The Rattles - Twist Im Star-Club Hamburg (Reissue) (1963/1994)

The Rattles were a German beat and rock band that were among the most successful of their genre in the 1960s and early 1970s.

In September 1960 the Rattles were founded in Hamburg by Achim Reichel and Herbert Hildebrandt. On New Year's Day 1963, the band won a competition at Hamburg's Star Club, becoming the first German band to perform at the club. In the fall of the same year they recorded their first single. Then the band went on a five-week tour of England with Bo Diddley, Little Richard and the still unknown Rolling Stones. In Liverpool they were later celebrated as the German Beatles. In 1966 they shared the stage with the Beatles. Rattles records appeared, which were even successful in England.

In 1970, the Rattles had a world hit with a new line-up featuring Edna Béjarano on vocals and a re-recorded version of The Witch. The song had previously appeared as a B-side to the 1969 single Geraldine. By this time, Achim Reichel had long since left the group, and the band was only related to the original formation insofar as Herbert Hildebrandt (also Herbert Hildebrandt-Winhauer) continued to be the group's composer and producer.

Other singles like You Can't Have Sunshine Every Day and Devil's on the Loose (both 1971) were only minor hits in Germany.

In 1977, after a few more lineup changes, the Rattles disbanded. But since 1988 they have been playing regularly at festivals and events again. On September 26, 2005, the Rattles celebrated their forty-fifth anniversary with a concert at the "Hamburger Landhaus Walter" and the DVD Beat Made in Germany, which tells the complete band history.

On February 23, 2007, the Rattles released their first studio album in fifteen years, Say Yeah!. The record contains fifteen new songs and was recorded in the Rattles' hometown of Hamburg. The new songs are in the old style that made the Rattles Germany's best-known beat band forty-five years ago.