Modern Talking

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Modern Talking

Background information
Origin Germany
Genre(s) Euro Disco, Eurodance, Synthpop, Hi-NRG, Italodisco
Years active 1984–1987, 1998–2003
Label(s) BMG
Former members
Thomas Anders
Dieter Bohlen

Modern Talking was a German pop music duo consisting of composer/producer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders. Genre-wise they were often classified under euro disco. By sales, it's considered the single most successful pop group in Germany.[1]

Contents

[edit] The beginning of Modern Talking

First formed at the end of 1984 they unexpectedly became immensely popular with their disco hit "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" with which they occupied the number one position in 35 countries including their homeland where it perched at the top for six weeks. The track was then followed by another number one hit "You Can Win If You Want" in the middle of 1985 from the The First Album. Soon after this second hit, Modern Talking released "Cheri Cheri Lady" which quickly climbed to the top as well, the only track released from their second album Let's Talk About Love. The success continued with two other number one singles such as "Brother Louie" and "Atlantis is Calling (SOS For Love)" both from the third album Ready For Romance. The duo also charted high with their "Geronimo's Cadillac" from the fourth album In the Middle of Nowhere and "Jet Airliner" from their fifth album Romantic Warriors.

Dieter Bohlen, Thomas Anders in the 1987 "Romantic Warriors" Album
Dieter Bohlen, Thomas Anders in the 1987 "Romantic Warriors" Album

During this era Modern Talking were successful in Europe, Asia, South America, Middle East, particularly in Iran, where all Western pop music was banned after 1979 Islamic revolution, and also in several African countries. In the United Kingdom they entered the top ten only once with the song "Brother Louie" (in 1986, #4 UK). Like most European pop groups, they were almost unknown in North America, never appearing in the US charts, although they did become one hit wonders in Canada when Brother Louie hit #34 in 1987. Composer Dieter Bohlen employed mood-evoking lyrics and intellectually-designed synthesizer-based music which was out of vogue in the U.S. before Modern Talking even formed. They released two albums a year between 1985 and 1987 while also promoting their singles on television all over Europe eventually selling 60 million albums within three years.

[edit] Between 1987 and 1998

After splitting up in 1987 Anders and Bohlen went their separate ways, while Bohlen formed his own project Blue System immediately after the split and enjoyed several high chart positions with tracks like "Sorry Little Sarah", "My Bed is Too Big", "Under My Skin" "Love Suite", "Déjà Vu", Anders went solo recording some of his new pop like material in Los Angeles and London, and also in his native country. As a solo artist, Anders toured in places like Hong Kong and Santiago de Chile during which time he would sing songs from his pop solo albums, in the meantime keeping his thousands of enthusiastic loyal fans satisfied with former Modern Talking material. Anders recorded five solo albums in English Different, Whispers, Down on Sunset, When Will I See You Again, Souled and one album in Spanish Barcos de Crystal. Both his voice and vocal delivery advanced with every album he recorded; however, he found more success in foreign countries than at home. Despite all the quarrells and disagreements that Dieter and Thomas experienced between themselves in the past, Anders and Bohlen began keeping in touch again after Anders moved back to Koblenz, Germany in 1994.

[edit] The Reunion: 1998-2003

In the beginning of 1998 the duo reunited, and had their first performance together in March on Germany's biggest TV show Wetten, dass..?. Their first comeback album Back for Good which included four new tracks as well as all of the previous hits redone with modern techniques not only stayed at number one position in Germany for five consecutive weeks but also went to number one in 15 other countries, eventually selling six million units world-wide. [2] They won the award at World Music Awards for being the "Best Selling German Band" that year. The follow-up album Alone was very successful as well. A series of singles and four more albums followed as Year of the Dragon, America, Victory, Universe. After reaching the point where they had already collected 500 gold and platinum awards world-wide, Bohlen and Anders decided to split up again in 2003 due to Bohlen having insufficient time to deal with so many projects. His involvement in Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German edition of the UK's Pop Idol, was one of the major reasons and he said he knew it was best to stop while still on top. They released one more compilation album in 2003 calling it The Final Album which contained all of the duo's singles. Thomas Anders started another solo career immediately, while Bohlen had by now begun devoting most of his time to new talents, especially those he discovered on DSDS.

