"seemann" was recorded by lolita in a 15 december 1959 session at the austrophon-schallplatten-studio located in the konzerthaus, vienna, overseen by gerhard mendelson () the song's composers werner scharfenberger—who was the regular conductor on lolita's recordings—and fini busch had written "der weiße mond von maratonga" and other songs previously recorded by lolita: however it was another track from the 15 december session which was intended to be lolita's next a-side release: a cover of the italian single "quando la luna" by corrado lojacono entitled "la luna", "seemann" having been expediently written to serve as a b-side. lyricist fini busch recalled that she and scharfenberger "were commissioned to write a song completely 'on the fly'" to serve as b-side for the completed track "la luna"; "the producer said 'i couldn't care less. write anything you want to back it'." however it was "seemann" which entered germany's top 20 in march 1960: peaking at number two that june. it remained in the top 20 for ten months and was the fourth biggest hit in germany for the year 1960. ("la luna" would have a belated turn as an a-side reaching number thirty on the german charts in december 1960.)