Cornelia's Biography

Cornelia Möller was born in Hamburg, Germany and came to South Africa with her family at the age of three. She was educated at Parkhurst Primary and Parktown Girls High Schools in Johannesburg. As a child she used to successfully imitate an extraordinary array of mechanical sounds. At the age of 16 she began singing at various parties and variety shows in and around Johannesburg. She told her parents that she’s like to have a guitar. They declined the request as she had shown, and quickly lost (!) interest in other instruments such as the flute and piano. She borrowed a guitar from a school friend and quickly mastered the instrument. When her parents saw her enthusiasm, she was rewarded with her own guitar as a Christmas present. Of the various genres of music popular at the time, Cornelia favored folk music and, as a teenager, she sang Bob Dylan compositions while accompanying herself on the guitar.

Cornelia went to the Troubadour coffee bar in Nora Street, Johannesburg, one night, where she was invited to “get up and sing a couple of songs.” The owners were impressed by the young schoolgirl with the mature voice and offered her a spot for regular weekend performances. Her first break came when she was heard by Abe Aronowitz, owner of the Nitebeat coffee bar. She was paid R15 for singing a few songs – “a fortune to me in those days!”, she quips. Soon the weekend stints turned into a six night-a-week job at the Nitebeat. Cornelia was asked to perform at the 1967 National Folksong Festival – which she did receiving the plaudits of the pundits and much press coverage for her performances. Music critic Bill Brewer wrote in a review: “If I were a folk-singer impresario, I’d grab Cornelia Möller as fast as I could extract contract and pen from pocket.”

It was at the Troubadour that Cornelia met composer David Marks (of Master Jack fame). Enamoured of her natural talent, he brought her to the attention of producer Ray Walters at Teal Record Company. She was offered a recording contract on the spot and, as a 17-year old, signed a recording contract in February 1968. In the same year, Cornelia landed a singing role (as a singer in a coffee bar!) in the South African film feature, Once upon a Friday, which was released in December 1968.

She recorded her first album, I wanna live, for Teal in July 1968. Because record companies could enter only a limited number of their artists into the various categories for the SARI awards, they usually favored the established and well-known artists for this competition. Teal was so enamoured with Cornelia’s talent that they entered her into the SARI awards before her album was commercially available! For her debut album, I wanna live, producer Ray Walters and Cornelia selected the repertoire and were in need of one more song to make up the twelve titles to be recorded. A demo tape had been sent to Walters from a publishing house in Australia of a ditty entitled Picking up Pebbles. Walters played the song to Cornelia, who was reluctant to record it because she felt that it was a “silly” song. Her reasoning was that the lyrics were not as profound as most of the folk material already chosen. Walters persuaded her to include the son on the album.

Picking up Pebbles was released on a single in July. It entered Springbok Radio’s Top 20 hit parade in September and reached the #1 spot three weeks after its chart entry. Picking up Pebbles held the #1 position for four consecutive weeks on the Top 20 in October 1968 and enjoyed a 13-week stay on the charts. It also made #1 on the Rhodesian “Lyons Maid Hits of the Week” charts in November of the same year. In November, Pebbles also reached #1 spot on LM’s hit parade (Springbok’s Top 20 was based on sales whereas LM’s hit parade was based on a songs popularity, determined in an opinion poll). Despite sales equaling three gold disc awards for Picking up Pebbles, Cornelia was never presented with a gold disc award for record sales (Helen Shapiro suffered the same fate with her million-selling Walking back to Happiness).

RCA Victor in America and Germany were so impressed by samples that had been sent them, that both companies requested copy masters of Cornelia’s music for release in their respective countries. In August 1968, Cornelia’s first album was released locally as well as in the USA (an honour she shared with Four Jacks and a Jill alone at the time). Picking up Pebbles was released as a single in Germany. The songs Men of Steel, Ships of Wood, Circle Game, Picking up Pebbles and Master Jack have been culled from I wanna live. Master Jack is sung in German, the lyrics of which were penned by Cornelia’s mother, Vera. The album I wanna Live reached double-gold disc status but, for reasons best known to the late Gerald McGrath of Teal, Cornelia was not presented with the disc.

The composer of Picking up Pebbles, a young Australian, Johnny Curtis (real name Robert Kerr), was tragically killed in a hit-and-run traffic accident in London several months after Pebbles became a smash hit for Cornelia. He came from a poor family and worked part-time to pay for his studies. Ironically, the royalties earned from his song gave his family the wealth that he had dreamed of as a struggling student.

RCA Victor in America commissioned Cornelia to record an album of mainly locally composed material. The company had been impressed with two Dave Marks compositions recorded by Four Jacks and a Jill – Master Jack and Mr Nico – both of which had charted in the States. In November 1968, Cornelia’s second album, simply entitled Cornelia, was released. The album didn’t do as well as expected – “It flopped!” declares Cornelia – “Although there was some good material on the album, it was simply not of a high enough standard to impress the Americans.”

Cornelia performed as guest artist with the Buddy Greco show in October and November of 1968 on Greco’s South African tour. She sang the title song for the movie Dr Kalie (Starring Siegfriedd Mynhardt, Wena Naude, Brian O’ Shaughnessy, Franz Marx, Francois van Heyningen, Sandra Weiss, Willie de Groot and Reinet Maasdorp), and made personal appearances in all the major centres around the country to promote the movie, which was released in November 1968. Cornelia also sang and played a small role in the movie Vrolike Vrydag die 13de (starring Patrick Mynhardt, Arthur Swemmer and Reinet Maasdorp), which premiered in March 1969. Of her acting career, Cornelia says “I should have starred in more films – I have a natural acting ability that I never developed because of my interest in music. I’d love to still play a sold dramatic role in a movie or TV series.” Cornelia developed her own Cabaret act and performed in many centres around the country. She was invited to perform in Mozambique where she sang in Portuguese, performing alongside various artists including The Bats, Maria and Dennis John at the San Miguel Theatre in Lourenco Marques (Now Maputo).

