99 Luftballons

"99 Luftballons"
Song

"99 Luftballons" is a Cold War-era protest song by the German band Nena. Originally sung in German, it was later re-recorded in English as "99 Red Balloons". It is one of the most successful pop songs by a German artist in the world.

"99 Luftballons" reached #1 in West Germany in 1983. In 1984, the original German version also peaked at #2 on the American Billboard Hot 100 chart and the English-language version topped the UK Singles Chart.

When it charted in the United States, most US radio DJs incorrectly assumed that "99 Luftballons" was translated in English as "99 Red Balloons" or pronounced the number 99 in English and said "Ninety-nine Luftballoons." The actual pronunciation of "99 Luftballons" is "Neunundneunzig Luftballons." The host of American Top 40, Casey Kasem, was one of the few radio personalities who pronounced the song title correctly when it charted in the US in 1984.

The original title literally translates as "Ninety-Nine Balloons".

History of the song

While at a Rolling Stones concert, Carlo Karges, the guitar player of Nena's band, noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked nothing like a mass of balloons but some strange spacecraft.

Both the English and German versions of the song tell a story of ninety-nine balloons floating into the air, triggering an apocalyptic overreaction by military forces. The music was composed by Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, the keyboardist of Nena's band, while Karges wrote the original German lyrics. Kevin McAlea wrote the English version, titled "99 Red Balloons" (on an envelope, which he alleges he still has), which has a more satirical tone than the original. The English version is not a direct translation of the German but contains a somewhat different set of lyrics. Many Westerners enjoy both versions of the song and feel both recordings convey the spirit of the writer's intent well.

The song came during a period of escalating rhetoric and strategic maneuvering between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. In particular, its international chart success followed the United States deployment of Pershing II missiles in West Germany in January 1984 (in response to the Soviet deployment of new SS-20 nuclear missiles), which prompted protests across western Europe. The following month, Nena topped the UK Singles Chart with "99 Red Balloons" for three weeks, starting in 28 February, 1984. Unusually, in the United States the German version was more successful, charting at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. On March 26, 1984, it was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipment of over 500,000 copies. "99 Luftballons" became the first German-language record to reach the top ten on the US charts since "Sailor (Your Home Is the Sea)" by Lolita in 1961. Although the German version was the hit version in the States, both the German and English versions receive radio airplay in the United States today.

The original video for "99 Luftballons" was taken from a concert in Berlin. A version was filmed a few months later at Harskamp, a Dutch military base. When the English version of the song was released, a video was made that combined the two German videos.

Nena never had another hit single outside Continental Europe, and therefore, is considered to be a very successful one-hit wonder artist in both the U.S. and the UK. Channel 4 placed "99 Red Balloons" at #2 in their countdown of the 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders, while VH1 placed it at #10 in their list of the 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders. VH1 also put it at #73 of the 100 greatest songs of the 80's.

VH1 Classic, an American cable television station, ran a charity event for Hurricane Katrina relief in 2006. Viewers who made donations were allowed to choose which music videos the station would play. One viewer donated $35,000 for the right to program an entire hour and requested continuous play of Nena's "99 Luftballons" and "99 Red Balloons" videos for an entire hour. The station broadcasted the videos as requested from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EST on March 26 2006.

The song was also used in an episode of Scrubs.

Cover versions

The song has been covered by numerous bands, including 7 Seconds, Five Iron Frenzy, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Goldfinger, Siobhan DuVall, NOFX, Angry Salad, The Fabulous Rudies, Gothic Sluts, Inc., The Jetpack Escapee Scene, Coffee Shop Rumours, Radio Cult, The Peter Pan Complex and one of Adelaide's most influential hardcore bands Chase Elaine. In German it was covered by Beat Crusaders and by Goldfinger in English with a German verse. The German verse in the song is actually the next to last verse in the original German version, and it replaces the next to last verse in the English version (one involving Captain Kirk). However, in Polyphony Digital's "Gran Turismo 3" the song is sung in full English, including the Captain Kirk verse. The latter cover was featured in several films, including Not Another Teen Movie (2001) and Eurotrip (2004) as well as during various competitions in Nickelodeon's television movie "Rocket Power: Race Across New Zealand" (2002). Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine have also covered the song on their I'd Like a Virgin 2004 album; this version actually contains gibberish lyrics sung in a pseudo-German accent in lieu of German lyrics. Draco and the Malfoys, on their self-titled debut album, cover the song, renamed 99 Death Eaters, with rewritten lyrics to suit wizard rock.

Ellen ten Damme has included part of the song in her cover of Sag mir wo die Blumen sind, the German translation of Pete Seeger's "Where have all the flowers gone".

More popular covers of this song include John Forté's Ninety Nine (Flash The Message) on his 1998 Poly Sci album and one by Goldfinger in 2000.

Contrary to popular belief, the band "Reel Big Fish" have never performed a cover of "99 Red Balloons".

Special D used a sample of this song on his song "Here I Am."

In the mid-nineties a rave version of this song was produced by the group Airbag. This version appears on a rave collection album called "Mega Rave Party 2" from 1995, that was published by the Israeli music company NMC.

Green Day covered the song briefly in a concert on August 29, 1992.

NOFX release a punk version of the song recorded live.

The sketch comedy show MADtv poked fun at the song in a sketch called "All Star American Idol". The criteria of the song they had to sing was "a song from the 1980s, that was originally sung in German, with a number, a color, and something inflatable in the title." The only song fitting that description being "99 Red Balloons".

Homer Simpson sang this song in the epsiode, The Heartbroke Kid.

Triva

The original version of this song is in the German SingStar '80s.