Discover Archive - Page 4 of 4 - Peter Thomas - Komponist, Dirigent, Arrangeur

Discover

Donna Summer

Donna Summer appeared in the three-part German TV crime thriller 11 Uhr 20 (11:20) (ZDF 1970), where she performed Peter’s track Black Power.

While America had the smooth jazz of Henri Mancini, Italy the atmospheric sounds of Ennio Morricone, England the bold brass sounds of John Barry and France the atmospheric tones of Jean Jaques Perry, German had all this combined – in the form of Peter Thomas!
Black Power, which was written and arranged by Peter, was performed by Donna Summer specially for 11 Uhr 20. In fact, it was the first ever recording made by the legendary singer, at that time still known as LaDonna Adrian Gaines. The recording was commercially distributed for the first time on the CD Moonflowers And Mini-Skirts.

With the support of an incredible, highly rated rhythm section consisting of top studio and jazz musicians (including Siggi Schwab on guitar and Lothar Meid of Amon Düül II on bass), Peter succeeded in creating a sound explosion with enough force to send a man (and his wife!) to the moon.

John Bender

4. October 2020

Discover

Pulp

Despite many unforgettable melodies, Peter Thomas’ name was, for a long-time, known only to a small group of die-hard Raumpatrouille (Space Patrol) and Edgar Wallace fans. As the films began to acquire a larger cult following, Peter’s music – and later Peter himself – became cult favourites, appreciated by different generations of fans worldwide. Later, at the beginning of the 1990s, a new generation of musicians began to release reworks of Peter’s creations. English pop group Pulp were one of them. They sampled a few seconds of Bolero On The Moon Rocks, a track from the Raumpatrouille soundtrack, in their song This Is Hardcore (1998) (audio sample no. 21). The song appeared on the album of the same name.

The use of (protected) samples typically requires the owner’s permission. So it happened that one day, Jarvis Cocker – frontman of the English group – called Peter up and asked about his father: Pulp wanted to sample the Raumpatrouille soundtrack for their track This is Hardcore and needed the composer’s permission. When Peter – who at first believed he was speaking to Joe Cocker – replied that he was the one that Jarvis was looking for, the pop star was stunned. “I thought you would be dead!”

4. October 2020