G.G. Anderson

Among the rock era’s standout German pop composers, G.G. Anderson ranks high for the sheer volume of chart material he has supplied to artists such as Axel Becker, Mireille Mathieu, and Rex Gildo while simultaneously building a recording career of his own. Gerd Günther Grabowski entered the world on December 4, 1949, in Eschwege and initially trained as an electrician. In the final years of the 1960s he became the lead vocalist of the Blue Moons, a group that placed several Beatles-inspired singles on the market before disbanding. After serving as frontman for Love and Tears, he stepped forward as a solo artist in 1973 under the name Alexander Marco. His opening single, “Kleines Lied vom Sonnenschein,” stirred little reaction, yet his gift for songcraft was noticed at once. For the next several years he worked steadily as a sought-after writer and producer, overseeing successful releases that included Roland Kaiser’s “Lieb Mich Ein Letztes Mal,” Engelbert’s “The Spanish Night Is Over,” and Audrey Landers’ “Manuel Goodbye.” A second solo attempt arrived in 1977 under the alias Tony Bell, but records such as “Mary Elaine” again failed to register. Only after adopting the professional identity G.G. Anderson did he reach the charts with 1984’s “Am Weißen Strand von San Angelo.” The immediate follow-up, “Sommernacht in Rom,” demonstrated that the earlier hit was no isolated event, and throughout the ensuing decade Anderson remained a steady presence on German airwaves with further solo entries such as “Mädchen, Mädchen,” “Rosalie,” and “Ich Lieb' Dich Jeden Tag ein Bißchen Mehr.” With “Hättest Du Heut Zeit für Mich?” he finished fourth at the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest and, two years later, collected the Goldene Stimmgabel award. At present his compositional tally stands at nearly three dozen German Top 40 placements, and cumulative sales of the associated recordings exceed 30 million units.