[edit] Production and sales figures

In 1998 Bohlen quoted the hit single "Precious Little Diamond" by Fox the Fox as his inspiration for using falsetto choruses. Further influences include German-language Schlager music, disco pop (Bee Gees) and romantic English-language songs of Italian and French origin, like Gazebo's "I Like Chopin". Some of the lyrics were reminiscent of Hot Chocolate. After the 1998 reunion Bohlen produced Eurodance, as well as American-style MOR ballads.

The songs were originally recorded using up to five background singers; in live situations the songs were performed using playback. Anders did begin to perform the songs live when he toured the world shortly after the break-up. In the late 1990s Bohlen and Anders went on their first official tours under the band name.

Global sales of Modern Talking records were 120 [3] million units, according to BMG in June 2003, and they have become the biggest-selling German music act in history, so far outselling even Frank Farian's projects Boney M and Milli Vanilli, Michael Cretu's Enigma, Sandra, the Scorpions, Snap! and Rammstein.

Dieter Bohlen also worked with other artists even while Modern Talking existed, among them Chris Norman of Smokie fame whose song "Midnight Lady" (1986) remains Bohlen's most popular composition. He also wrote a large number of disco tracks for C.C.Catch ("House of Mystic Lights") using an accelerated, less romantic sound. Some English Bohlen songs like "You're My Heart, You're My Soul" were also recorded with German lyrics by Mary Roos using the same playback tracks. When Modern Talking split up in 1987, a number of tracks written for the last album were instead moved onto Dieter Bohlen's first solo album which appeared almost at the same time, among them his first solo single "Sorry Little Sarah". Bohlen's solo project was called Blue System, and comprised him, Modern Talking co-producer Luis Rodriguez, and the backing singers.

[edit] Solo careers

In 2006 Bohlen included a secret message in his song "Bizarre Bizarre" which was played backwards: "There will never be an end to Modern Talking". However, Bohlen said: "He meant to say that the music of Modern Talking will live forever" [4]. Anders has kept the Modern Talking songs in his repertoire and produced songs in a similar vein for his solo records ("Independent Girl"). In 2006 he produced an album of Swing and Jazz versions of popular songs (including Modern Talking's first hit). Bohlen has written two autobiographical books, one of which also detailed Modern Talking's history from his perspective, and sold a million copies in Germany. The sequel was heavily criticised for his unfairness towards the people he worked with. As a result of that, he withdrew from the public for a year until 2006, when he said he regretted putting out the second book. Anders had not been the only one pressing charges against Bohlen and demanding that sections of the book be modified. Frank Farian was angered by Bohlen's literary output and released a book in which he tried to expose Bohlen as a fraud, but this didn't get down well with the public either[5]. Bohlen's first book was the basis of an animated comedy film called Dieter - Der Film. The soundtrack of this film contained one previously unreleased Modern Talking song ("Shooting Star") which had been written for the Universe album. Anders recently had his first and Bohlen his fourth child.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "thomas-anders.com|history|biography|modern talking".thomas-anders.com.
  2. ^ [1].sonybmg.de.
  3. ^ "Sales_Figure".sueddeutsche.de.
  4. ^ "shortnews.de.
  5. ^ "sueddeutsche.de.