In April 1969 Cornelia left for Europe, where she made personal appearances, sang on television and recorded a single for the German market. In Berlin, she recorded two titles in German at Teldec, utilising the world-famous Günther Kalmann Choir as part of the chorus. Both songs were recorded live with choir and orchestra as opposed to pre-recorded backing tracks, which was what she was used to in South Africa. One of the titles recorded in Germany, Die Antwort Weiss Ganz Allein Der Wind (a German version of Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind) makes it’s South African debut on this collection. Her next port of call was Hamburg, where she appeared on several television shows. She undertook an extensive German tour and appeared in many centres including Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen and Munich, where she was well received by critics and audiences alike. After six months overseas which included appearances in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, London (where she met Sammy Davis Junior) and a visit to East Berlin to see her grandmother, Cornelia returned to South Africa.

For her third album, If you lover her, Cornelia chose more commercial material to record. The decision paid off - critics praised the album as her best effort yet. The songs If You Love Her, Gentle On My Mind, Then you can tell me Goodbye and You’re e Up To Your Same Old Tricks have been culled from this album. In May 1970, Cornelia received a request from her agent in Düsseldorf to appear on a TV spectacular entitled Europarty in Switzerland in July, which was to be broadcast to six countries. She appeared on stage alongside the Bee Gees, Peggy March (of I Will Follow Him fame), Udo Jürgens and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, receiving rave reviews from the press. While in Germany and Switzerland, Cornelia was offered lucrative recording contracts by all the major record labels, but was unable to accept any of these offers as she was still under contract in South Africa. She returned home just in time for the annual SARI awards and was delighted when she won the 1970 SARI Award ABE STRAUSS Best Country and Western Female Vocalist for her fourth album, Don’t Forget To Remember. From this award-winning album come the songs Don’t Forget to Remember, Honey Come Back, First of May, Die Liebe ist Schön Wie Ein Lied (Love Is A Beautiful Song) and Tonight I’ll Say A Prayer. Cornelia continued touring and performed in neighbouring South West Africa and Rhodesia (as they were then), where she performed at several cabaret spots and also appeared on television in RTV’s annual Christmas Cheer Fund Show with Dave Mills and Prof. Chris Barnard.

In May 1971, the single I Wish I Were A Child was released. It reached #9 on LM’s Top 20 hit parade in June. This poignant song makes a welcome appearance among the titles selected for inclusion on this compilation. In 1972 Cornelia recorded her final album for Teal entitled Beautiful. Her haunting rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind reached #7 on LM’s Top 20 hit parade in April 1972. The songs If You Could Read My Mind, All I Ever Need Is You, Way Over Yonder and Beautiful have been selected from the album for this compilation. When her recording contract with Teal expired in 1972, Cornelia chose not to renew it, due to differences she had with management, ranging from repertoire selection to unpaid royalties. She signed up with RPM three years later and, under the talented auspices of producer Chris Kritzinger, recorded the song Another Love To Come (100 years).

Cornelia broke into Springbok’s Top 20 again with Another Love To Come, which remained on the charts for nine weeks and peaked at #7 in July 1975. The single was released with I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye on the “B” side. Both titles have been included in this collection. Another hit for her was her single Too Late To Say Goodbye (with Every Bit Of Love on the flip-side) which reached #17 on the Top 20 in October 1976. Both titles, too, feature on this CD.

Cornelia was nominated as Best Female Vocalist in 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978 at the SARI awards. In 1978 she recorded Tony Bird’s He Came From The Karoo for RPM’s Explosion label, a title also included in this collection of songs. She recorded the song I Will Be With You in 1980 for the soundtrack of the rock opera, The Ancient Mariner, which was adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic poem by Lee Johnson and Robert Schröder. Cornelia continued touring and appeared on various television shows locally until 1980, when she decided to retire from show business in favour of a steady job and income.

Cornelia has been working as a project-co-ordinater in the corporate environment. She currently lives in Parkhurst, Johannesburg. She has never stopped singing and her voice Cornelia says, “is better than ever, especially since I stopped smoking years ago.” The good news is that Cornelia is busy selecting repertoire for a new album, due to be recorded later this year.

South Africa has (arguably) produced few female vocalists of world-class stature. Cornelia is undoubtedly one of a select few which can truly be classed as, and favourably compared to, any of the world’s top female vocalists. In her voice you hear everything from a trumpet down to a rich cello – and everything else in between. That is more than just a remarkable range – it is a fabulous breadth of resonant richness.

In an industry where too many so-called “stars” rely on choreographed strutting, media hype, masterfully edited videos and lip-synching to studio tapes that have been repeatedly remixed to beef-up their less-than-average voices, it is refreshing to encounter true vocal talent, true stellar presence, in the unadorned vocal delivery that is Cornelia. Exaggerations, music companies bandy about euphemisms and slick metaphors when plugging their respective artists. We’re confident enough to leave these descriptions to the critics, who tend to be more objective in their assessment of an artists' attributes or lack of them.