West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlinb, no. A 645. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Bully Buhlan in Heimweh nach dir / Homesick for you (Robert A. Stemmle, 1952).
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 886. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Bully Buhlan in Schlagerparade / Hit Parade (Erik Ode, 1953).
Chattanooga Choo Choo
Bully Buhlan was born Hans-Joachim Buhlan in Berlin-Lichterfelde, in 1924. He studied law for some time and was also active as a pianist. He gave swing performances in well-known venues such as the Groschenkeller and Café Leon.
In 1945, the leader of the Radio Berlin Tanzorchester, Michael Jary, brought him to his orchestra, and because Buhlan could sing so well, he became the singer there. He was one of the first artists to start making records for the record label Amiga, founded in 1947.
For the label, he recorded eight singles. His biggest success was a German-language version of 'Chattanooga Choo Choo', sung with Peter Rebhuhn under the title ‘Kötzschenbroda-Express’.
In 1948, Buhlan switched from Amiga, which was controlled by the Soviet occupying forces, to the Western Berlin-based label Odeon, for which he recorded three singles, including 'Gib mir einen Kuß durchs Telefon'. Three singles for Telefunken followed in 1949, after which he signed a multi-year contract with Germany's biggest record company, Polydor.
In the early years, Buhlan's signature singles like 'Ham‘ se nich’ ‘ne Braut für mich' (1951) emerged. When the first hit parade started in Germany in late 1953, Buhlan was listed on it. In 1954, his song 'Angelika' reached 21st place.
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 887. Photo: Melodie / Herzog-Film / Arthur Grimm. Renate Danz and Bully Buhlan in Schlagerparade / Hit Parade (Erik Ode, 1953).
West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1127. Photo: Arthur Grimm / CCC-Film / Gloria. Bully Buhlan in Die große Starparade / The Big Star Parade (Paul Martin, 1954).
German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1313. Photo: Central-Europa/Europa/Film/Frederico. Bibi Johns and Bully Buhlan in Ball im Savoy/Ball at the Savoy (Paul Martin, 1955).
The typical friendly 'Berliner Junge'
Bully Buhlan was also successful as an actor. He appeared in such light entertainment films as Sag' die Wahrheit / Tell the Truth (Helmut Weiss, 1946) starring Gustav Fröhlich, Königin der Arena / Queen of the Arena (Rolf Meyer, 1952) with Maria Litto, and Die große Starparade / The Big Star Parade (Paul Martin, 1954).
In 1953, he had a leading role in the romantic comedy Das singende hotel / The Singing Hotel (Géza von Cziffra, 1953) opposite Rudolf Platte. For Polydor, Buhlan recorded several duets with singer Rita Paul and also with Mona Baptiste. Their song 'Es liegt was in der Luft' was Buhlan's biggest hit and reached second place in 1954.
In total, Buhlan reached the German charts with five singles, two of which reached second place: 'Ich möcht auf deiner Hochzeit tanzen' also reached second place. As the typical friendly 'Berliner Junge', Buhlan was particularly popular with Berlin audiences with his Berlin-related songs, such as 'Ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin' (1951), 'Ja der Kurfürstendamm' (1961) and 'Das Lied von der Krummen Lanke' (1961). In the 1960s, he worked several times with radio station RIAS, but recordings of that collaboration did not appear on the album.
At the time, Buhlan's popularity outside Berlin was waning, his records were no longer hits, and Polydor lost interest in the singer. A move to Philips yielded one record, 'Polly-Wolly-Holiday' (1963), but after that, Buhlan's recording career was over. He still appeared on TV until the early 1970s. His last TV film was the comedy Glückspilze / Lucky Ones (Thomas Engel, 1971), starring Christian Wolff and Loni von Friedl.
A comeback at the end of that decade yielded nothing. After an appearance in the TV production Ein kleines Glück auf allen Wegen / A Little Happiness Along the Way (Ekkehard Böhmer, 1980), he planned a tour of Germany with Bibi Johns and his former singing partner Mona Baptiste, but it never materialised: in 1982, the singer died of a heart attack in West Berlin. He found his final resting place at Berlin's Dahlem Forest Cemetery. Bully Buhlan was married to Elisa Charlotte Bergs from 1950 till she died in 1971. They had two children, Sabine Buhlan and Joachim Buhlan.
West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b. H., Minden-Westf., no. 1980. Photo: Real Film / Europa / Von Mindszenty. Bully Buhlan in Ich und meine Schwiegersöhne / Me and My Sons-in-law (Georg Jacoby, 1956).
West German promotion card by Philips. The card promoted a record with 'Polly-Wolly-Holiday' (1963).
West German autograph card. Photo: W. Hegge, Berlin.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
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