René Carol the singer, actor and entertainer of Polish decent was born
in Berlin as Gerhard Tschierschnitz and was one of the biggest stars of
the 50's and 60's. In contrast to many people of his era he lived an
adventurous lifestyle. Such can be highlighted through his love of big
american cars, and women. Once released as a prisoner of war from Paris
he changed his name with his first love Martine Carole to Rene Carol.
He worked first in a nightclub called Taberin and at the famous
Moumarte where he worked as a singer from Capri. After a year in paris
he returned to Germany where he started imitating people in show
business such as Theo Lingen, Zarah Leander and hans Moser along with
many others singing in English, French, German and Italian. Mr Carol
sang the famous Italian hits 'O sole Mio, Mama and Santa Lucia.
Furthermore, his incredible voice had 30 variations and he travelled
throughout Germany spreading his sounds. Although his main fan base was
located in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, he was known
internationally through the concerts he performed in countries such as
Canada, Belgium, USA, Holland (Carol was said to be the Dutch Queens
favourite male performer), and Mexico to name just a few. Radio
Luxembourg, which was one of the biggest radio stations in Europe,
played Carols music frequently. In 1949 he tried his luck as an easy
listening (hit) singer and his first joint recordings was with Willy
Schneider and Danielle Marc which was called "Am Zuckerhut. Am
Zuckerhut" which set the theme for the German television of that modern
time. in 1950 he dueted with Lonny Kellner making the beautiful song
"Im Hafen von Adano" (original title -it happened in Adano). His next
solo and probably his biggest hits was in 1952 with a song called "Rote
Rosen, Rote Lippen, Rote Wein" which also thrust him onto the cover of
the magazine "Der Spiegel" and also sold 500,000 hits. This brought
with it his first golden record after world war two, a war of which
Carol was strongly against, possibly due to his anti-Hitler stance.
This stance was reflected in his songs, of which often spoke out
against the notion of war. In the following years it made him the most
famous interpreter in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. His EP's were
also reeased in Paris, France. With ever Green hits such as "Bella
donna" (1953), "Wenn es noch Marchen gibt" (1945) 'mitten im mier" and
Kein Land kann schoener (1960); with this hit he reached the german top
ten. Even after he produced hits such as "Hafenmarie" (1961), Ein
Vagabundenherz (1961), Der rote Wein (1962), and Bianca Rosa (1964). He
also recorded a Ricky Nelson song "you are the only one", while also
recording a song of the kingston trio. Furthermore, he recorded a
record in Canada, although this a rare record and extremely hard to
find.
In the seventies the unforgotten singer tried a comeback with a small
record company near Bonn. Back then, 1977, a produced single was named
"Wo ist der Weg nach Dvorovi". This second career however didn't last
very long. Carols life was brought to an abrupt end when the artist was
diagnosed with cancer and died shortly after on April 9th 1978 in
Minden.
