rickyking

RICKY KING This excellent, sometimes underrated German guitarist, writer, arranger and guitar-teacher stepped onto the scene in the mid-70‘s at a time when instrumental guitar music was out of public interest except for a handful of hardliner-fans. Completely and unexpectedly, he became successful, established himself and today, in the new millenium, he is still active and playing.

Here is THE RICKY KING STORY

Ricky King was born 12th March 1946 as Hans Lingenfelder in Rastatt (near Baden-Baden). When he was 12 - it was the time of Rock and Roll - his parents presented him with his first acoustic guitar, a cheap no-name model. Due to high distance between the steel strings and neck, it was a bit difficult and painful to play, so it was not much fun for him. A short time later he got a better one, also acoustic, and he taught himself his first chords and joined in with records of then-popular artists such Peter Kraus (a German rock and roll singer who is still active and successful nowadays in the German-speaking area), Elvis and Bill Haley.

He took his first lessons from a guitar-teacher from Offenburg and due to his interests in electronics he was taught to be a radio-technician. At the same time he joined his first band and his guitar skills got better and better. A brand new guitar-sound rushed all over the world in those days, The Shadows. Hans was, like many other guitar-playing kids, deeply impressed and fascinated by this new type of sound.

In 1962 he joined a band called THE FELLOWS and he changed from acoustic to an electric guitar which cost him around DM 275,-- (about 100 GBP). It was a solid body Hofner model with three pick-ups and a vibrato system, not unlike the Stratocaster.
In 1964 he left the FELLOWS and went to a band called THE TWENTIES although Hans himself was just only 18.

Besides his job as radio-technician, he studied classic Spanish guitar at the Karlsruhe Music-High-School where he met Gerd Koethe who studied saxophone. He changed again to THE MOONLIGHTS who were popular in the Karlsruhe-area playing American GI-clubs and dances, guesting in radio- and talents-shows. He recorded and released his first self-written song co-written with Gerd, titled Night Work with the MOONLIGHTS which was released as a 7" on 'Metronome'.

Five years later, The MOONLIGHTS split up and Hans was getting more and more interested in playing classical Spanish guitar inspired by Segovia and Julian Bream. He practised night and day and invested the then very high sum of DM 3.600,-- (about 1500 GBP) in an original Spanish Ramirez-guitar. Due to his musical studies at the Karlsruhe Music-High-School he qualified as a Spanish guitar teacher.

Today, his Ramirez-guitar is part of his guitar-collection which also includes:
a George-Benson-Jazz-guitar,
a Fender Telecaster,
two Martin D35 acoustic guitars (6 & 12 strings)
two solid body electric guitars especially built for him by Hofner
a Suzuki 12-string (which he used as rhythm guitar for Verde from the intro on)
a classic Santiago Marin,
a Jose Lopez Bellido Flamenco guitar,
plus Banjo, Bouzouki, Mandoline and Balalaika,
a Gibson solid body electric guitar, not unlike the SG-models,
a special G & L electric by Leo Fender (silver-fleck; like a stratocaster with a silver look and extremely low noise, Humbucker-like pick-ups, and, not to forget
two white Fender Stratocasters (a 1962 model, serial-no. 91301; and a 1968 model, serial-no. 223748).

In 1973, Hans joined a rock-band called JOY UNLIMITTED, which, under the name HIT KIDS, also recorded more commerical stuff and then Hans started to do more and more session work. He can be heard on lots of records of many German-speaking artists such as Paola, Roberto Blanco, Costa Cordalis among many. He worked for Albert Hammond who recorded a successful LP in Berlin at that time.

Together with his friends, producer Roland Heck (who released records as organ-player 'Danny Blue') and Gerd Koethe (who released records as sax-player 'Cisco Silver') Hans decided to record an album of guitar instrumentals at a time - 1975, when almost nobody was interested in this style of music. Glam-Rock and Disco were in, The 'Shadows' were still more or less inactive and The 'Spotnicks' toured Europe alright but playing a progressive and heavier style than their older things. Oh yes, and Holland had Henk Bruysten, who, as 'Hank the Knife & the Jets', played rough Jet Harris-style-six-string-bass stomping songs like Guitar King and Stan the Gunman.

