Roberto Delgado

Roberto Delgado was an alias of the multi-talented Horst Wende, a German musician, composer, arranger, producer and bandleader, who is rightly attributed as a pioneer for bringing multi-ethnic music themes into western homes, albeit in arrangements far removed from the original source material. Wende had already had considerable success within Germany, recording 'Schlager' - a particularly northern European style combining waltz, polka, and similar traditional structures with catchy melodies to create upbeat 'party pop'. Fascinated by world rhythms, Wende released several albums of non-European melodies in a Schlager context in Germany to limited success; whereupon Polydor Records decided to release similar future works under the nom de plume of Roberto Delgado. Polydor simultaneously marketed and promoted the Delgado records internationally alongside those of Kai Warner, James Last and Bert Kaempfert to resounding success during the Beat 60's, establishing major markets in both the UK and United States as well as Europe. Warner, Last, Kaempfert and Delgado/Wende were all major players in the prolific Hamburg music community. All signed to Polydor Records, they combined energies and talent, recruiting many of the top musicians available in Germany and throughout Europe, as well as sharing producers, studios, and engineers, thereby ensuring conistent quality of recording. Each were prolific, individually releasing as many as six albums in a year, with every title being snapped up by middle-aged consumers enthralled with the happy new sounds emerging from Germany. The musician pool was as talented as Motown's recently-celebrated Funk Brothers, including such top talent as trumpeters Charly Tabor, Werner Gutterer, Manfred Moch and Ack van Rooyen, trombonists Ake Persson...