Bill Ramsey, born William McCreery Ramsey on April 17, 1931 in Cincinnati (Ohio, USA), was a German-American singer, actor and radio host, famous in Germany for his jazz, swing and schlager songs, which he performed with a touch of humor and great charisma. After studying sociology at Yale and military service in the US Air Force, he was posted to Germany in the early 1950s, where he discovered a vibrant music scene and decided to settle there permanently. He began his career as a jazz singer with American club orchestras in Germany, but enjoyed massive success in popular song from the late 1950s with humorous, rhythmic schlager songs, often sung in German, such as "Wumba-Tumba-Schokoladeneisverkäufer " (1959), "Zuckerpuppe (Aus der Bauchtanz-Truppe)" (1959), "Souvenirs, Souvenirs " (1960) and "Pigalle (Die große Mausefalle) " (1961) became classics. At the same time, he pursued a career as a jazz crooner, with albums such as Songs from Home (1965), Ballads and Blues with pianist/organist Paul Kuhn (1966), Got a New Direction with The Jay Five (1967), Hard Travelling with Don Paulin (1975), When I See You with harmonica player Toots Thielemans (1980) and Underneath the Apple Tree with guitarist Juraj Galan (1984). Other albums in the retro jazz/swing style were often recorded with leading German or European musicians. In the 1960s, he moved casually through fashions, traveling from soul jazz to jazz fusion to psychedelic blue-eyed soul. From the 1970s onwards, he turned more to television and radio, hosting a number of music programs, including some for children, while continuing to record. He also collaborated with Ron Wilson's trio, Dieter Reith, the Thilo Wolf Band, Peter Weniger, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, Sandra Weckert and the SDR Big Band, SWR Big Band, Jazz Ball Band Orchestra and the Big Band der Deutschen Oper Berlin on the album Premiere (2009). Bill Ramsey is one of the few foreign artists to have successfully combined jazz, humor and popular song in the German language. He has received several awards over the course of his career, including the Federal Cross of Merit. Living in Zurich for twenty years, then in Wiesbaden and Hamburg since 1991, he became a German citizen on October 17, 1984. At the age of 90, Bill Ramsey died at his home on July 2, 2021.