At the same time, Hans got offered a song written by two Italian brothers, Guido and Maurizio de Angelis both who, under the name 'Oliver Onions' are popular artists and who wrote soundtracks for many Italian movies starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. They had recorded and released a song called Verde a year before in Italy but it totally flopped. Hans recorded the number for his first album and his first single. He signed a contract with BASF-Records and it took more than six months until Verde jumped into the charts and became his first hit

The label wanted a fitting, international‘ name for Hans and after due consideration came up with CLIFF KING, and his first album became CLIFF KING PLAYS FANTASTIC GUITAR HITS. The album had a good start in the shops but hit two problems: German copyright control found out that the name 'Cliff King' had been registered by someone else earlier so Cliff King became RICKY KING together with the new name on the re-release of the album.

The second hitch was when RICKY KING became successful, somebody at CBS found out that Hans Lingenfelder was signed to them already as a member of 'The Hit-Kids' which prohibited them signing with other labels. They solved the problem by having a rear view photo on the BASF-album and Ricky King moving to CBS for his follow-up.

The first album included two self-written songs Jumbo Walk and Go-Kart, and a well balanced mix of well-known old guitar-hits like 'Geisterreiter' (Ghostriders), Walk don't run, Johnny Guitar, Apache, Wheels, Amorada, Maria Elena (performed on Spanish acoustic guitar), Hava Nagila, Sleepwalk and, of course, Verde. The conception worked out well - old famous guitar-tunes which everybody remembered, newly arranged and carefully recorded. A lot of acoustic, unplugged (!!!) guitars provided a strong, full background, filled up with a few soft synth- and keyboard lines and, on top, a clean shadowy Stratocaster playing the melodies. Another possible reason for his success is probably the fact that this album featured many of the great guitar-hits at once, presented here in an updated actual sound-picture - presenting nostalgia and the present at once. Secondly, most of the original versions were out of the shops in those days, mostly only existing as scratchy records in fans' collections.

Ricky King, as agreed, changed to EPIC (CBS) and BASF stopped record-production a short time later. The trio of Hans, Gerd and Roland started recording the next album and single. For the single, they took a wonderful Spanish tune called Romance which everybody, ever playing Spanish guitar, has had to play at sometime. They came up with a new arrangement once again with a full rich acoustic guitar backing and a few wah-wah-effects. Titled Le Reve, it became Ricky King's second hit and it was also successfully covered by German-singers as a vocal.

The album was done in about the same way as before - a voyage through the world of well-known guitar songs of the early sixties covering the Shadows‘ Quartermasters Stores, Midnight and Guitar Tango, the Spotnicks‘ Amapola, The Ventures‘ House of the rising sun and Wipe out, Tielman Brothers‘ Java Guitar; something Spanish - Aranjuez; own compositions Storm rider and The Joker, the old western-movie-theme High Noon and Le Reve.

Many TV- and live appearances followed establishing a new name beside the giants of guitar. This album - 'RICKY KING - GOLDEN GUITAR HITS became extremely successful too and so it was no wonder that his follow-up was done in the same format.

This third album came out in 1977 titled MARE (the 7“ was also Mare), and contained tracks: Mare; Atlantis; Silver Beach; Il Vento; Pipeline; Little Princess; Wild Wind; Dance on; Pony Express; Wonderful land; Happy Guitar and Dont cry for me Argentina.

His contined success resulted in a number of awards such as 'Golden Europe 1977' and a number-one hit in the instrumental-category of a music-paper called 'Musik-Mark' (Music-Market) kicking long-time-place-holder James Last down to second place.

