Franzl Lang


Franz "Franzl" Lang, known as the Yodel King, was an alpine yodeller from Bavaria, Germany.
Lang also sang and played the guitar and the accordion and was the author of several books on yodelling. Lang's genre is German folk music; he typically sang in the Bavarian dialect of the rural Alpine regions.

Career

Raised in Munich, Lang trained as a toolmaker. He started playing his trademark accordion at the age of nine. His greatest hit was his 1968 recording of Karl Ganzer's composition "Das Kufsteiner Lied". Throughout the 1970s, he was a permanent feature of musical variety shows on West German television, especially on the ZDF program Lustige Musikanten.
Lang has sold more than 10 million recordings; he has earned 20 gold records and one platinum record within the German recording industry.
On his 70th birthday, he performed for the final time.

Personal life and death

He was married to his wife Johanna since 1954; he had one son and one daughter. He died at a Munich nursing home on 6 December 2015 from Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. On January 11, 2016, he was buried in a forest cemetery, with multiple dedications from his family and friends.