Songoftheday 6/27/19 - I feel joy I feel pain 'cause it's still the same, when the night is gone I'll be alone...
from the album Another Night (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (eleven weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 40
Today's song of the day comes from the German Eurodance act Real McCoy. Started up by producer Juergen Wind and rapper Olaf "O-Jay" Jeglitza, who had recorded together as "The Alliance" in the late 1980s, they added producer Frank "Quickmix" Hassas to originally be called "MC Sar and the Real McCoy". In 1989, along with studio singer Karin Kasar, the act recorded a cover of Belgian dance group Technotronic's "Pump Up The Jam" before they got the rights/label in Germany. The "McCoy" rap version climbed to #16 on the Germany singles chart. That was followed by "It's On You", an original which heavily sampled Raze's "Break 4 Love", which found the act pulling a "Milli Vanilli", hiring a model-type French-African to pose as MC Sar and lipsync O-Jay's raps and appear on the album cover (much like "Black Box"). Also, a new female singer Patsy was brought in to mime the choruses. But the song nevertheless became a top ten success in the Netherlands (#3), Austria (#4), and France (#8), while hitting #16 in Germany. But after the album release and multiple stiffed singles, they were dropped from the dance-oriented ZYX label.
In 1993, having reached a deal with a branch of music conglomerate BMG called Hansa Records, Wind, Hassas, and Jeglitza released their first single "Another Night" in 1993, where it climbed to #18 on the German singles chart. After two more local hits with "Automatic Lover (Call For Love)" and the original version of "Run Away", ditching the lipsyncing model guy but keeping Patsy miming for Karin Kasar's vocals for some reason, Arista Records head Clive Davis showed interest in bringing the act to the U.S. Shortening the name to "Real McCoy", they released the single in America with a new music video, and instantly, the band became dance-pop superstars...
"Another Night" became the Real McCoy's first and biggest hit in America, spending almost three months at #3 starting in November of 1994. It stayed on Billboard magazine's pop top-40 for ten months (40 weeks), more than any other song that year. The single also managed to sneak on to the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart, peaking at #32. The remixes on the single helped the track spend a week at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list as well. Internationally, the single topped the Australian chart for six weeks, and reached the top ten in the UK (#2), Belgium (#5), Ireland (#6), Norway (#6), Finland (#6), and Denmark (#10). It also got into the top-20 in the Netherlands (#13), Iceland (#13), New Zealand (#16), Germany (#18), and France (#20).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
There was another video for when the song was orignally released in Europe...
and here's Olaf and the group performing at a European music awards...
And finally, with the true singer on the record, Karin, more recently...
Up tomorrow: A nostalgic pop hit from some Jersey Boys gets a second life on radio.
Comments