Lili Marleen, the song was composed from original German lyrics from a poem called, "The Song of a Young Sentry," by Hans Leip, born on September 22, 1893, in Hamburg, Germany. In 1915, before going to the "Russian front" in WWI, he combined the name of his girlfriend, Lili and from a young nurse named Marleen, who he met on sentry duty while in the fog. The poem caught the attention of Norbert Schultz, born in 1911 in Braunschweig, who set the poem to music in 1938. Schultze was already rich and famous before Lili Marleen. He had composed operas, film scores and marches with politically inspired lyrics. At first the tune was not liked at all. Goebbles wanted a march tune and Lale Andersen did not want to sing it. Lale Andersen hated the song until the day she died and had to force herself to sing this melody. Lale Andersen, born Eulalia Bunnenberg, on March 3, 1905, in Bremerhaven, was a singer in the Berlin theaters. She was later caught by the Gestapo trying to flee into Switzerland but released as this would cause embarrassment for the Government due to her hit songs. When the song was first released it was banned in Germany which of course did nothing to slow its popularity. Feldmarschall Rommel liked the song and had it broadcast on Radio Belgrade at 9:55 p.m., just before signing off. After the broadcasts, there was no holding it back soldiers on both sides were listening to it regardless of language. The song was written in English for British and American soldiers and was sung in hospitals and front lines on both sides.

Marlene Dietrich picked up the song on her tours to the front lines and made a recording for RCA in 1944. The song is said to have been translated into 48 languages. Even Tito in Yugoslavia enjoyed the song.

The other songs are mainly what I would call soldiers sweetheart songs, Veronica, Rosemarie etc. Herms Neil was one of the composer of these songs with his famous, "Erika." In song #14, Die Landpartie, is substituted for Annemarie, which is a recorders mistake. Die Landpartie is a Panzer song with the same idea as Panzerwagen lied. Erika should have also been added to this CD.

I would rate this CD as very good especially since it has almost all the sweetheart songs together.