La Bouche means The Mouth in French. Named after the ‘big mouth’ that vocalist Melanie Thornton has. The producers didn’t think ‘The Mouth’ was an appropriate name for a dance-act, so they decided to go with the French translation, “La Bouche”. The first single, “Sweet Dreams (o la o la e)”, was a big hit in Germany and France in early 1994. This single could be found on the soundtrack of an cartoon (‘Asterix & Obelix’) movie. In the rest of Europe the success of this single was mediocre.The single which brought them the big success was the chartbusting “Be My Lover”, hitting top 10 in many countries, incl. the UK, Holland, Germany and even the USA. This song saw the light in 1994, but 1995 was the year it was picked up by many radiostations. At the time that “Be My Lover” was storming the Billboard Hot 100 the third single was already released in Europe called “Falling In Love”.”Falling In Love” was something completely different then the first two singles. Not a high energy eurodance track, but a groovy R&B, soul track. This single indicated the broad variety of musical styles of La Bouche. Not only do they do dance, but they can also bring sensitive ballads.After the release of “Falling In Love” the album “Sweet Dreams” was released. This album is very versatile, containing uptempo dance tracks, groovy R&B tracks and even ballads. The Dutch version of the “Sweet Dreams” album contained 15 tracks including two remixes of “Falling In Love” [Dance mix] and “Be My Lover” [House mix]. Track 13 was also different on the Dutch version. The Dutch track 13 was the very uptempo, hi-nrg dance track “Mama Look (I Love Him)”. I’ve seen versions were track 13 was “Le Click: Love Is In The Air”. And there’s more… the US version also doesn’t contain the track “Forget Me Nots. This track was the opening track of the European album. At the end of 1995 the remix of “Sweet Dreams (the single) was (re-)released in Holland. This time it reached the Dutch charts and stayed there a couple of weeks, but it didn’t have the impact as “Be My Lover”.
In the mean time La Bouche were touring the USA. Everywhere they came the crowd went crazy. The powerfull vocals of Melanie and the groovy raps of Lane McCray impressed the American crowds. “I Love To Love” was chosen as the next single, in the beginning of 1996. The track was remixed for the radio/video-release. They slowed it down a little bit, removed some raps and put some new euro-nrg sounds in it. “Forget Me Nots” didn’t do very well in the Dutch charts. In some countries “Forget Me Nots” was released together with “I Love To Love” as a B-Side single. The album “All Mixed Up” was released at the end of 1996. As the title suggests it contains remixes of their hits and a megamix. It also includes “Le Click: Love Is In The Air. Le Click is the name of the band which Melanie used to sing for, and “Tonight Is The Night” was their first single.
“Bolingo (Love Is In The Air)”. The first track not taken from the debut album. “You Won’t Forget Me” was taken of the new album “A Moment Of Love”, which was retitled to “S.O.S.” in the US. Rumours of “Mama Look (I Love Him)” being on the US version of the album are untrue. The German version of the “A Moment Of Love”-album sees a big surprise… “Bolingo” isn’t on the album!!! But just like the debut album it’s very versatile. Unlike some reviewers, whose name shall be left unmentioned, have written the album does NOT feature ‘just one hit single “You Won’t Forget Me” plus tons of R&B ballads and other funky junk’. It’s true that “You Won’t Forget Me” is one of the faster tracks of the album (if not THE fastest), but there are other tracks which fall into the dance category, like the great songs “”Unexpected Lovers”, “S.O.S.” (Future Trance at it’s best), “Whenever You Want (I’ll Be There)” (this track sounds just like a No Mercy song!!) and of course the “You Won’t Forget Me” -remix!
Like on their debut album it also features ballads (like the title track) and several funky stuff which La Bouche love to do live. All in all it’s an album which will find it’s way to broad diversity of people because of it’s very versatile. June 1998. The La Bouche album was released in the U.S. 8 months after the European release. Februari 1999 sees the release of the new La Bouche single… For the follow up to “A Moment Of Love” they’ve chosen another single of their second album… It’s a little bit strange knowing that most dance acts don’t release singles of 2 year old albums. Most acts simply chose to release new material. But fortunately for us they have chosen to release the strongest song of the “A Moment Of Love” album… Melanie Thornton died after a plane crash near Zurich in Switzerland in November 24, 2001. Her talented successor is Dana Rayne who, together with Sir Lane McCray are still touring all around the world with the success formula La Bouche.
