Oh, I like that one. That was made big (for certain values of “big”) here in the US back in the mid-90s or so via a Volkswagen commercial. It was actually enough to get me to go out and buy the album. Looking online, it seems they hit #118 on the album charts in 1997 with their compilation album “Da Da Da”, and #33 on the dance charts in the US, according to the Wikipedia article, but I see no mention of (the dance chart stat) on Billboard’s website.
There was one partly in German from 1960 Sailor (Your Home is the Sea) by Lolita.
Well, there’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” by Italian artist Adriano Celentano that charted in Belgium (peaked at #4), France (6), Germany (46), the Netherlands (5), and Italy (5). With the exception of the English words “all right,” it’s not in any language.
Peter Gabriel’s Games without Frontiers repeated the main lyric in French “Jeux sans frontiers” and was a top ten hit in the UK.
Cab Calloway did Abi Gezind
I can't find any mention of how successful it was as a single, but I am throwing it out there because it's such a cool song and video.Canadian rapper Snow’s “Informer” isn’t actually English is it? I mean other than the title word and Marky Mark’s bit.
It charted at… (looks it up) …#1 for seven fucking weeks!? With literally no other decent pop music, people must have just been trying to figure out wtf he was saying.
Oh, and I’m constantly having to thumbs-down the English “99 Red Balloons” abomination on my 80s Pandora list. Get a clue, algorithm.
Never heard that before; I like it. And of course there was Treaty from Yothu Yindi.
Perry Como’s song from the movie of the Odessa file, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, charted at #92 and included these German lyrics:
(Lüge dirigiert die Welt, Ehrlichkeit bringt selten Geld,
Jeder möcht’ Sieger sein, wer verliert bleibt ganz allein;
Doch manch Will’ ist möglich durch die Fantasie
Du stirbst um zu leben und nimmst um zu geben;
Einmal im Jahr wird alles wahr
Zu Weihnacht vergiss nicht,
Vergiss es gewiss nicht.
English translation:
Lies direct the world, honesty rarely brings money,
Everyone wants to be the winner, whoever loses is left alone;
But many a Will 'is possible through the imagination
You die to live and take to give;
Once a year everything becomes true
Do not forget Christmas
Do not forget it.
I forgot about Christmas songs. Bing Crosby hit #45 in 1960 with “Adeste Fideles” with lyrics in both Latin and English.
Blondie’s Denis
What about La Macarena?
To add to the confusion here the 45 had both versions.
Were people buying it to listen to 99 Luftballons or 99 Red Ballons?
I personally listened to the former more.
The chorus of “Aserejé” is one of those gibberish examples. Neither Spanish nor English, but a Spanish-speaker’s attempt at making phonetic sense of the lyrics to “Rappers’ Delight.”
Kraftwerk had a US #25 hit with “Autobahn” in 1975 and what lyrics it had were all in German. Some people think they’re singing, “Fun fun fun of the Autobahn,” but it’s actually “Fahr’n fahr’n fahr’n auf der Autobahn”
That’s right. Pick that scab. :mad:
Speaking of Blondie, one verse of Sunday Girl was in French. That’s true for the album version at least. There was a shorter radio version that I think cut out the French verse. I have no idea which version was on the single.
Asereje in 2002
Maybe not in any chart at the time but sure to have been very famous:
Alouette
Stille Nact
Le Mer
Sta Lucia
There was a Romanian language song Dragostea Din Tel by O-Zone that developed a bit of a following because of a goofy video someone put up on YT (search “Numa Numa”). I doubt it came close to even charting in the US, but does that really mean anything these days?
I know 
I took a guess that Yiddish “bay mir” could also mean “at my place”, since it has both meanings in German. Maybe in Yiddish it doesn’t.
Stille Nacht und Stille Nackt would probably be very different songs. Not completely sure about your new version, which appears to be agnostic regarding “night” vs “naked”.
Hank Williams’s “Jambalaya” has a few French words thrown in, and hit the charts pretty big I think.
Lionel Richie, in “All Night Long”, sings “Thambolita festivolYA - hey, jumble jumble!”, or words to that effect.
Does Louie Louie count as its own foreign language? 