In May 1977, Kartner was asked to make a promotional song for an animated movie about the Smurfs. The record company pressed only 1,000 copies of the single, called The Smurf Song (no relation to the Smurf song of the cartoon show), since they were unsure about the success of the single. However, they were all sold within one day at a Schlager festival. After a repress, 400,000 singles were quickly sold. A full Smurfs album called Father Abraham In Smurfland was then created, which also climbed the charts, with 500,000 copies sold. The album was released in several dozen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Japan, and in various different languages, all sung by Kartner. The album scored a number one hit in 16 countries. Subsequently, Kartner released other Smurf-