Appeared in the German NEwspaper „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ (originating in Cologne) on Saturday, May 28th, 2005
The „Frog-Song“ was made in the German Rurgebiet area by Reinhard Reith and the „Bass Bumpers“. Reporter Thorsten Moeck talked with Reinhard Reith.
Newspaper : Mr. Reith, does it annoy you when critics say that your song has the niveau of an alarm device ?
Reith : Even an alarm device fulfills its designation. (laughing) I don’t say that we made a great wonderous thing of technique. It began as a joke, then we took the whole thing more seriously. Critique is good, but the song works - however.
Newspaper : Your explanation for the success ?
Reith : The song is successful because people like it. One thing we want to made sure : We definitively don’t produce bell rings. We don’t have anything from the profits of bell rings.
We just took the figure of the Crazy Frog. This frog was was taken by the bell ring seller „Jamba“ about half a year ago and made it through penetrating [obtrusive] advertisement to a star. We found the small fellow quite funny and tried to build an imaginary artist out of him. His sound that was going on the nerves was taken apart by us and worked [reassembled] into something new.
Newspaper : So the jump into numer one of the charts took you by surprise ?
Reith : Yes, exactly. We couldn’t imagine such a success. To explain this, I must say that the frog was already known here in Germany, but not in England. There the marketing campaigns were coordinated totally new. But I don’t think that this is going to happen a second time.
Newspaper : On number 2 there is the group Coldplay, who spent months for their new album. The frog song was probably ready after a few minutes.
Reith : Well, actually we needed three days for it. That doesn’t speak for English persons,does it ? (loud laughing)
Newspaper : How would you describe the musical orientation of the song ?
Reith : As Trash. I see it as fun. It’s a mixture of goodmarketing and a good tune of Axel F. The consumers of the csong are the technical interested, fraction, which is obsessive into cellular phones [German „handy“ = English „cellular phone“]. The bell ring thing will clear up itself in the next two - three years and then disappear.
