Speaking of Germans, I went into a long discussion of Neue Deutsche Welle (“German New Wave”) in my article on one of the coolest UARB’s of them all, Ja Ja Ja; and I never once mentioned the most successful of those bands:  Nena.  Their worldwide 1983 hit song “99 Luftballons” was in heavy rotation on MTV long before the English-language version, “99 Red Balloons” came along.  (The only English words in the original song were “Captain Kirk”).  I might have an excuse if that was all I knew about them, but actually, I had three of their albums and a cassette to boot – one was completely German language, and if anything, I like their German songs better than their English ones.  One big favorite:  “?” (yeah, that’s the name of the song, and often paired with the German word for “question mark”, Fragezeichen).  I am often patting myself on the back about how good my current article is turning out, and then I make an inexcusable omission like that. 

(April 2013)