Songoftheday 8/20/22 - The kisses of the sun were sweet, I didn't blink I let it in my eyes like an exotic dream...

 

 

"Around The World (La La La La La)" - ATC (A Touch Of Class)

from the album Planet Pop (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 6

 

Today's song comes from the Eurodance act A Touch Of Class, who released music in America initially under the abbreviation ATC. Instead of being assembled by a production team, Australian Sarah Egglestone, New Zealander Joey Murray, British singer Tracey Packham, and Italian Livio Salvi met as castmates on a production of the music Cats in Germany. Signed to Republic Records in the U.S. and King Size label on BMG internationally, the foursome released their debut single "Around The World (La La La La La)" in the spring of 2000 in Europe. The record was a remake of a Russian pop song from the duo Hands Up!, written by that act's Sergey Zhukov and Alekshy Potekhin using an anonymous female singer, which was released in 1998...

With producer Alex Christensen, who wrote new English lyrics with Peter Könemann, ATC's version doesn't stray far from the inane Eurodance fodder of the original, meant to do no more than ingrain itself inside your brain like a malignant tumor. Much like the Vengaboys from years before, the "product" was meant to make you involutarily shake your booty, and for that it did the trick, as the song became a huge international success, and eventually found itself on the radio across the ocean, even when the genre by then had faded greatly. The group found themselves their first and only success here, as MTV also played the heck out of the video which has the group playing with toys...

"Around The World" became ATC's first and only top-40 hit (and only hit at all) on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart in March of 2001. On the radio, the song climbed to #12 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart and #24 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format list. Internationally, the single topped the singles charts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and Romania, and made the top ten in Denmark (#2), Hungary (#2), Croatia (#4), the Netherlands (#5), Finland (#7), Sweden (#8), Canada (#10), and Belgium (#10 F/W). It also almost made that mark in Australia (#11), France (#12), and the United Kingdom (#15). The Planet Pop album, released in November of 2000, went to #73 on the Billboard 200, not too shabby for a dance record. 

The group tried to copy the success of nonsense parentheses with their next single, "My Heart Beats Like A Drum (Dum Dum Dum)", written by Christensen and Könemann. Sounding so close to the former hit that they could've sued themselves, the song did well in the continental base of Eurodance, reaching the top ten in Germany (#3), Belgium (#3W), Romania (#3), and Austria (#6), but the more discerning American and British audiences gave it a pass. A third single, "Why Oh Why", also made the top-40 in Germany (#16), Austria (#16), and Poland (#29). That was followed by their attempt at an over-Autotuned ballad "Thinking Of You", which missed that level in Germany at #46.

By the time the group released their sophomore effort, which Republic passed on, they were forced to change their name to A Touch Of Class from a lawsuit by DJ ATB, who was a big trance artist in Europe at the time. Touch The Sky was released in 2003, but that was already two years after the lead single, "I'm In Heaven (When You Kiss Me)" was out and hit the top-40 in Romania (#18), Germany (#22), Austria (#27), and Switzerland (#31). After a couple of minor singles from the set, ATC split up the following year. 

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Here's the group performing in 2000...

 In 2007, German pop group BeFour interpolated "Around The World"/"Pesenka" with new lyrics for a single titled "Magic Melody", and the result reached the top-20 in Austria, Switzerland, and their homeland...

 

Six years later, Colombian singer Carolina Marquez released "Sing La La La" with American rapper Flo Rida and singer Dale Saunders from St. Kitts-Nevis, and had a minor hit in some European countries...

In 2019, Dutch DJ/remixer R3HAB brought back the original group to make a new version that reached the top-40 in Belgium (#5W/#11F), Finland (#10), the Netherlands (#18), Romania (#20), Denmark (#26), Lithuania (#28), Germany (#29), Norway (#31), Austria (#35), Slovenia (#35), Hungary (#37), and Switzerland (#39), and even got to #20 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Songs chart...

Most recently, pop singer Ava Max sampled "Around The World" for her hit "My Heart and My Heart", which made the top-20 on the pop and dance radio charts in America and just missed the Hot 100 top-40 at #45 in 2021...

 

and lastly, ATC/A Touch Of Class at a gig in 2020...

Up tomorrow: Aussie country star realizes his luck.