The Silver Convention Story

           

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The article says the following:

"Save Me" was recorded with 30 musicians, including a choir. After the hit single success, there was demand for an album. On that first album Roberta Kelly, Gitta Walther and Betsy Allen were paid 1200 German Marks for the singing session.

In a television interview Penny McLean stated that there were more than 3 female singers, which explains Lucy Neale's part in the original recording. Only Roberta Kelly, Gitta Walther and Betsy Allen came forward and wanted to be recognized for the hit success of "Fly, Robin, Fly." Michael Kunze admits that they sang the vocals. He explains that they were asked to represent Silver Convention on television and stage, but the 3 girls were not available for different reasons because of contracts and other engagements. Therefore 3 new girls were found to represent Silver Convention: Penny McLean (real name Gertrude Wirshinger), Ramona Wulf (real name Ramona Kraft) and Linda G. Thompson (real name Linda Übelherr.) Michael Kunze forgot to mention that Jackie Carter promoted Silver Convention song "Save Me" and appreared in photos before Penny McLean was hired to replace her. Jackie Carter also sang the lead vocal of the song "Please Don't Change the Chords of this Song" on the first album.

Doubtfully, Michel Kunze explains that he let Penny, Ramona and Linda sing the vocals for all the songs on the first album (except the song "Save Me") and mixed their vocals with the already recorded vocals by the others. He also admits that their part is minimal. But Penny, Ramona and Linda never sang any of the vocals on the first album at all.

It is interesting to note that Gitta Walther recorded the scream in "Lady Bump" and backing vocals, because Penny McLean couldn't do the scream during the recording session. This is not correct.

Penny McLean said: "Concerning the scream, if I had known in 1975 what kind of fuss people made out of this scream, which every good singer can do without thinking twice, I would have insisted on doing the whole tape again when we recorded "Lady Bump." But time was (and still is) money at the studio and so Michael Kunze just used me for the parts they needed to bring "Lady Bump" out as a solo record. "In more than 1000 performances, which, as you know, all the screams were sung "live," I had to do this scream at least 16 times every evening, because people wanted to hear it over and over again."

Therefore, "Lady Bump" was meant as an album track for the first Silver Convention LP. The instrumental version "The Lady Bumps On" with only the "Look At Me" chorus and Gitta's scream was the original version, sung by Gitta Walther, Lucy Neale, Betsy Allen, Jackie Carter and Roberta Kelly.

Kunze decided to make it a solo record for Penny McLean, and they had her record her vocals only over the original tape. Consequently, Penny McLean was never asked to scream the master tape with Gitta's now famous scream was in the original.

Penny has practiced the scream ever since and has performed the scream herself in "live" performances. Also, it is interesting to note that Lucy Neale did the talking introduction of the song "Lady Bump," not Penny McLean.

The second Silver Convention album was recorded with the vocals of Penny, Ramona and Linda. Ramona did the solo on "Thank You, Mr. D.J." and Linda was featured in "No, No, Joe."

(Interpreted by Hans De Vries, corrections made by the webmaster.)

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