Klaus Wunderlich

Klaus Wunderlich (18 June 1931 – 28 October 1997) was a German musician.

Wunderlich was born in Chemnitz. He played the Hammond organ model C3 then mid 60s Klaus changed to model Hammond H100. Klaus also tried new sounds and released an album exclusively played on Hohner instruments - model Planet T, Clavinet D6 and String melody string synthesizer (also branded as Logan String Melody.)With the introduction of the first syntheziers, Klaus briefly used Moog synthesizer and produced 3 albums with the instrument. He later combined the sound of a Hammond organ model H 100 with a Lowrey OrganModel H25-3 and Wersi model W248S which was called the "New Pop Organ Sound." Klaus switched to Wersi organs permanently with the introduction of the Wersi Helios model in 1976, with which he created his own unique electronic sound. During the course of time the Wersi Helios was not sufficient to keep up with current technology and trends so Klaus started to use Wersi Beta Dx400. The Beta was then Combined with the Wersi Helios to again create a unique sound. The 1980s saw Klaus purchase the Wersi Pianostar electronic piano which he used for rhythm guitar effects only. In 1988, Klaus decided to part company with the Wersi Helios and Beta and purchased a brand new organ to replace both older models - The Wersi Spectra, with which he once again created a totally unique sound.

Klaus also used a small Moog synthesizerMinimoog to replicate the sound of the Bass guitar on his recordings as well as in the latter half of his career playing the drums and percussion on his recordings.

As a musician He was open to different music styles and played classical, operetta, Broadway musical, as well as popular music. He sold more than 20 million records all over the world and received 13 golden albums as well as one golden cassette.

He died in Engen from a heart attack, and was subsequently buried in the Alter Friedhof at Sindelfingen.

Some of his work was incorporated into the Soviet cartoon, Nu Pogodi!

In 2017 a documentary film about Klaus Wunderlich was released by Duke Denver Film IVS called Wunderlich. The year after a sequel was released called Wunderlich Stories.

Over the years his songs have been sampled by a number of other artists. One of the most notable and unusual is the use of multiple elements, including the distinctive organ from his version of the Lynsey de Paul song "Sugar Me (Lynsey de Paul song)" that was sampled by Guru (rapper) on track 5 on his 2000 album "Jazzmatazz Vol. 3: Streetsoul" called "Certified" performed by Bilal (American singer).

Wunderlich released more than one hundred albums, of which thirteen LP's and one music cassette was credited with gold. In the following overview the chart positions in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are given: