Bubbling Under: Kraftwerk- "Pocket Calculator"

I'm the operator with my pocket calculator

Welcome to Bubbling Under. Each week I cover a musical artist who charted outside Billboard’s Hot 100. This week: Kraftwerk

By the time Kraftwerk released their eighth album, Computer World in May 1981, the New Romantic movement had breathed new life into the UK pop charts. There were a bunch of new bands, including Ultravox, Human League, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode, that all counted the German synth pioneers as an influence.

It was no great shock when Kraftwerk suddenly found themselves competing with these groups on the pop charts. EMI, their UK label, released “Computer Love” as a double A-Side coupled with the 1978 album track “The Model”, which had caught on with the New Romantic crowd. They were promptly rewarded with a UK #1 hit.

While it took a few years and a more commercial sound for a lot of these groups to catch on in North America, Kraftwerk did come close to scoring a US Billboard Hot 100 entry during the same period.

In North America, where Kraftwerk was signed to Warner Bros., “Pocket Calculator” was released as the lead single to the album. Issued on coloured vinyl, a practice more common in the singles-driven UK market, the single just barely missed the Hot 100, stalling at #102.

It’s a shame because “Pocket Calculator” is such a great track. It’s driven by a memorable synth hook, sparse lyrics and lots of robot sounds.

In likelihood, it was too weird for the North American market, which was more interested in stuff like this:

There’s no way mainstream America was going to rock out to Kraftwerk singing

“I'm the operator with my pocket calculator
I am adding and subtracting
I'm controlling and composing”

There were, however, pockets of America where people were actively rocking out to Kraftwerk. And it was a more interesting scene than the stale, tired one most people knew from the radio.

Kraftwerk were a major early influence on the early US Hip Hop scene that was emerging across the country.

Afrika Bambaataa famously covered Kraftwerk’s minor 1977 hit “Trans Europe Express” as well as the Computer World track Numbers for his seminal 1982 single “Planet Rock”.

“Pocket Calculator” also contained at least one synthesizer from a rather peculiar source.

When the Bee Gees had their biggest run of hits in the late 1970s, it was inevitable that toy companies would cash in on the merchandising possibilities.

Rather than manufacture a line of dolls as might have been the typical route, Mattel released a portable keyboard called The Bee Gees Rhythm Machine.

It was just a cheap early synthesizer that came and went, but Kraftwerk got hold of one and used it on “Pocket Calculator”. You can see the Bee Gees Rhythm Machine in action here:

A Casio FX-501P programmable calculator was also used on the track. When it came time to promote the Computer World album, a deal was struck between Kraftwerk and Casio, where a special Kraftwerk version of the calculator that played some of their best-known tracks was sold at concerts. Apparently, only a few sold, and the calculator is now a rare collector’s item.

Rather than opting for “Computer Love”, which had been a proven UK hit, Warner Brothers pulled a totally bananas 180 and followed “Pocket Calculator” up with “Numbers”. Perhaps someone knew what an impact the track was having on the underground music scene.

“Numbers” is a really cool track, but it’s a peculiar choice for a single. Like the rest of Computer World, it’s decades ahead of what was popular at the time.

The closest thing musically to it at the time would have been “Temporary Secretary” by Paul McCartney off his 1980 McCartney II album, which is said to have been heavily influenced by Kraftwerk.

EMI in the UK issued “Pocket Calculator” as a single to follow up “The Model/Computer Love”. It only barely scraped the Top 40.

Not that it mattered. Kraftwerk remain an important act to this day, as demonstrated by the reaction I saw on Bluesky recently to their Coachella set in April.

Kraftwerk’s output since the early 80s has been sporadic, but they continue to release quality music and tour, and it’s likely helped their legacy more than if they had released a bunch of increasingly poor recordings like some acts are prone to do.

Sometimes quality is better than quantity.