[edit] Discography

Year Album Chart positions
GER SUI AUT NL ITA ZA FRA ARG SWE NOR UK FIN ESP EUR
1985 The First Album 1 2 2 8 - 6 - - 12 5 - 1 5 1
1985 Let's Talk About Love 2 1 4 17 - - - - 4 3 - - - -
1986 Ready For Romance 1 1 1 - - 1 19 - 6 5 76 - - -
1986 In The Middle Of Nowhere 1 3 2 - - - - - 9 8 - - - -
1987 Romantic Warriors 3 8 6 - - - - - 15 10 - - - -
1987 In The Garden Of Venus 35 - - - - - - - 49 - - - - -
1998 Back For Good 1 1 1 3 - 1 2 1 1 1 - 1 6 1
1999 Alone 1 3 2 3 - 17 11 1 5 9 - 4 13 6
2000 Year Of The Dragon 3 4 5 - - - - - 28 26 - 22 - 10
2001 America 2 10 7 - - - - - 37 - - - - 9
2002 Victory 1 14 7 - - - - 20 - - - - - 9
2003 Universe 2 25 10 - - - - - - - - - - 11
2003 The Final Album 3 53 39 - - 1 - - - - - - - 14
Year Single Chart positions
GER SUI AUT FRA SWE ITA ESP BEL GRC ZA FIN ARG NLD RUS NOR UK JPN LBN ISR HKG EUR
1984 You're My Heart, You're My Soul (8 Million Sales) 1 1 1 3 3 - 2 - 1 2 1 - 4 - 3 56 15 1 1 1 1
1985 You Can Win If You Want 1 2 1 8 - - 2 - - 10 5 - 6 - - 70 - 1 1 - -
1985 Cheri Cheri Lady 1 1 1 18 3 10 4 - 1 13 1 - 10 - 1 - 44 1 1 1 1
1986 Brother Louie 1 2 2 6 1 48 1 - 1 1 1 - 20 - 8 4 - 1 1 1 1
1986 Atlantis Is Calling (SOS For Love) 1 3 2 21 3 13 2 - 2 12 11 - 6 - 8 55 - 3 1 3 1
1986 Geronimo's Cadillac 3 6 3 43 6 23 3 4 1 4 8 - 36 - 7 - - - 1 1 -
1986 Give Me Peace On Earth 29 - 28 - - - - 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1986 Lonely Tears In Chinatown (Released In Spain Only) - - - - - - 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1987 Jet Airliner 7 12 10 - 12 - 3 7 4 16 - - 36 - - - - - - - -
1987 In 100 Years 30 - - - - - 4 - - 18 - - - - - - - - - - -
Year Single
GER SUI AUT FRA SWE ITA ESP BEL GRC ZA FIN ARG NLD RUS NOR UK JPN LBN ISR HKG EUR
1998 You're My Heart, You're My Soul '98 2 4 2 3 6 - - 10 4 - 8 1 - - - - - 2 2 17 9
1998 Brother Louie '98 16 21 17 2 9 - - - 10 - - 1 51 - - - - 8 - 12 12
1999 You Are Not Alone 7 12 5 13 15 - 5 - 11 - 8 5 - - 4 - 10 4 - - 19
1999 Sexy Sexy Lover 15 35 27 - 25 - 19 - - - 9 20 - - - - - 13 - - 11
2000 China In Her Eyes 8 20 22 - 26 - 6 - 24 - - - - - - - - 15 - - 49
2000 Don't Take Away My Heart 41 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2001 Win the Race 5 31 14 - 36 - - - - - - 16 1 - - - - - - - 34
2001 Last Exit To Brooklyn 37 94 44 - - - - - - - - - - 7 - - - - - - -
2002 Ready For The Victory 7 62 20 - - - 11 - - - - - - 9 13 - - - - - 33
2002 Juliet 25 83 42 - - - - - - - - - - 10 - - - - - - 83
2003 TV Makes The Superstar 2 55 15 - - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - 11

[edit] Compilations

  • 1986 The Singles Collection
  • 1987 The Modern Talking Story (Scandinavian Edition)
  • 1988 Best Of Modern Talking
  • 1988 You're My Heart, You're My Soul
  • 1988 Romantic Dreams
  • 1988 Greatest Hits Mix
  • 1989 Hey You
  • 1989 The Greatest Hits Of Modern Talking
  • 1991 The Collection
  • 1991 You Can Win If You Want
  • 1994 You Can Win If You Want (Re-release)
  • 2000 You're My Heart, You're My Soul
  • 2001 Selected Singles '85-'98
  • 2001 The Very Best Of Modern Talking
  • 2002 Best Of Modern Talking (Re-release) [#14 France] (Compilation Chart)
  • 2002 The Golden Years (3xCD)
  • 2002 We Still Have Dreams – The Greatest Love Ballads Of Modern Talking
  • 2003 Romantic Dreams (Re-release)
  • 2003 Let's Talking! … Best Of Modern Talking
  • 2002 The Final Album (2 CDs South African Edition)
  • 2003 Greatest Hits 1984-2002 (Korean Edition)
  • 2006 Nur Das Beste (1998-2003 Collection)
  • 2007 The Hits (2 CDs)