La Bouche (French for ‘The Mouth’), originally consisting of singer Melanie Thornton and rapper Lane McCray, was formed in 1994 and the duo would remain together until 2000 when Melanie left the group to pursue a solo career. Tragically, that career was cut short when Melanie, along with 23 others, was killed when a severely lacking pilot (who was still being allowed to fly because heaven forbid the company put their passenger’s safety above profits) crashed Crossair Flight 3597 into a hillside in Bassersdorf, Switzerland on November 24, 2001.
The pair had been working together in a German cover band called Groovin' Affairs before La Bouche, but finally came together as their own group when the song Sweet Dreams caught the attention of producer Frank Farian - the guy behind Milli Vanilli. Basically, his whole business model was either having the public faces of groups lip sync to songs that were sung by other vocalists (an, unfortunately, fairly common practice in Eurodance) and/or just make covers of whatever he could get his hands on. La Bouche was no exception to this as Melanie’s voice was used for Le Click’s “Tonight Is The Night” instead of their actual singer Kayo Shekoni. The song was released by Le Click sometime in 1995 (and is also the name of their only album, released in 1997); however, La Bouche’s US release of their Sweet Dreams album in June of that same year also included the track (who this song “belongs to” still confuses people to this day). Frank also had another one of his groups, No Mercy, cover La Bouche’s “Where Do You Go” less than a year later, which in turn, propelled them to international stardom and now that song is almost exclusively associated with them. On top of all that, the songs “Forget Me Nots” and “Fallin’ In Love” on La Bouche’s album were also covers, originally by Patrice Rushen and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds respectively.
Now, getting back to the album, I started with all the songs in order of appearance on the original album release and then added the two other songs that appeared on the US version at the end (that version replaces “Forget Me Nots” and “Mama Look (I Love Him)” with those two songs). I also used the cover from the US version of the album, but you can see the studio cover on their Wikipedia page linked below.
As for the songs themselves, it’s half and half. “Sweet Dreams”, “Be My Lover”, and “Tonight Is The Night” are obvious favorites, but “Forget Me Nots”, “Fallin’ In Love”, “I’ll Be There”, and “Do You Still Need Me” have held up very well too. On the other hand, while not bad, songs like “Nice ‘N’ Slow”, “I Love To Love”, “Shoo Bee Do Bee Do (I Like That Way)”, and “Mama Look (I Love Him)” are more a product of their time. I also agree that No Mercy’s cover of “Where Do You Go” is the better one; a similar style cover of “Poetry in Motion” would probably work well too. And, minus the remixes, that just leaves “The Heat Is On”, which I think deserves a modernized cover.
Extra Notes: Sorry for the smaller/lower quality pictures than usual, but that’s what I was able to find. Also, this medley is heavy on Melanie’s vocals and extreme light on Lane’s, but that’s simply the nature of me only previewing the chorus portion of the songs.
Track Listing:
1. Forget Me Nots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3PlqWB0g5s
2. Sweet Dreams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9McVO9hpUE
3. Be My Lover - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViP87WipSm0
4. Fallin' In Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3T6q68A2k
5. I'll Be There - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEpcnW8n03M
6. Nice 'N' Slow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhKWAQCbWoY
7. Where Do You Go - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNDO9IS-J4
8. I Love To Love - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxyhy47eyYc
9. Do You Still Need Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt4RCMYfYE4
10. Poetry In Motion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu8ysxH056s
11. Shoo Bee Do Bee Do (I Like That Way) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVxpJMEz8kM
12. The Heat Is On - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_joK2ToNgk
13. Mama Look (I Love Him) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoNOVdIvsC8
14. Be My Lover (House Mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhgxA8xRIk
15. Fallin' In Love (Spike Mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB87ebF94R8
16. Tonight Is The Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmTOTgsl4vA
To learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bouche
