LA BOUCHE

Watch out for Germany's answer to the duo-revival, La Bouche, featuring D. Lane McCray Jr., fueled for the 1990s with their own brand of pop, dance, and a twist of R&B.

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.

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. La Bouche hoped that the more club oriented sound of "Forget Me Nots" would do good in the Dutch charts.

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.

1997 "Bolingo (Love Is In The Air)" was only released in Germany, but since this single didn't have the expected success as La Bouche had hoped, they decided to not release it in any other countries.

La Bouche have finally released a single in February 1999, Germany was the first country where "S.O.S." hit the stores. "S.O.S." was the third single to be taken from the "A Moment Of Love" album, which dates back to 1997! Not many dance acts release a single of a 2 year old album, but a track like "S.O.S." was definitely worth a release!

So in April 2000, La Bouche released some new material with the single "All I Want". With this single La Bouche is fronted by a the new singer Natascha Wright. Lane McCray is still going strong with his rap. The single was produced by Frank Farian.
Melanie Thornton died in a plane crash on November 24, 2001. This was just 2 days before her new single and album was going to be released.

On April 29th, 2002 BMG Germany released an album of La Bouche feat. Melanie Thornton. This album includes the hits of La Bouche, the solo hits of the late Melanie Thornton, a videoclip of "Sweet Dreams" and two previously unreleased tracks of La Bouche.

Lane McCray worked on his debut solo album "Naked Songs In The Key Of Love", which was released 2002. On stage Dana Rayne supports the female voice.