Garret turns 66 years old today.

Happy Birthday, Garret!

Here’s a birthday song for you: Life Begins at Sixty-Six

It’s the English version of a famous song by Austrian composer and musician Udo Jürgens called Mit 66 Jahren. The lyrics are in German, of course, but here’s a translation:

“You’ll be amazed when I retire!
As soon as the stress is over, I’ll just go, oh-ho, oh-ho, oh-ho.
Then I’ll casually blow-dry the hair I have left.
I suck in my stomach and act like a ‘hot guy,’ oh-ho, oh-ho, oh-ho.
And when people look at me indignantly and sternly,
Then I say: “My dears, you’re looking at it way too narrowly!”

I’m buying myself a motorcycle and a leather suit
And tearing around with 110 horsepower, oh-ho, oh-ho, oh-ho.
I sing songs in the city park that amaze everyone,
And I play guitar with a crazy sound, o-ho, o-ho, o-ho.
And with the other friends from the pensioners’ association,
I’ll start a band, and we’ll jam all day long.

And in the evenings, I head out with Grandma,
Because we’re going to rock out at a club, o-ho, o-ho, o-ho.
In the summer, I tie flowers around my lofty brow
And hitchhike to San Francisco to cure my rheumatism, o-ho, o-ho, o-ho.
And my grandson Waldemar proudly announces:
“That crazy old man, that’s my grandpa!”

At 66, life begins!
At 66, you have fun.
At 66, you really get into shape!
At 66, life is far from over!

Chris de Burgh performed the English version on Udo Jürgens’s 80th birthday.