122/365 Songs: Answer me – Nat King Cole
This song was written by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch and was originally called Mutterlein. However, in 1952, David Whitfield and Frankie Lane recorded an English version, written by Carl Sigman. I have to be honest – I had no idea about the history of this song, and I’ve been playing it for years. It turns out that the English version asked God why the singer had lost his love: “Answer me, Lord above…” This resulted in many complaints and the BBC banned the song! The lyrics were changed to “Answer me, oh my love…” and it became a UK number one single for Frankie Lane and Dean Whitfield. Interestingly the version by Whitfield got to the number one spot first, and was knocked off by Laine’s version! This has never happened since in UK chart history. Answer me was rerecorded by Nat King Cole and it’s this version which is perhaps the most famous, and certainly how I got to know the song.
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