Swiss global hit turns 40 Kurt Maloo: "The 'Captain' song still pays my rent today"
The Zurich band Double became world-famous in 1985 with "The Captain of her Heart". The ballad made it to number 16 in the US charts. A conversation with singer Kurt Maloo, who is still earning money from his global hit today.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- With "The Captain of Her Heart", the Zurich band Double landed a global hit 40 years ago.
- The song entered the Swiss hit parade on September 22, 1985 - and subsequently made it into the charts in more than 50 countries.
- While the band Double around Felix Haug and Kurt Maloo disbanded in 1989, the "Captain" song is still streamed millions of times and played by radio stations worldwide.
- "I still like the song," says 71-year-old Maloo in a video interview with blue News.
40 years ago, Felix Haug and Kurt Maloo composed a global hit under the name Double. Swiss musicians who achieve something like this are the exception.
The Haug/Maloo duo did it with "The Captain of her Heart". The song, which is said to have been written by a blackbird, entered the Swiss hit parade on September 22, 1985 - and subsequently made it into the charts in more than 50 countries.
Never before or since has a pop song made in Switzerland been so successful abroad. Haug composed the music. Maloo wrote the lyrics.
Kurt Maloo: "I still like the song"
"The Captain of Her Heart" is a melancholy ballad. It sings about a woman who no longer wants to wait for a man.
According to Maloo in a video interview with blue News, it was a brilliant idea on the part of her British record company not to reveal anything about her Swiss origins to DJs in the UK.
He is happy to have become world famous with "Captain" and not with a bad song, says the 71-year-old, who has lived in Hamburg for many years. "I still like the song."
"The Captain of her Heart" became a phenomenal long seller that still has a permanent place in the heavy rotation databases of many radio stations around the world.
