Didn’t understand what I sang.

Peggy, in 1965 they won the German Schlager Festival with their song « At 17 still has dreams » here in Baden-Baden. Do you still recognize the city?
Peggy March: Since then I have often been here to appear on television programs, and I think Baden-Baden kept really well. The city is charming and has style. Actually, not much has changed here in sixty years. It’s completely different in Munichwhere we lived in the 1970s. In Munich, the shine of that time was really peeled off.

They come from a small town in Pennsylvania and have been living in Fort Lauderdale in Florida since the nineties. What did she go here?
March: I came to Germany when I was 17. I was a student, still a minor, but two years earlier I had a number one hit in the USA with « I Will Follow Him », a gospel pop song that was also successful in other countries. My record company had the idea that I should sing my songs in many languages. So you did it back then. « At 17 you still have dreams » there are seven or eight languages, even in Japanese. Everything went very quickly with the song, he hit a nerve. I was still in the high school, but already flown around the world, to Tokyo, Berlin, Rome, Paris. I enjoyed it. During my entire career I was in Japan a total of 33 times.

They had a whole series of hit hits in Germany in the late 1960s, including « Memories of Heidelberg ».
March: Even a nice, cute city, maybe a little larger than Baden-Baden. I was often up at the castle and in the old town. We don’t have such alleys anywhere in the USA. No wonder that the Americans are so fond of Heidelberg.

How was it to go to school again as normal after success?
March: Very strange. I missed everything. We didn’t have a WhatsApp (laughs) yet. Suddenly Bobby was with Susan and I knew nothing (laughs). And the girl, who was never the coolest in the class, suddenly had this success.

Do you still have friends from school?
March: Yes, we are a group of seven women – friends since first class. We see ourselves once a year and make a lot of calls together. I am the only one of us that still works (laughs). Everyone else has long since retired and enjoy their lives. Oh, nonsense, I enjoy my life too. I work very, very much. I’m not that far to retire.

Was it easy for you to learn the German language?
March: No, I practiced endlessly. When I recorded « at 17 », I couldn’t understand a word of what I sang there. Later I sat down with a dictionary, read magazines and newspapers and watch television. All this conjugated, my goodness, that was not without. Fortunately, my husband was there, and when we went to Munich, it got better every day.

You have already married your husband Arnold Harris at 20.
March: Yes, Arnie was my manager, and then we fell in love. I knew immediately that he was the right one and the only one for me. I met him in New York at 19, where I pulled when I finally finished school. We had ourselves and were happy. We celebrated a year after we get to know each other. With Arnie everything went super quickly.

« I was the youngest singer in the United States who has ever had a number one – and broke »

Her husband was a lot older than her.
March: 22 years. He was 41, I was 19. Of course he had a lot more life experience, but I was also a little grown up than most other teenagers. I’ve been singing since I was 13. I sang at weddings, on birthdays, everywhere. My first manager cheated on my parents and me for a lot of money. But that’s how it was at the time. So my money was gone again. At 18 I still had five hundred dollars. I was the youngest singer who had one number one in the USA – and I was bankrupt. But what does it bring to re -wick the used milk? When I met Arnie and he managed me, my parents, age difference or not, were relieved.

Your love lasted for a lifetime. You had been married for 45 years when he died of cancer in 2013. What was your secret?
March: Compromise. Arnie actually comes from a different generation than me, at the beginning of our marriage I gave in a lot, we mostly did what he said. He also had a lot more experience. And, at least from his point of view, he was a man who was always right (laughs). That has shifted over the years. I developed my own interests, for example, taught him a lot about my passion for esotericism, we always lived more equally. Above all, we got on very well, although we were often together 24 hours a day.

How did you experience his illness?
March: He was such a strong person. But he never gave up. He did chemotherapy after another, and I always told him: it will be. But there was no healing for him. At first I was very sad, but then I started to remember our beautiful life. We had it really well together, even if he sometimes made me crazy (laughs).

Are you an optimistic person?
March: Yes, always. I think if something doesn’t work today, then it will succeed tomorrow. At some point everything will be fine again.

« The boots, the short skirts, the bright colors – it was a cool time »

You have a daughter, Sande-Ann, who was born in 1974. What has become of her?
March: She lives in Chicago. Brr, a cold and windy city. Not my thing, but she likes to be there. My daughter studied theater studies and worked as a production assistant in Hollywood. At some point she didn’t like it anymore. Today she works as an animal nurse. No wonder, because she loved animals as a child (laughs). She has a son, my grandchild, he is already 18. A great guy. He is now starting to study.

Does he know what his grandma does professionally?
March: Yes, of couse. He looked at old TV appearances and so. Sometimes with me. What clothes I wore back then, wonderful. I always enjoyed fashion. The boots, the short skirts, the belly -free tops, the bright colors, it was a cool time.

« The song has a timeless message: go out and live your dreams »

You are now reviving this time and releasing new versions of your old hits.
March: « At 17 you still have dreams » I sing together with Oli P. a lovely young man. I know he’s already grown up, but he looks like a big boy on me. We got on really well.

Why is “at 17” still in demand?
March: Because the song has a timeless message. Namely: go out and live your dreams. Do what, do what, and if you fall, you get up again.

Taylor Swift also comes from Pennsylvania. What do you think of the colleague?
March: The girl is fabulous. A great artist with great songs. How she thinks what she writes is really impressive.

And what dreams have Peggy March with 77?
March: Above all, of course I want to stay healthy. And I would like to paint again. But above all, I would like to say that I had and have a fantastic life. I still love my job today, I got the right man married, we have a great daughter. My life is kissed with happiness, and I am very, very grateful for that.

To person Everyone knows their biggest hits. When Peggy March, born in 1948 as Margaret Annemarie Battavio in Pennsylvania with « I Will Follow Him » ​​number one in the USA, she was 15th two years later she reached the top in Germany, « with 17 still has dreams » was the name of the song – the title is still a winged word. But later the 77-year-old singer and songwriter was successful, among other things, she was co-author of the hits « When the Rain Begins to Fall » by Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson from 1984. For the interview, our author met a well-mood Peggy March where it all started: in a Grandhotel in Baden-Baden, just in time for the teatime.