In 1978, he released his next album with a changed conception. For RICKY KING: DIE 20 SCHOENSTEN WELT-HITS IM GITARREN-SOUND (20 BEST WORLD HITS OF GUITAR-SOUND, instead covering guitar-hits, he did instrumental versions of international vocal hits and evergreens. Tracks were: Ti Amo; Rivers of Babylon; El Condor Pasa; Yesterday/Sounds of Silence; Das Lied vom Tod (Once upon a time in the west); Bonanza; Popcorn; Spanish Harlem; Argentina (not, Don’t cry for me Argentina!); Song sung blue; Spanish eyes; Schiwago Melodie (Lara's theme); Samba Pa Ti; Jambalaya; Alexis Sorbas; Ave Maria; Vaya con dios/Moon River; Le Reve.

The album, supported by massive TV and radio promotion, hit the charts again and by reaching a wider audience than before, resulted in platinum sales. Ironically, a similar step was taken by the Shadows two years later, who covered famous and mostly vocal hits in their own inimitable style and, supported by TV-advertising, racked up big sales but lots of fans called it elevator music.

Lots of German instro-fans thought the same of Ricky King but I think Ricky’s musical development was completely different. He had always been interested in various projects and styles, such as classical guitar studies, playing in jazz, and beat/rock-groups; working as session-man etc. He has never been a long-time member of any band.

The string of successful productions went on: with ZAUBER DER GITARRE (THE MAGIC OF GUITAR) in 1979 which was once again a balanced mix of instrumental versions of international hits and evergreens. Also in 1979 he released, as many artists have done before and will do again, an album of Xmas-songs (DIE SCHOENSTEN WEIHNACHTSLIEDER IM GITARRENSOUND (BEST XMAS SONGS PLAYED ON GUITAR).

In 1980 he went back to his roots with another album featuring further well-known guitar-hits such as FBI; Flingel Bunt; Peace Pipe etc, titled ELECTRIC GUITAR HITS. A year later he surprised everyone with an album GOLDEN GUITAR SYMPHONIES featuring instrumental Stratocaster-guitar-versions of classical tunes such as Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Liebestraum, Barcarole, Mondscheinsonate and more backed by an orchestra. 1981 also saw his first hit-compilation SEINE GROSSEN ERFOLGE (HIS GREATEST HITS), followed by his next actual album, once again an instrumental mix of German and international hits called LIEDER GEHEN UM DIE WELT (SONGS TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD).

Fresh new waves hit the music scene in the early eighties and Ricky King's next album, titled HAPPY GUITAR DANCING, featured some instrumental versions of this new stuff such as OMD's Maid of Orleans. Dieter Bohlen who later became famous worldwide as one half of 'Modern Talking', wrote Hale, hey Louise for Ricky, a nice catchy song with some female choruses in the background. Bohlen also penned Fly with me to Malibu. With these new fresh sounds accompanying his established guitar-style Ricky King was up-to-date again and never sounded old-fashioned. His next album came in 1983 and was a collection of songs dedicated to and coming from the Caribbean area - SOUTH SEA MUSIC, featuring Song of Jamaica, Aloha Oe, Jamaica farewell .... something like a dream of the endless summer.

He still appeared 'live' on big events and on TV. In 1983 he fulfilled one of his long lasting dreams and recorded an album with the material that first electrified him - rock and roll. This album, RICKY KING'S R & R PARTY, featured his versions of oldies like Shake Rattle and Roll; This ole house; Only you; Johnny Be Good; Donna; See you later Alligator; Red River Rock; Love me tender; Teddy Bear and more.

Ricky changed labels to Polygram in the mid eighties and started with two CDs, VERDE and GUITAR HOLIDAY - modern arrangements featuring more keyboard backing than before and new songs as well as re-recordings of his earlier hits.

His next production, this time in 1988, was LA ROSE NOIR (BLACK ROSE), featuring 13 self-written Lingenfeler/Koeth/-Heck originals and one traditional song in La Bamba. This climbed half way up the charts. His change into the 90‘s was flanked by his next CD SUPER GUITAR DANCING, featuring originals mostly and a well-done version of the then summer hit Lambada.

