Trio (band)

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Trio (1981) album cover
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Trio (1981) album cover

Trio (sometimes written TRIO) was a German band that formed in 1980 and disbanded in 1985. It consisted of Stephan Remmler, Gert 'Kralle' Krawinkel, and Peter Behrens.

Contents

[edit] Band information

The band also produced a number of singles. It should be noted that there are many versions of Bye Bye (marked with different advertisements on the cover); versions in North America are called TRIO and Error and feature no advertisements. The 1997 CD of TRIO and Error was also released as Da Da Da in the United States, in response to the 1997 US Volkswagen commercial that featured the song "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha", often contracted to simply "Da Da Da". The re-release had some changes: two songs were added and the album was digitally remastered.

Trio were formed in the small German town of Großenkneten in 1979. By far the band is most noted for the aforementioned "Da Da Da", which was a hit in about 30 countries worldwide. The song is often given as an example of a song that is extremely repetitive or devoid of creative talent. However, to understand Trio one must understand its context. It was a product of the Neue Deutsche Welle (or NDW). However, Trio preferred the name Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit, which means "New German Cheerfulness", to describe their music. At that time, as now, popular songs were based on extremely simple structures that were simply polished. Trio's main principle was to remove almost all the polish from their songs, and to use the simplest practical structures (most of their songs were three-chord songs). For this reason, many of their songs are restricted to drums, guitar, vocals, and just one or maybe two other instruments, if any at all. Bass was used very infrequently until their later songs, and live shows often saw Remmler playing some simple preprogrammed chords on his small Casio VL-1 keyboard while Behrens played his drums single-handedly eating an apple. This simplicity was not simply due to an inability to sing or play well; Remmler's later solo career shows that he was capable of much more complicated music, and Kralle has demonstrated considerable ability as a guitarist in other ventures. Rather, their songs were bare-boned to show how bare the bones actually are.

The band never got very popular outside of Germany, and are largely forgotten even for their one-hit wonder. However, in its time, Trio had some popularity in Germany. For instance, the German version of "Da da da" was #2 on the charts (April 1982). Its most notable songs, other than Da Da Da, are probably "Broken Hearts for You and Me", "Boom Boom", "Hearts are Trump", and "Anna Letmein Letmeout". All of these songs except the first have a corresponding German version, which sometimes differs considerably, and these were also released in the English-speaking world - with unexpected success. "Da da da", for one, hit #2 in the UK charts in July 1982. They had some minor hits in Germany until the end of 1983, then disbanded the following year. Every member launched a solo career, with only Remmler managing to be somewhat successful. They produced a movie called "Drei gegen Drei", meaning "Three Against Three". In the movie, three people (played by Trio) kill doubles of themselves as part of a twisted scam to gain riches. However, the movie flopped miserably; even avid Trio fan Matthias Klein said, "[the members of] Trio are not actors". The corresponding soundtrack is the album Whats the Password, however, drummer Peter Behrens does not perform in any of the songs, despite appearing on the album's cover. He left the band due to dissatisfaction with Kralle and Remmler over financial matters, leading to the complete breakup of Trio in 1985.

[edit] Major albums (in order)

  • 1981: TRIO
  • 1982: TRIO Live im Frühjahr '82 ("Live in Spring '82")
  • 1983: Bye Bye / Trio And Error
  • 1985: Whats the Password
  • 1986: 5 Jahre zuviel (compilation)

[edit] Major singles (in order)

  • "Halt mich fest ich werd verrückt" (Germany-only)
  • "Da Da Da ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" ("Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha")
  • "Anna - lassmichrein lassmichraus" ("Anna - Letmein Letmeout")
  • "Bum Bum" ("Boom Boom")
  • "Herz ist Trumpf" ("Hearts Are Trump")
  • "Turaluraluralu - Ich mach BuBu was machst du" ("Tooralooralooraloo - Is It Old & Is It New")
  • "Tutti Frutti"
  • "Drei gegen drei"
  • "Ready For You"
  • "My Sweet Angel"
  • "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha" (US promo CD-single only)

[edit] CD releases

  • 1982: Trio
  • 1982: Trio live im Frühjahr 82 (MC only, 1992 re-released on CD)
  • 1983: Bye Bye
  • 1985: Whats the Password
  • 1986: 5 Jahre zuviel ("Five years too many", compilation)
  • 1997: Da Da Da (US only)
  • 2000: Triologie (Best-of compilation)
  • 2003: Trio Deluxe Edition

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Band members

The band was produced by Klaus Voormann, who also played bass on a few songs.

[edit] Audio sample

[edit] External link

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