"Wonderland by Night" (German title: "") is a popular song by Bert Kaempfert that was a Billboard number one hit for three weeks, starting 9 January 1961. Written by Klaus Günter Neumann with English lyrics by Lincoln Chase, it was recorded in July 1959 and became Bert Kaempfert's first hit with his orchestra. The song featured Charly Tabor on trumpet. "Wonderland by Night" also crossed over to the R&B chart where it peaked at number five.
Chart history Chart (1960-1961)PeakpositionAustralia (Kent Music Report)[Australia. Kent, David. Australian Chart Book 1940–1969: the hit songs and records from thirty years of specially compiled charts. Turramurra, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book, 2005 ISBN 0-646-44439-5]1Canada (CHUM) CHUM Chart. Archived from the original on November 7, 20061New Zealand (Lever Hit Parade)Lever Hit Parade, 9 March 19611U.S. Billboard Hot 1001U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Sides5
Notable cover versions Another cover, recorded and released by Louis Prima, also charted in the same year, reaching #15 on the Billboard charts. Anita Bryant's version, which included orchestrations by Lew Douglas, reached #18 on the US Pop Chart.
In popular culture A German-language numbers station (G10) was operated by one of Polish intelligence agencies and was active until the late 1970s, which used Kaempfert's version of the song, and its B-side, "Dreaming the Blues", both repeated twice in chronological order as its interval signal, followed by the average format of a numbers station, this interval signal leading it to be commonly nicknamed by Shortwave radio enthusiasts after Kaempfert. It was later replaced by G11 (nicknamed "Strich"), which was most recently active from 2007 to 2014.
See also List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1961
References
External links
(Archived - 26 May 2019)