Rock ‘n’ roll musician Ted Herold dies at 79

The German Elvis celebrated the height of his career at the end of the 1950s. Ted Herold songs such as “Moonlight”, “Hula Rock” and “Only First Love Is Beautiful” occupied the hit shows. But the success did not last because pop trends shifted, as bands such as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones quickly became more exciting. Ted Herold died on Saturday evening at the age of 79 – killed in a fire in an apartment in Dortmund, the public prosecutor confirmed on Sunday.

In the 1950s, the Berlin native cared for world stars such as Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and of course, the “King of Rock’n’Roll”, Elvis Presley. At night he sat in front of the radio and wrote lyrics. “I was able to play the beat in a jiffy,” he recalls shortly before his 70th birthday. One of his colleagues found his singing very good and told her father about him – an employee of Polydor Records. Already the first record, “I Don’t Need a Ring” – published under the name Ted Herold without his knowledge – has found 100,000 buyers.

Born on September 9, 1942 in West Berlin, the 16-year-old became one of the stars of the young republic, Harald Schoering. Connie Frobus, Freddy Quinn, Bert Kaemfert, Max Gregg – get to know them all. Not on stage, but by chance in the ice cream parlor – the meeting place of young people in the fifties – he also met his idol Elvis once. The King asked him if he sings in German or English – and he was said to have been relieved that Ted was not a direct competitor.

Time and time again, the rivalry between Herold and the well-behaved Peter Krause was a topic in youth magazines: “Peter Krause and I live in different worlds – that is still the case today,” Ted Herold once said. Then the nets came. Herold summed up 50 years later: “In 1961, rock and roll was practically dead. People wanted something new.” Now the dance was dancing, and then the Beatles and the Sixty came along.

But there was still Odo Lindenberg. In 1977, he wanted to win the 35-year-old with thick black hair for the “Panic Nights” record. Herold: “At first I wasn’t in a good mood to sing again.” But then he said yes and started talking again.

Because of love, he moved to the region of Braunschweig in the nineties. In 2016, who now lives in Dortmund with his second wife Manuela, Herold recorded a major CD with Jürgen Weber, artist named Lars Vegas. Thereafter, it was quiet again about the first hour rocker in Germany, which had begun an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer and had become a skilled craftsman in parallel with the music at Wetzlar.