazz in the 80s. And for the German network RIAS, he was one of the leaders of RIAS Tanzorchester. They recorded and had their own TV show. Horst Jankowski died of cancer on June 29, 1998 at age 62. Here's a video of A Walk In The Black Forest by Horst Jankowski.
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