Gus Backus

Donald Edgar "Gus" Backus (September 12, 1937 – February 21, 2019) was an American singer and a member of The Del-Vikings. After he was stationed as an Airman in the U.S. Air Force at Wiesbaden Air Base in 1957, Backus had to leave The Del-Vikings but he later became a popular singer of Schlager music in 1960s West Germany. He sang all his songs in German with an American accent. 19 of his songs between 1960 and 1967 made the charts, including eight Top Ten hits. He landed a Number 1 hit in the German charts with his song Der Mann im Mond (The Man in the Moon) in 1961. Backus also did German cover versions of songs by Elvis Presley, Paul Anka and Conway Twitty. Backus came back to America for some years in the 1970s and worked as a foreman on oil fields in Texas, later returning to Germany. He lived for the rest of his life in Germering near Munich and retired from singing in 2014. He was married and was the father of four children.