Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader, composer, arranger, and music producer born on the 16th of October 1923 in Hamburg. He is known for writing "Strangers in the Night", "Danke Schoen", "Wooden Heart", and "L-O-V-E", and for being the first producer to make professional recordings of the Beatles in 1961.
Yes. In 1961, Kaempfert hired the Beatles to back Tony Sheridan on the album My Bonnie, released by Polydor Records. These were the Beatles’ first commercially released recordings. Kaempfert also helped ensure Polydor had no contractual claim over the Beatles, freeing them to sign with Parlophone.
Frank Sinatra recorded "Strangers in the Night" in 1966, taking it to number one, despite his personal hatred of the song. The melody originated as part of Kaempfert’s score for the film A Man Could Get Killed, with lyrics added by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder.
The knackbass was a crackling, staccato bass guitar sound popularized by Kaempfert’s guitarist and bassist Ladislav "Ladi" Geisler. Geisler plucked the bass string with a pick and immediately suppressed it to kill any sustain, while an acoustic bass played the same pattern in unison, creating the distinctive sound heard across many Kaempfert recordings.
Bert Kaempfert died on the 21st of June 1980 following a sudden stroke at his home in Mallorca, Spain. He was 56 years old, and his death came shortly after a successful run of appearances in the United Kingdom.
Bert-Kaempfert-Platz, a public square in the Barmbek district of Hamburg, is named in his honor. Kaempfert was born in Hamburg and studied at the Hamburg School of Music, and both he and his longtime collaborator Herb Rehbein were posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.