99 RED BALLOONS
(J U Fahrenkrog-Peterson / C Karges / K McAlea (Eng l) )

as recorded by Nena
1983


You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.
Set them free at the break of dawn,
Till one by one they were gone.
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there!"
Floating in the summer sky,
Ninety nine red balloons go by!

Ninety nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky,
Panic bells!  It's red alert,
There's something here from somewhere else!
The war machine springs to life,
Opens up one eager eye,
Focusing it on the sky,
Ninety nine red balloons go by!

Ninety Nine Decision Street,
Ninety nine ministers meet,
To worry, worry, super scurry,
Call the troops out in a hurry!
This what we've waited for,
This is it boys, this is war!
The president is on the line,
Ninety nine red balloons go by!

Ninety nine knights of the air
Ride super high tech jet fighters.
Every one's a super hero,
Every one's a Captain Kirk,
With orders to identify,
To clarify and classify,
Scramble in the summer sky,
Ninety nine red balloons go by!
Ninety nine red balloons go by!

Ninety nine dreams I have had,
In every one a red balloon!
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city!
If I could find a souvenir
Just to to prove the world was here!
And here is a red balloon;
I think of you and let it go!




(Transcribed by Peter Akers - June 2021)