Bill Ramsey Musical Artist - Born 17 April 1931 · Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Died 2 July 2021 · Hamburg, Germany (undisclosed)

Birth name William McCreery Ramsey

Biography Bill Ramsey was born on April 17, 1931 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Liebesgrüße aus Tirol (1964), Kein Mann zum Heiraten (1959) and Maskenball bei Scotland Yard - Die Geschichte einer unglaublichen Erfindung (1963). He was married to Petra. He died on July 2, 2021 in Hamburg, Germany.

Family Spouses

Petra (1983 - July 2, 2021) his death

??? (divorced)

Trivia

In 2008 and 2009 he was on tour with Max Greger and Hugo Strasser as Swing legends.

Producer Heinz Gietz took Ramsey under contract in 1958 and in the same year his first single with Polydor was released. It was a small but respectable success and launched the style, with which "the man with the black voice" would land hits in the future. The music was oriented on the hits of that period of Anglo-American pop music.

Ramsey appeared regularly as pop and jazz singer, mostly in duet with the guitarist Juraj Galan, with whom it released several albums. The duo's LP Live in the House of Commons won the German record critics prize.

Amid the 1960s as Beatmusik changed the market, Bill Ramsey was a regular in the German Charts. His popularity provided numerous appearances in film and television, where he was seen as a singer and in comedy roles.

In the second half of the 1960s Ramsey took up predominantly English-language songs and dedicated himself again to jazz and blues. In this musically varied decade he presented Operette, Musical and Beat songs as well as a LP with Children's songs.

Ramsey had innumerable television appearances, played in 28 films and toured through Europe, the USA, and North Africa.

In his youth, he sang in a college dance band.

He was a lecturer for many years at Hamburg University for Music and Performing Arts.

The jazz pianist and music producer Heinz Gietz organized an appearance with Hessischer Rundfunk for Bill Ramsey in 1955. There he did Playback - recordings for the musical film love, dance and 1000 hits with Peter Alexander and Caterina Valente.

Upon his discharge from the military he continued his studies in America and returned to Frankfurt in 1957.

Among Ramsey's hits published in the 1950s and 1960s were German-language cover versions of Hank Ballard, The Beatles, Fats Domino, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roger Miller, Elvis Presley, Jimmie Rodgers, Andy Williams, Sheb Wooley and others. In addition, numerous originals, which were composed almost exclusively by Heinz Gietz. The ironical texts of Kurt Feltz or Hans Bradtke often commented current events.

William McGreery Ramsey, called Bill, was the son of a teacher and an advertising manager for Procter & Gamble.

He began to study sociology and business from 1949 to 1951 at Yale University in New Haven and sang jazz, Swing and Blues in the evenings. His greatest influences were Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and Louis Jordan.

His wife is a doctor, and works as his manager.

Due to the Korean War, compulsory military service was again introduced in the USA and Bill Ramsey served with the U.S. Air Force in Germany. During this time period, he appeared in clubs like Jazz Cellar in Frankfurt and was discovered by an employee of AFN and hired to entertain troops. There Ramsey advanced to executive producer and had, although still in service, more time for appearances at festivals. As of 1953, he appeared with, among others, Ernst Mosch, Paul Kuhn, Kurt Edelhagen and James Last.

He presented the television shows Hits for Schlappohren (1971) and Template:Interlanguage link (Talent shed) (1974 to 1980), among others.

Ramsey released 50 singles as well as 30 LPs and CDs.

He had a lead speaking role in the audio play for children "Der kleine Tag" in 1999.

From the late 1980s, Ramsey presented Swingtime each Friday on Hessischer Rundfunk until 2019.

Upon his discharge from the military in 1957, he continued his studies in the U.S. and returned to Frankfurt a year later.

William McCreery Ramsey (17 April 1931 – 2 July 2021) was an American-German jazz and pop singer, journalist and actor famous for his German-language hits. He returned to Germany a year after he had served compulsory military service with the U.S. Air Force there. Active as a singer of jazz and pop already as a soldier, he made a career in different fields of musical entertainment. He sang and recorded German schlager, also German-language cover versions of English hits, jazz and swing. He appeared in films and television series, and ran popular series on radio and television as presenter.