The Classics Never Die: Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen” and Bloodlines 2

It sometimes only takes one hit to ensure mailbox money for a lifetime and beyond for a writer and his or her heirs. Such has been the case with a hit song that is sometimes viewed as camp or schlocky, but that has helped pay the bills for several people for six decades. And now Wayne Newton’s original 1963 recording of “Danke Schoen” – with a little re-mixing and editing – is back, as part of the trailer for the upcoming 2021 release of the single player, role-playing video game that asks the question, “What monster will you be?”: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

Developed by Seattle-based Hardsuit Labs, and published by Sweden’s Paradox Interactive, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is the sequel to 2004’s release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. The trailer features “Danke Schoen,” sung by a young man who would become the face of Las Vegas entertainment, Wayne Newton.

The song’s melody was first written and recorded as an instrumental by German composer and label executive Bert Kaempfert (who helped launch The Beatles) in 1959, originally titled “Candlelight Café.” German lyrics were added by lyricist Kurt Schwabach, while English lyrics were written by the groundbreaking record executive Milt Gabler, who was the uncle of comedian Billy Crystal. A song about a sadly failed relationship featuring New York-flavored lyrics, Newton’s high-timbre voice took “Danke Schoen” to number 13 on the Billboard charts.

Newton told Ed Masley of the Arizona Republic last year about how pop icon Bobby Darin was really responsible for his recording “Danke Schoen.”

“My manager found us a job at the lounge at the Copacabana in New York City. That’s when Bobby Darin came into the show and asked me if I was recording. I said, ‘No sir, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Well, you are now. You and I will be in the studio next week and I will be producing all your records going forward.’ … What had happened is the first session that I did with Bobby, he gave me a song called ‘Heart.’ I think he wrote the song. Then we were in LA, and he set up another session, where he gave me ‘Danke Schoen.’ I found out about a year after I had recorded ‘Danke Schoen,’ and it became a monster hit, that the song had been written for Bobby, but because he was so intent on making sure I had a hit, he gave me the song to record and never told me it was meant for him.”

“I didn’t learn until probably four or five years later that “Danke Schoen” was really mis-pronounced. The term is really ‘Danke Schoen’ (pronounces in a way that is close rhyming with turn), which – of course – none of the lyrics rhyme with.”

Which brings us to Bloodlines 2, and how it may seem odd that a song like “Danke Schoen” was chosen for the 2:22 trailer promoting a video game that features vampires, demons, werewolves and more.John Ahlbäck, marketing creative producer at Paradox Interactive, explained what led to the decision. “We wanted something to contrast the dark scenes – to bring a sinister smirk to the whole mood. We pulled references from The Joker teaser trailer to Tarantino movies. We also needed something with a good beat so that it feels danceable. We tried out a bunch of tunes in the early stages but really fell for the escalation in ‘Danke Schoen.’” The song has also been featured in such movies as Vegas Vacation, Meet the Parents, and, of course, the iconic Matthew Broderick lip-sync scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as well as in television commercials. And Newton is still active, presenting a series of smaller, more intimate shows at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where it would be hard to imagine him not singing “Danke Schoen.”