Fools Garden: История одной песни "Lemon Tree"

German rock band

Fools Garden (until 2003 known as Fool's Garden) is a German band formed in 1991 in the city of Pforzheim. The founders of the group and the only permanent members are vocalist Peter Freudenthaler and guitarist Volker Hinkel. In 1993, bassist Thomas Mangold, keyboardist Roland Röhl and drummer Ralf Wochele were invited to join Fool's Garden for recording of the first studio album Once in a Blue Moon. The band became famous worldwide in 1995 owing to the release of their third studio album Dish of the Day and, in particular, the song "Lemon Tree", which entered numerous music charts around the world and topped five of them. However, Fool's Garden was never able to repeat the success of their only hit. A series of failures to replicate the commercial success of Dish of the Day in 1997, 2000 and 2003 resulted in tension and disagreement amongst the band's members, and dramatically discredited its reputation in the eyes of record label executives. Consequently, Mangold, Röhl, and Wochele left Fool's Garden in 2003, but a year later new musicians joined the band. To signify the change, it was decided to remove the apostrophe from the band's name on their next album, Ready for the Real Life. Due to the problems caused by the lack of a label ready to work with Fools Garden, the members of the band founded their own company Lemonade Music in 2004. Up to the present, Fools Garden continues concert activity and gives performances all over the world.

The eponymous promo album, which was dedicated to John Winston Lennon, got no recognition. It was originally released by the group independently on the Town Music label with a circulation of one thousand copies. Moreover, despite all the efforts of the band and its producer, large companies did not dare to work with Fool's Garden. Fool's Garden achieved their first major success in 1994. The German branch of fashion retailer C&A used "Wild Days", the first single from the band's upcoming studio album for a TV commercial. In the same year, Fool's Garden made their first guest appearances in the German interregional newspaper Sonntag aktuell. Wolle Kriwanek, the author of the article, predicted a major success for Fool's Garden after listening to their songs, which just happened a year later. Freudenthaler composed it when he was waiting for his girlfriend at home. Due to the lack of support from the major record label, Fool's Garden were forced to record, release and promote new releases on the small Town Records label almost independently. The album entered many charts throughout Europe. Both "Lemon Tree" and Dish of the Day sold best in Austria and Switzerland. Fool's Garden's songs were played on radio stations around the world, from San Diego to Jakarta. The song also enjoyed success in the UK, where it peaked at #61 on the UK Singles Chart, and the remix version also entered the chart, peaking at a higher #26. According to Intercord, the band had great potential to play internationally. The album received gold certification in Thailand, platinum certification in Singapore, Taiwan and double platinum one in Malaysia.

Hinkel and Freudenthaler decided to pursue their musical careers as a duo. However, they faced a number of problems in the further promotion of the album 25 Miles to Kissimmee, as due to the breakup of the band Polydor refused to cooperate further with Fool's Garden. Therefore, the remaining members of the band formed their own label Lemonade Music. Soon, guitarist Gabriel Holz, bassist Dirk Blümlein and drummer Claus Müller were invited to the group for live performances. The last two musicians have collaborated with Volker Hinkel since 2002 on his solo project Hinkel, in particular on the album Not a Life Saving Device. Changes in the line up were also marked in the name of the band: from that time on, it became known as Fools Garden (without an apostrophe). As soon as the work on the album was completed, Blümlein, Holz and Müller were invited to Fools Garden as permanent members. For the purpose of promoting the album, the single "Does Anybody Know? / Welcome Sun" was released in the summer of 2005. Critics noted a change in band's musical style: Fools Garden moved away from Britpop and switched to guitar based melodic rock. The new musical style allowed the band to enter the airplay of radio stations again and the songs from Ready for the Real Life to become the soundtracks for various films, TV shows and commercials. In 2007 Gabriel Holtz left the band and returned to his native Neukölln. The compilation also contained a new song "High Time", which was released as a single. The song reached high positions in the charts of listeners of various radio stations, for example, Hessischer Rundfunk. In July of the same year, the new single "Innocence" was presented to a number of radio stations, and in August it reached number one on the SW3 listeners' chart. A video clip was also filmed for the song, which the band members created on their own. The seventh album Who Is Jo King? was released on 14 September. The cover artwork was created by Klaus Voormann, known for designing the cover for The Beatles Revolver in 1966. This explains the noticeable similarity between the two covers. In early 2013, the second single from Who Is Jo King? "Maybe" was released. In the same year, Fools Garden performed at the German Festival at the Brandenburg Gate.

The band's line up changed again in 2014–2015. First of all, Gabriel Holz returned to Fools Garden in the autumn of 2014. whereas in the early summer of the same year, drummer Claus Müller left the group and was replaced by Jan Hees. In 2015, Fools Garden performed cover versions of ten 1990s hit songs by various artists such as Depeche Mode, Annie Lennox, the Backstreet Boys, Bruce Springsteen, No Doubt and Madonna in their usual unique style for the third season of the RTL 90s themed music show "Formula 1". It was decided to release these cover versions on an album called Flashback. At the end of 2016, Fools Garden together with the German jazz singer Karl Frierson recorded a new song "New World", which was released in early 2017. In the same year, the 10 episode documentary "25 Years to New World" was released on the band's official YouTube channel. In April 2018, Fools Garden released their next album Rise and Fall, which was recorded at the band's own studio in Neuhausen. It was the first time when Gabriel Holz participated in composition of all the songs, along with Peter Freudenthaler and Volker Hinkel. Maxazine named the album "the best since Dish of the Day and successor Go and Ask Peggy for the Principal Thing", and Musikreviews. de called Rise and Fall "the best album since 1995." To promote the new material, Fools Garden embarked on an extensive concert tour across Germany. It was hold on 1 May 2020, and was also associated with a fundraising campaign organized by the Rotary Club Pforzheim. At the moment the band is working on a new album. The first song "Outta Love" recorded in electro pop genre was released on 25 September. On 24 November 2022 it was announced that BMG Rights Management had acquired the recordings catalog of Fools Garden. In 2024, Fools Garden released an EP, Lemon Tree, as limited edition release for Record Store Day.