99 Luftballons

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“99 Luftballons / 99 Red Balloons”
Single by Nena from the album Nena / 99 Luftballons
Released	1983 (Germany) 1984 (United Kingdom)
Format	CD single
Recorded	1982
Genre	Pop, Neue Deutsche Welle
Length	3:53
Label	EMI
Writer(s)	Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (music) Carlo Karges (German lyrics) Kevin McAlea (English lyrics)
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Nena singles chronology
"Nur geträumt" (1982) "99 Luftballons" (1983) "Leuchtturm" (1983)

"99 Luftballons" is a Cold War-era protest song by the German singer Nena. Originally sung in German, it was later re-recorded in English as "99 Red Balloons".

"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. The German version topped the Australian charts for five weeks and the New Zealand charts for one week.

When it made the charts 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 translation of the title is sometimes given as "Ninety-Nine Air Balloons". However "Ninety-Nine Balloons" is correct ^[1][2]. A Luftballon is a colorful toy balloon, rather than a balloon for transport or research. The name is derived from Luft, German for air, but the meaning of Luft does not qualify the type of balloon. The title "99 RED Balloons" scans correctly with the syllables falling in the right places within the rhythm of the first lines of lyrics, with "red" replacing "Luft".

Contents 1 History of the song 2 Chart performance 3 Cover versions 3.1 Samples and remixes 4 References

[edit] History of the song

While at a Rolling Stones concert in Berlin, Carlo Karges, the guitarist of Nena, 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.^{[citation needed]} He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector.^[3]

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 claims to still have), 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.^[4]

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 America, 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 '80s.

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^[5].

The song appeared in the computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on one of the in-game radio stations. In the game's prequel, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, one of the side-mission objectives is to find and pop "99 Red Balloons."

[edit] Chart performance

Chart (1983/4)	Peak position
Australia	1
Austria	1
Canada	1
Germany	1
Ireland	1
The Netherlands	1[6]
New Zealand	1
Norway	4
Sweden	1
Switzerland	1
UK	1
US	2

[edit] Cover versions

The song has been covered by numerous bands, including 7 Seconds, Five Iron Frenzy, Goldfinger, Siobhan DuVall, Angry Salad and it was also covered by the wizard rock group Draco and the Malfoys, and is a show staple. 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 Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), 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. Ellen ten Damme 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?". French singer Alizee performed live cover during her "Psychédélices" tour in Moscow, Russia on the 18th of May, 2008. She sang in English.

[edit] Samples and remixes

John Forté remade "99 Luftballons" in to "Ninety Nine (Flash The Message)" on his 1998 Poly Sci album.

Dr. Demento featured a song "99 dead baboons" on his show.

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.

A portion of this song is in "Hooked on Polkas", a "Weird Al" Yankovic polka medley.

The Northern Irish DJ, Rigsy, is notorious for mashing up "99 Luftballons" with the Jay-Z track "99 Problems" in local clubs The Limelight (Belfast) and Stiff Kitten.

In 1984, 7 Seconds covered "99 Red Balloons" on their album Walk Together, Rock Together.

The singer-songwriter Robert Lund sang a parody on the song named "99 Words for Boobs".^[7]

[edit] References

Preceded by "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood	UK number one single February 26, 1984	Succeeded by "Hello" by Lionel Richie
Preceded by "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper	Australian Kent Music Report number one single April 7, 1984 - May 7, 1984	Succeeded by "Eat It" by "Weird Al" Yankovic