Ted Herold born 9 September 1942

 

Ted Herold (9 September 1942 – 20 November 2021) was a German Schlager singer. Besides an extensive discography he also acted in several films in the 1960s.

Born in Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany as Harald Walter Bernhard Schubring, he was the son of a master plasterer, who moved with his family to Bad Homburg vor der Höhe in 1951. He was already enthusiastic about music as a teenager and was particularly fond of American rock 'n' roll titles by Bill Haley, Buddy Holly and, above all, Elvis Presley. 

Schubring first convinced his classmates by re-enacting relevant hits until a classmate put him in contact with the Polydor record company in 1958. After test recordings, the first single, which contains two German-language cover versions of Elvis Presley hits, was recorded in the same year in the Polydor studio in Hamburg under the music producer and orchestra leader Bert Kaempfert. The sales manager invented the pseudonym Ted Herold to match the rock 'n' roll titles.

After the first record became a respectable success, Herold got a lucrative contract with participation in the sale and switched to the Polydor studio in Vienna to the successful producer Gerhard Mendelson, who already steered the career of Peter Kraus. While Kraus successfully interpreted much gentler titles from then on, Herold was built up as "the German Elvis". Until 1960, Herold sang almost exclusively German cover versions of successful Presley titles. The title I am a man of the then 17-year-old caused a sensation. The piece was not played by German radio stations in the prudish post-war period.

                              

When Elvis Presley was posted in Germany by the U.S. Army, he once met him in the streets of Bad Homburg. Herold talked to his idol for some moments and gave him some of his own records. Herold's career steered in 1959 with numerous single releases and first tours, among others with Tommy Kent, Bully Buhlan , Ralf Paulsen and Max Greger. 

In the same year he completed the secondary school leaving certificate. In 1960, Herold's repertoire, just like his role model Elvis Presley, was expanded with softer titles. Herold’s greatest success was the ballad “Moonlight”, written by Werner Scharfenberger and Fini Busch. It sold over 500,000 singles and climbed to first place in the German charts.

Herold, who was still regarded as a rebellious rock 'n' roller, did not get any engagements from the then exclusively public television stations until the mid-1960s, but between 1959 and 1963 he appeared with his titles in numerous music films.

In 1963 Herold's career was interrupted when he was drafted into the German Armed Forces in Wetzlar, where he was trained as a radio operator. Although he brought out three singles during his time in the German Armed Forces, they no longer appeared up-to-date in view of the emerging beat wave. Even the titles recorded after his release as a non-commissioned officer in 1964 did not achieve the success of earlier records.

In 1965 Herold, who had meanwhile started training as a radio and television technician in Wetzlar, married the innkeeper Karin Höhler and moved to Wetzlar- Nauborn in 1966. In the same year he recorded the last single with Polydor. With the exception of two singles released by the record company Metronome in 1969, Herold stopped recording and stayed as a workshop manager in his learned profession. In March 1977 he passed the master craftsman examination.

In the same year, Herold surprisingly received an offer from the German rock singer Udo Lindenberg to work on a title for the LP Panische Nights and to accompany him on a tour of Germany. He received a recording contract with Teldec, published new titles he along with his old classics in the midst of the former rock 'n' roll revival also sang at numerous appearances.

At the end of the 1990s with his old singles now completely re-released on CD, Ted Herold was able to relive the old days and was a guest at numerous television programs and gala events. In September 2002 Herold married his long-time partner Manuela in Dortmund.

Tragically Herold died on 20 November 2021, along with his wife in a house fire in Dortmund, aged 79.

(Edited from Wikipedia & IMDb)