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Hans Blum aka Henry Valentino (1928 - 2024)
Photo: Henning Kaiser/dpa
You can't get the chorus out of your head once you've heard it.
In 1977, under his pseudonym Henry Valentino, he released the hit "Im Wagen vor mir" with his duet partner Uschi - in which he then sang his distinctive "Rada rada radadadada, rada rada radadadada" in an artificially grating voice.
The song was supposed to become a hit.
The musician, whose real name was Hans Blum, was actually a man in the background of the hit industry.
He works primarily as a composer.
The list of artists for whom he wrote songs was long - from Howard Carpendale ("The Beautiful Girl from Page One") to Wencke Myhre ("Don't bite into every apple") and Katja Ebstein ("I believe in love in the world") to Hildegard Knef ("The Old Wolf").
His songs were entered into the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson four times.
Valentino had his heyday in the sixties and seventies.
Blum told the dpa news agency on his 90th birthday that he never actually wanted to be famous.
The fictional character Henry Valentino was created when he couldn't get one of his songs sold to a record company.
From then on, Blum called himself Henry Valentino, put on a hat, wore a wide mustache and sang himself - with an artificially trained rasp voice.
When he spoke normally, he had a very clear, gentle tone.
He lived in Overath near Cologne.
His birthplace was Hanover.
As his record company announced, Hans Blum alias Henry Valentino died on Friday at the age of 95.
“A long life marked by happiness and impressive creativity has come to an end,” his family said on Monday.
The composer and singer died at home “the way he wanted”: “at night and completely peacefully.”
cbu/dpa