Schnappi

Schnappi, the little crocodile is a German children's song, the end of 2004 became an international million-seller, was used as a name of a cartoon character and a merchandising wave triggered.

Style and content of the song

Schnappi, the little crocodile is in form and content, a children's song. It uses - sung by a child with still unsteady voice - the typical textual and melodic characteristics. The text is simple in structure and uses the style figure of the " multiple - starts - with - wrong - vowels " ( " Schni - schna - schnappi " as in " Bi -Ba- Goblin " ), which belongs to the sound figures so mentioned, backed by a pentatonic melody. In a simple rhyme is told of a just hatched Nile crocodile, the cute, curious and cheeky explores its environment.

Genesis

The great success of " Schnappi " was completely unplanned and met everyone unexpectedly. The starting point was the WDR children's series " The program with the mouse ", for the Cologne author, composer and producer Iris Gruttmann writes among others.

The song was, however, specifically for their then five- year-old niece Joy Gruttmann, for Aunt Iris Gruttmann the coming of Rosita Bliss Bach original text in 2001 rewrote and this, wrote a tune, appeared initially only on the MusiCassette "Iris songs - song for me " from the MC- series "Songs & stories with the mouse." Here is the song of the "Crocodile on the Nile " or performed by the then five- year-old niece Joy Gruttmann. After the song in 2003 was on the compilation " Great and Small with the Mouse" ( "Carousel " - MC # 544751-4 ) markets. The previously available only on analogue carriers song was converted in early 2004 by Internet users in the MP3 audio format and distributed via filesharing.

Only solved in mp3 " Schnappi " on the Internet from a snowball effect. Once you became aware of the song at the radio station SWR 3 and had rather taken it as a humorous contribution to the morning program, went the sender receives hundreds of requests. Even the largest German internet radio RauteMusik began extensive public performances of the song. From May / June 2004, the song spread over different web sites, emails, chats and forums, so its reputation is significantly increased. At that time, a very high prevalence of " Schnappi " was on the internet already achieved, and mid-August 2004, alerted Iris Gruttmann of the mouse editorial on the " Schnappi " hysteria. Then applied for and received the authors on 24 August 2004 Title Protection according to § 5 paragraph 3 Trademark.

Publication on CD

Now also record companies were aware of the " Schnappi " wave. Polydor Records released the slightly edited original on 6 December 2004 ( Nicholas day, at the same time Joy's birthday) and sold the title within four weeks approximately 250,000 times. Approximately 630,000 copies put this CD single of Schnappi up to February 2005. A year later, in November 2005, the single had sold nearly 1.4 million copies, and the accompanying album " Schnappi and his friends " went more than 420,000 times on the international counters. Meanwhile, the single has sold 1.7 million times. In parallel, the song was combined with an animated video for the music television channel.

" Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil " entered the German charts, where it reached # 1 on the German single charts from 3 January 2005, this held for 10 weeks to 7 March 2005 on 20 December 2004. By 10 April 2005, the children's song stayed in the charts. In six other countries, the single went straight to # 1 on the singles charts. In the Netherlands, the German version for weeks ranked No. 1 on the Dutch charts, while the Dutch version peaked at the same place 2. An English version came on 3 October 2005 under the title " Snappy The Little Crocodile " on the island, but there was just a bad placement ( rank 32) reach. More translations were particularly " Crocky le Petit Crocodile " (French), " Šnapis Mazas krokodilas " ( Lithuanian ) or " Togetogeshi, chiisai wani " (刺 々 し,小さい 鰐) ( Japanese).

Mostly, however, the German original was successful, partially, there were also additional versions and parodies, for example, in Belgium and the Netherlands. The number of remixes and versions that make the rounds on the Internet, in the hundreds, some examples are Schlappi, the small Drogodil, Schnapsi, the small Alkodil, Ficki and shit .. A parody of the song by Elmar Brandt ( The Gerd Show ) entitled Sri - Schrader schroedi, which was also produced by Schnappi manager Peter Burtz, 2005 reached number 18 in the German single charts in March.

The success of the single was by critics of the music industry as a - considered evidence that illegal download offers copyrighted music tracks do not always have to lead to lost revenue and even on the contrary, can have a significant advertising effect - but rare. Some other titles such as " Veo Veo " ( Hot Banditoz ) or " Ilarie " (Las Chicas ) were only by the illegal distribution over the Internet hit.

While the success story of a merchandising campaign already ran on. The Kösener toys manufactory were a total of 30,000 pre-orders for fabric Schnappis available in different sizes. Who the term " Schnappi " suggested an Internet search engine, was a result of almost a million hits.

Awards

On April 2, 2005 were songwriter Iris Gruttmann and singer Joy for Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil an echo in the category "Download - Single of the Year 2004". The single received four times gold record and three times platinum, the album was rewarded each with one gold and platinum. Double platinum existed in Austria and Norway (7 weeks at # 1 ), each platinum in New Zealand and Switzerland, and one each of gold in Australia, Belgium and Sweden. Iris Gruttmann confessed that she had the children's song not written with regard to this success: " I think the success is there, because I do that with all my heart. Schnappi is an authentic children's song, and I did not write it, look at the charts. " However, this success was not new for them because they got in 2000 a gold record for the audiobook " bedtime stories and songs with the Mouse".

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