Ronny

Wolfgang Roloff, known by his stage name Ronny, was born in Bremen on March 10, 1930 and died there on August 18, 2011. pop singercomposer and music producerwho celebrated his greatest successes in the 1960s. He always kept his private life under wraps, so little personal information about him is known. After leaving school, he trained as a sound engineer. At the beginning of the 1960s, he married his wife Frauke, with whom he had a son named Peter in 1964. Frauke Roloff died on April 17, 2024.

Before Wolfgang Roloff became known as Ronny, he played in various bands and orchestras, including as a bassist in clubs for the American troops. He celebrated his first musical success in 1953 with the “Valerie Trio”, whose original line-up consisted of Valerie Hueck, Wolfgang Börner and an unknown third member. Shortly afterwards, Mac Gregor (Marx Gregor) replaced this third musician before leaving the trio again due to better offers. Only then did Wolfgang Roloff join the Valerie Trio. The formation made an appearance in the movie An jedem Finger zehn. After Hueck’s departure, Roloff and Börner continued their musical collaboration as a duo and released several singles under the stage name Bob & Eddy from 1959. Roloff performed as Bob Hill, while Börner called himself Eddy Börner. Some of their recordings remained unreleased for a long time until they were released on CD by Bear Family Records.

In addition to his duo projects, Wolfgang Roloff also recorded a single under his own name for Adano. He formed the duo “Die Colorados” with Rolf Simson on Philips. He played in the background with Jürgen Wagner as “Rocky and the Montana Boys”. In 1961/62, he recorded two singles with Werner Last, James Last’s brother, under the name “The Blizzards” for Philips. This led to the rumor that he had played in James Last’s orchestra.

Roloff also produced numerous instrumental recordings in the style of Les Paul, who is regarded as a pioneer of multi-track technology and modern echo and reverb effects. He released these instrumental works under various pseudonyms such as “Das Orchester Melodia”, “Geck & Gag”, “Truman Baker and His Orchestra”, “The Telstars”, “Maxim Boris and His Orchestra” and “Roger Ford and His Orchestra”.

In 1963, he began a brief singing career under the name “Otto Bänkel” and recorded the single “Des Klempners Töchterlein”. However, later recordings under this name were sung by Karl-Heinz (Charlie) Goldbeck. In the same year, his cover version of the classic Oh My Darling, Clementine was released as Oh My Darling Caroline under the name Ronny and remained in the German charts for weeks. Thanks to producer Horst Fuchs, who made the release on Telefunken possible, his career as Ronny took off. Fuchs remained his long-term partner and supported him for many years.

There was a misunderstanding about the name “Ronny”, as another singer called Werner Stiegel already had this name. If Roloff had known this, he would probably have chosen a different stage name. His hit “Kenn ein Land” was used in the western “The Black Eagles of Santa Fe”. This was followed by numerous other hits such as “Kleine Annabell”, “Anja, Anja”, “Eine kleine Träne”, “Darling Good Night”, “Laura Oh Laura”, “Er war nur ein armer Zigeuner” and “Kein Gold im Blue River”, which he also sang in Dutch as “Geen Goud im Blue River”.

In addition to his own career, Ronny promoted many artists as a producer and worked with musicians such as Silva Manos, Jürgen Wagner, Sigi Hoppe, Klaus Jacob, Mel Jersey, Maria Prado and Karl-Heinz Goldbeck. His collaboration with Heintje, whom he made a child star together with Addy Kleijngeld and Hans Hee, was particularly successful. Together with Hans Hee, he wrote hits for Heintje such as Ich bau dir ein Schloss, Schneeglöckchen im Februar and Liebe Sonne lach doch wieder.

In 1977, he ventured a musical experiment and recorded a single with Pete(r) Bauchwitz alias Peter Osborne/Peter Bancroft under the name “Truman Bley’s African-Rhythm-Machine”, which was successful in Central and Southern Europe. In 1979, he took part in the LP production “Starchaser” by the group Thirsty Moon and contributed the background vocals to “Lovers on the Run” and the violin effects to “The Seals”.

On October 9, 1981, he appeared on the ZDF show Unsere schönsten volkstümlichen Lieder with the title Hohe Tannen. In 1984, he released his last album, Stimme des Meeres (Voice of the Sea), after which he concentrated exclusively on working in his Nord Bremen studio.

One of his best-known works is Sierra Madre del Sur, which he recorded in 1970. The original version was initially unsuccessful. It was not until 1987 that the Zillertaler Schürzenjägern achieved their breakthrough with a new interpretation. The song was subsequently covered by numerous artists, including Heino, Tony Marshallthe Kastelruther Spatzen and Marianne and Michael.

In 2013, two previously unreleased songs by Ronny, “Lachen und Weinen” and “Magdalena, Darling” (sung in Spanish), were discovered by his son Peter in the archives of the SNB studio and released on CD. There are other unreleased recordings by Ronny.

Wolfgang Roloff died at the age of 81 and was buried, as he had wished, in the cemetery in Bremen’s Walle district (grave BB 357) in the immediate family circle. His wife Frauke still lives in Bremen, his son Peter in Berlin.

Studio albums by Ronny

• 1964 Oh My Darling Caroline
• 1965 Across lands and seas
• 1967 Hohe Tannen
• 1969 Across the wide prairie
• 1970 In the most beautiful meadow
• 1970 Little Sweetheart Belinda
• 1973 The sun sets, the sun rises
• 1975 I must move on with the wind
• 1981 Voice of the homeland
• 1984 Voice of the sea