We've recently been in a "99 luftballons" fix. The kids are constantly begging for "balloon dance." The song song lends itself to some great craziness. The ethereal intro and outro provide a nice calm "floating away". The funky instrumental sections let you "get down" in "little craziness", while the high energy vocal portions induce utter craziness. Altogether, it makes for a nice way to get out energy with the kids. And for some reason, we've lucked out without any energy.
The German version is still my favorite, but I've also begun to appreciate Nena's English version. The Goldfinger and 7 Seconds versions do well on the "energy" side of things but lack the power of contrast as the original. Nena's new version with French is interesting. I can actually understand some of the lyrics. 99 in French can be quite wordy. The contrast of the harshness of the German language with the 'gentleness' of the singer's vocals only adds to the original's strength, though the German accent of the English version has some nice nuances.
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