Here is the Space Patrol in a hip-hop version. Is the use of Peter Thomas Space Patrol by DJ Spinna a sample, a cover, an interpolation or an adaptation…..? Be that as it may, my dad had his troubles all his life with such unsolicited samples or as he used to say, the so-called KLAU loading (meaning steal-loading).
Today a very special treat! Peter Thomas plays Raumpatrouille Orion live on the organ, accompanied by the Bundesgrenzschutzorchester Berlin (Federal Border Guard Orchestra) and the Schöneberger Sängerknaben. All this in the “Superwunschkonzert” 2003 with Carolin Reiber.
In the Derrick episode “Death of the Trumpeter”, the Milanese Emy Cesaroni (stage name SABRINA) sings the song OHNE DICH IST ES NACHT. Peter Thomas discovered Emy Cesaroni on the occasion of the singer’s visit to Villa Cordy in St. Tropez – the summer residence of the Thomas family. Emy, who did not speak a word of German, studied the lyrics for this song under the expert guidance of Cordy Thomas (stage name Gil Francropolus), who also wrote the lyrics for this song. At the very beginning of this clip you can see how the singer lovingly runs through the hair of the charming Peter Thomas.
The sex scandal film “Schulmädchen Report” (Schoolgirl Report) outraged the guardians of virtue in the 1980s. The audience response, on the other hand, was enormous. Peter Thomas composed the theme song to “Schoolgirl Report II,” sung by Daisy Door. The films are rather innocuous by today’s standards, but the first pseudo-authentic episodes about the sexual behavior of female teenagers exude a strange charm. But see for yourself……
Accordingly, the text would probably not be considered politically correct nowadays:
SCHOOLGIRL REPORT Lyrics
Schoolgirls have to be like this,
We must exist.
Yes, we always think of something,
Schoolgirls have to be like that,
That’s the way we are.
Take us as we are
We don’t want to miss a thing
We like to be young
We want to see everything
And only dream of love.
[Refrain]
We are the way we are
We don’t want to miss out on anything
Love is what we love
We’ll go to any party
We don’t want to be anybody’s cup of tea
[Refrain]
That’s the way we are
That’s the way we are
When it came to sports, Peter Thomas kept it like Winston Churchill – “no sports” was his motto. Out of love for his wife, he went skiing for the first time in Kitzbühel when they bought a beautiful farm there in 1963. With the exception of the photos shown here, I have not seen my father on skis otherwise. He did, however, write the film music for Gunter Sachs’ ski film “Happening in White”, which is played as background music in this clip.
The legendary acceptance speech!
In 2009, Peter Thomas received the first German Music Authors’ Award from the collecting society GEMA for his life’s work. The jury honored him for his diverse work and his formative influences on compositional work.
In his legendary speech, he addressed clear words to the German collecting society GEMA and demanded a quick intervention and revolt of all parties to counteract the digital mechanisms without payment. This was in times of music piracy, downloads and the first signals of a digital world, with which the music industry had to struggle and still does. Peter Thomas speaks clearly about his views on the subject at the time:
Peter Thomas received the Federal Film Award in 1961 for the film music for Will Tremper’s film “Escape to Berlin” (Flucht nach Berlin). The gold ribbon is the most highly endowed German cultural prize. In 1963, he received the most important German award for the second time for the soundtrack to „The Endless Night“ (Die endlose Nacht), directed by Will Tremper. The film drama is set on a foggy night at Tempelhof Airport with a top-notch cast, including Harald Leibnitz, Bruce Low, Mario Adorf, Wolfgang Spier. Of the films she has starred in, Hannelore Elsner has called “The Endless Night” her favorite.
On December 3, 2021, the urns of Cordy, Peter and brother Dominic Thomas were interred in the Waldfriedhof Dahlem (Row 10 No. 86) in Berlin. It was a sad farewell and at the same time a solemn occasion entirely in the spirit of the Thomas family. A small special feature is at the foot of the grave – a QR code with music – father would have his joy.
Discover this rarity from the estate of Peter Thomas, recently released on the in-house label MuZikBeater: Frankenstein Rock!
At the end of the 50s, the Schlager was very popular (1958: 58 million records sold) and the experimental Peter Thomas briefly went among the singers themselves. So in 1959, with the group “Peter Thomas und seine Tele-Boys”, he recorded the single “Frankenstein Rock” and “Pst! Setz auf die Sieben!“.
Fog billows over the Thames and a hunchbacked murderer trudges through Soho. Hello, this is Edgar Wallace, and welcome – not to London, but to German Wirtschaftswunder cinema. The Wallace films, with their bland mixture of ghost train horror and detective story. The most original contribution to the Wallace phenomenon was probably by Peter Thomas. His compositions for 18 Wallace films have aged the least.
“Do what you want, but don’t make it expensive” was the instruction given by film producer Horst Wendlandt to his composer. Thomas has always fulfilled both: He is on budget and he has remained idiosyncratic. For the film “The Sorcerer” he mixed women’s screams, gunshots, men’s rattles, chanting and big band with a lot of swing to create perhaps the craziest music in film history – crazy and even more insane than Kinski’s infamous outbursts on the set.
We’ll keep you up to date on exciting new projects and upcoming events from Peter Thomas Music.
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