The second half of the 80‘s saw another musical change. In Germany, there was a sharp separation between popular music and German folk-music (polka and brass) and for a long time it was impossible for artists of one side to be accepted by the other and there were harsh critics in both camps. But, the borderline opened up a little with pop'-singers using parts of the folk-scene-elements and folk-artists - especially the new younger ones - used poppy elements which although a little revolutionary was successful. Koch-Records, a new Austrian based record company, started up with a massive output of those German/Austrian singers and bands, later signing pop-artists and licensing back-catalogues including Ricky King's first album. Koch also released the Spotnicks' albums 'Highway Boogie'; 'In Time'; '16 Golden World Hits'; and‚ Hand in Hand‘ ('Unlimited' album minus 1 track) in German speaking areas.

Ricky King also recognized the change and came up with a new trendy album combining these styles with VON HERZ ZU HERZ (FROM HEART TO HEART), featuring many new originals such as Viva Maria; Gloeckerl-Tanz (Little bell dance); Fiesta; Liebesmelodie (Love's song); and more. Also included was a song called Glocken der Heimat (Chapel-bells of home) which became a big hit on the German TV-hitparade. Ricky King was on top again and signed a new contract this time with Koch-Records.

The next albums were ROMANTICA and ROMANTIC GUITAR HITS both featuring slower romantic songs, some of them popular evergreens, the rest self-penned originals including two duets with a popular German clarinet-player called Henry Arland. King later guested on Arland's next album.

In 1996, came TRAUMLAND (DREAMLAND), once again a production more classical in tone, this time fully played on his Spanish 'Ramirez'-guitar, accompained by an orchestra, featuring Aranjuez; Adelita; Aria; Greensleeves (titled Blaetter im Wind); Bouree and others. Included also, this time in its more original Spanish treatment, Le Reve, here titled Traumland - the classical Spanish side of Ricky King.

ZEIT FÜR GEFUEHLE (TIME FOR FEELINGS), released in 1997, once again included romantic stuff, featuring three haunting duets with pan-flute-player Ulrich Herkenhoff: Nadine, Time to say goodbye and Don't cry for me Argentina all with orchestral backing. Completely different was his next production KULT-SCHLAGERPARTY (CULT HITS CELEBRATION). This time he had recorded instrumental versions of actual and older German-singalong-songs, packed into 90's arrangements, including a reworking of Hale hey Louise and the old Sir Douglas Quintet hit Mendocino which originally was a massive hit in Germany.

In early 2000 he recorded a number of songs for the Readers Digest label as well as further songs for his next production, for which he changed labels to German Austrophon-Records. The CD (on German Austrophon) appeared in March as HAPPY GUITAR featuring poppy reworkings of Happy Guitar; Verde; Le Reve as well as original songs and further covers.

His next album came out in 2003 called PLATINUM EDITION with four originals and a string of covered songs such as Telstar, La Bamba, Moon River, Yesterday and more. Another new album was released 2004 called DIE GROESSTEN JAHRHUNDERTHITS (The biggest hits of the century) featuring guitar versions of international and also German hit songs and also five original self penned numbers.

In September 2006 Ricky celebrated his 30^th Anniversary in show-biz with a sold out jubilee-concert, backed by a band of professional musicians and he played all his hits and much more. Early 2007 saw the release of his next album called STERNENSTAUB (Stardust - but has nothing to do with the old Glen Miller song). This new album contained only four covered songs but ten self-penned numbers, all excellent and strong melodies. For the first time he also included two German language vocal songs.

Another sold out concert took place in September 2007, again with a backing-band, and his first DVD including his 2006-jubilee-concert came out in September 2007 too. A live-double-CD from his jubilee-concert is going to be released very soon.

This RICKY-KING-story was first been published in ‘NEW GANDY DANCER‘ - The magazine for rock instrumental music - No. 58 in 2000. It is an update of a NGD (issue 21) article from ca. 1983. Another update was done in October 2007.

Karl-Heinz Villis (October 2007)