Sales numbers of old world hits are almost always wild blows in the air, but The Smurf Song (1977) by Vader Abraham seems to have been sold 17 million times, including translations. Few Dutch melodies were more commercially successful. Pierre Kartner, honorary citizen of Smurfland and one of the most successful Dutch songwriters of all time, has passed away. He had 41 hits in the Top 40 and 69 in the National Hit Parade; they are unparalleled numbers.
Kartner, born in Elst but raised in Breda, had been living withdrawn for a few years because of deteriorating health. The family has not released any information about the cause of death. He was 87 years old. The young Kartner worked, among other things, as a chocolate moulder, confectioner and chip maker before he was a relative late bloomer. became a professional song manufacturer, from ‘oblique’ songs to party music, including as Duo X with Annie de Reuver.
His first real hit hit the charts when he was already 35: Crying is too late for you (1970), written for Corry en de Rekels, followed a year later by his real breakthrough on his own: Father Abraham had seven sons (1971), also the birth of his immortal alter ego, the man with the glasses and the bowler hat, who was good for one carnival after the other.
Kartner was 36 years old when he became Father Abraham, but his beard was already the color he would always keep: silver-grey.
Melancholy, sentimental songs
His stream of hits seemed almost endless in the 1970s: Manuela for Jacques Herb (1971), Would it be bad dear grandpa for Wilma (1971, in duet with Vader Abraham himself) and his most beloved song in 1975, although he himself did not make the top ten with it: In the little cafe on the harbor. Mireille Mathieu, Engelbert Humperdinck and Demis Roussos recorded cover versions in other languages.
That’s how Kartner preferred to see himself. As a writer of warm, melancholy, somewhat sentimental songs: In the C-class, Thank you dear parents or Peace.
He could, especially at a later age, react deeply hurt and insulted when people were condescending about his work, for example about his Eurovision song for Sieneke, I’m in love (Sha-la-lie) from 2010. By the way, that was already his second Eurovision entry, after The old musiciansung in 1973 by Ben Cramer.
Political color
The fact that he scored fewer hits from the eighties was not least due to the fact that the media did not like him, he sometimes argued. Kartner could have been wronged, as evidenced by his string of political songs: Den Uyl is in the oil (1974) was still mild, but What are we doing with those Arabs here (1975) shocked the country so much that the single was withdrawn from the market.
Kartner continued to show political color well into old age: Wimmetje goes, Pimmetje comes (2002) was a duet with Pim Fortuyn. Even in his latest single, No food without farmers (2019), he took an indignant position, this time in the nitrogen debate.
Of the two billion inhabitants of the world who know him (according to his own calculation), only a fraction will be fans of that political repertoire. Pierre Kartner remains the man of the small café, and happy get-togethers with the Smurfs.