| Modern Talking | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Germany |
| Genre(s) | Euro disco, Eurodance, Synthpop, Hi-NRG, Italo Disco |
| 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/background singer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders. Genre-wise they were often classified under euro disco. By sales, it is the single most successful pop group in Germany. [1]
Contents |
First formed at the end of 1984 they unexpectedly became immensely popular with their Europop hit single 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 single went on to sell eight million copies world-wide[2]. 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 (S.O.S. for Love) both from the third album Ready For Romance. The duo also charted high with their sixth single Geronimo's Cadillac from the fourth album In The Middle Of Nowhere and Jet Airliner from their fifth album Romantic Warriors.
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 the 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 (#4 UK in 1986). 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 US 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 65 [3] million records within three years.
After the duo split up in 1987, 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 and 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 Moscow, Sun City, 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 and Souled and one album in Spanish Barcos De Cristal. 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.
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 many countries, eventually selling six million units worldwide. [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 and Universe. After reaching the point where they had already collected 500 gold and platinum awards worldwide, Bohlen and Anders decided to split up again in 2003. 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.
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.
Global sales of Modern Talking records were 120[4]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, 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.
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"[1]. 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 Songs Forever 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.
| 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 | 37 | - | - | - | - | 9 | 8 | - | - | - | - |
| 1987 | Romantic Warriors | 3 | 8 | 6 | 24 | - | - | - | - | 15 | 10 | - | - | - | - |
| 1987 | In The Garden Of Venus | 35 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 49 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1998 | Back For Good | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 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 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 4 | - | 3 | 56 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1985 | You Can Win If You Want | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | - | 2 | 1 | - | 10 | 5 | - | 6 | - | - | 70 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | |||
| 1985 | Cheri Cheri Lady | 1 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 1 | - | 10 | - | 1 | - | 44 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1986 | Brother Louie | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 48 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 20 | - | 8 | 4 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1986 | Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love) | 1 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 11 | - | 6 | - | 8 | 55 | - | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| 1986 | Geronimo's Cadillac (Modern Talking) | 3 | 6 | 3 | 43 | 6 | 23 | 1 | 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 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| 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 | |||
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