“Over in West Germany. There’s a football player. With sexy knees,” or so claimed Alan & Denise – a British pop duo.
Alan Whittle and his wife Denise made sure the British public never looked at Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, or at least his knees, quite the same again with their tune “Rummenigge”.
Rummenigge, West Germany’s captain and one of the most formidable strikers in the history of world football, turned 69 on Wedensday, 25 September. He was the talk of the town back in 1982, as West Germany rocked up to London to clash with England at Wembley.
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Wathcing, 120 miles north in Birmingham, little did Whittle know his life was about to change. Rummenigge thundered home in the 73rd minute – sending the West Germans into the lead – prompting John Motson to scream his name on Whittle’s TV set.
It was the moment where the penny dropped: “‘Rumm-en-ig-ge, Rumm-en-ig-ge’. As for the line, ‘What a man!’ this simply tickled him,” Journalist Ned Boulting would later explain.
(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
However, the song wouldn’t be penned instantly by Alan. “Normally Alan writes songs very, very quickly. He’s very prolific,” Denise recalled. “Usually he writes it and that’s it. But for this particular song, he kept re-writing it and re-writing it.”
Kay Russell had originally been on the female vocals, but when she called in sick, Whittle turned to his wife. Denise was forced to learn and practice her lines as they drove up the M1 to the recording studio in Leeds.
Upon hearing the track, Russell tapped up some friends in Germany who owned a record label – and so sparked Alan and Denise-mania in Germany as the song stuck around in the charts for 12 weeks.
(Image: 2020 Getty Images)
Rummenigge was furious, and he explained to Der Spiegel: “One time in Hamburg the song was used to try and provoke me. I was playing for Inter at a time when moving to play abroad was considered to be treasonous.
“During the warm-up before the match against Hamburg, the crowd were swearing at me and booing me. And then, on top of that, they played the song.”
Alan and Denise, however, were having the time of their lives: “We had a great six months, flying out to Germany, doing their Top of the Pops, singing on Radio Luxembourg, doing lots of interviews. We were in loads and loads of sports magazines…”
(Image: XXXXXXX/Youtube)
The two would eventually cross paths in a conference room at the Intercontinental in Düsseldorf.
The pair recalled him as “very polite” and a “proper gentleman” – they posed for some snaps and said their goodbyes never to meet again.