At 02:34 AM 5/7/2004 -0400, Jaimie Vernon wrote:
>...and it's interesting to note 
>that Nena's "99 Luftballons" in German was the hit here...not the English 
>B-side either. Guess we like our Kraut-Pop.)

The German version of "99 Luftballoons" was the US hit too, with the
English lyrics only getting occasional plays on MTV and almost never
getting played on the radio.  I prefer to think this wasn't squeamishness
about the subject matter (yep, it was a bouncy little tune with a killer
synth-bass riff and lyrics about total nuclear apocalypse) so much as it
was disgust over how dopey the English translation was.

You hardly ever see the English version on those Hits of the 80s comps.

S