"Bitte bitte"—printed "Bitte, bitte" on CD, German for "Please please"—is a song by the German band Die Ärzte. It is the eleventh track and the third single from their 1988 album Das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit…. The lyric is about wanting to obey a dominatrix. A Domina Mix later appeared on Das Beste von kurz nach früher bis jetze. German band Tanzwut covered it on the album Labyrinth der Sinne and issued that cover as a single. German band Eisbrecher covered it again on Schicksalsmelodien. For BDSM listeners this is a German rock single that says the quiet part in the title: please, please, let me submit.
Video: factory censors and a ruling dominatrix
The video is set in a dystopia-like censoring facility that looks like a factory, ruled by a dominatrix. The products being censored seem to run through smoothly until Ärzte LPs reach the line. Those records will not go into the monstrous machine the way they are supposed to. The joke is on-brand for a band that made a hit out of begging a Domina: state or industry censorship as a plant floor, and a woman in charge of the whole cruel assembly line. The image matches the song’s subject instead of pretending the single is only a joke title.
Tracks, personnel, and the Gabi B-side
The regular single pairs "Bitte bitte" (Urlaub), 3:13, with "Gabi gibt ‘ne Party" (Urlaub, Felsenheimer), 3:10. The maxi adds longer mixes: "Bitte bitte (Domina Mix)" (Urlaub) at 7:35, the 3:13 single version, "Bitte bitte (CBS Mix)" (Urlaub) at 6:06, and the same Gabi B-side at 3:10. Farin Urlaub sings and plays guitar and bass. Bela B. handles synthesizer and drum machine. "Gabi gibt ‘ne Party" translates as "Gabi throws a party" and belongs to the band’s Gabi & Uwe series; it was later collected on Das Beste von kurz nach früher bis jetze as well. Chart tables are attached to the single’s discography even when the common write-ups skip the week-by-week numbers. Between the original, the Domina Mix, the CBS Mix, and the Tanzwut and Eisbrecher covers, "Bitte bitte" is the 1988 Die Ärzte hit that put a dominatrix at the center of a pop single and then kept remixing her.
