Melanie Thornton ep 22

Friends & artists came on Melanie's funneral. For all of them was  shock...

Lane McCray said in a interview "The magic died with her and cannot be recreated."

Delroy Rennalls : "Melanie she was a very very down to earth person. She always took a pride in her appearance and always had time for her friends and her fans.
She was a genuine and real person. How she was in private, was how she was on the stage."

Terri B! "She was like a light of sunshine. She walked up to me on a TV show and i just melted. She was everything i thought she would be. She is gone too soon. I plan to do a tribute of some type."

Kim Sanders "Terri and I cried for her when we heard the news . It was too sad. I felt like i knew her so much better."

Linda Rocco "Melanie was incredible!!! When you saw her in person, she came across like a beautiful Amazon….. Most importantly, she could really sing, and she had a heart and soul, especially for her fans!! God bless you Melanie, we miss you…"

Melanie Thornton ep 21

On November 24 2001 Melanie and the girls from Passion Fruitt died in a plane crash near Zurich. Saturday night she performed in Leipzig and then she drove to Berlin where she took the plane to Zurich for radio and TV appearances (among others, the broadcast "Die Bar" on TV3, which was cancelled) to promote her new single "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)". 

"Wonderful Dream" was a Christmas ballad recorded for a Coca-Cola TV commercial.

The irolny of the situation is the album was called "Ready to fly" and she died from a plane accident. Her album was planned to be re-released on the 26th of November.

Melanie was only 34 years old...

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Here is an reportage with Deborah St.Maarten ( Passion Fruitt) one of survival of that plane accident.

Melanie Thornton ep 20

Melanie Thornton ep 19

2001 : Melanie released her first solo album entitled Ready To Fly on April 30th under the label X-Cell (Epic/Sony Music). According to an interview she gave and in which she explained that her favourite musical artists remained Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, we could guess that the album would not be eurodance related, unfortunately... Meanwhile she kept on doing club appearances in US clubs under the name of "Melanie Thornton, formerly of La Bouche" (she had the double nationality : American and German).

Melanie's third single to be released was Ooh Ooh (Talking About Love). The song has been remixed for the single release, to have much more power than it already had. Meanwhile her first album, produced by Julien Nairolf and Mitchell Lennox, reached #18 in the charts.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 18

After "Love how you love me" was fallow up by another ballad called "HeartBeat", this single was released in April 9 2001. Also the maxi cd includes a few dance remixes.

Melanie Thornton ep 17

Her first solo single was released in October 2000 : "Love How You Love Me", a ballad ( the CD-maxi included a few dance versions also).
The single was, as she described it, 'an open confession to the great love, a love which grows silently and lasts eternally'.

Melanie presented her new single on 29th November on the RTL Spendenmarathon, and on the 1st December at the Dome in Berlin.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 16

Melanie Thornton ep 15

After "SOS" single with La Bouche, in February 2000 Melanie left the group,and was replaced by Natascha Wright, because her contract with BMG ended and she signed a record deal with Epic/Sony to start her solo career.
Meanwhile Melanie bought a house and then got married with her trainer, an she changed her look.
In an interview gave for german magazine Melanie explains :

"I think La Bouche was a wonderful opportunity - and part of me is La Bouche. But I don't just want to continue to be a dance artist, trying to be young and trendy, like dance artists have to be"

She started working with a group of producers both in Germany and in the United States.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 14

"You Won't Forget Me" reached # 48 in Top 100 USA, # 29 in Germany and #24 in Sweden,after this was fallowed by a nice ballad " A moment of love " but without success.
But apparently second album didn't have the success expected and it was the last album with Melanie.
After a year La Bouche released the last single "SOS" who entred on Germany top 100 at # 78.

Melanie Thornton ep 13

After some silence La Bouche released finnally the single  "You Won´t Forget Me" in October 1997 and on the 17th November the new album "A Moment of Love" was released. 

The new album contains  9 songs, 3 remixes and, of course, "Bolingo" and "You Won't Forget Me". 

One of the 9 new songs isn't completely new... "Mama Look (I Love Him)" which was on the European release of "Sweet Dreams" can also be found on the new album ! Most tracks on the new album are uptempo dance tracks !

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 12

After "Fallin' in love" was released " I Love To Love". It went #6 in Australia. Fallowed by "Megamix" as a conclusion to this first album.Afterwards there was quite a long pause. 

Melanie explains in that periode : 

"Frank Farian held pretty much total control of the project and he had, since the beginning of La Bouche, picked up a whole lot of other projects. We'd been put on the backburner until he'd finished producing No Mercy (and others). He did record a single called Bolingo that was supposed to be the introduction of our second album, but it didn't work that way. It was like six months after the end of our first album and like a year before the actual release of the second album. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but it's just the way it happened. Basically it was just waiting on Frank Farian. First to be ready to start producing and then, second, to be satisfied with the work. There were also power struggles going on there. I would have to say a lot of it was disagreements between Frank and the labels". said Melanie

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 11

After two gold singles in Germany, both  had topped the European charts and gained massive radio play throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, La Bouche unleashed their debut album 'Sweet Dreams", which brought them to the forefront of America's pop market to become the new sensation of the 90s. The album sold twice Platinum in the US. 

In an interview gave for Bravo magazine Melanie talks about La Bouche success & fans: 

"In Germany the people are very nice , in Italy the fans were wild when i made my first appearence in Italy i was stalked by a fan."

 

Also Melanie said at that time: "she would like to have children later with the right man" 

One June 1995 they released a new single "Fallin' In Love" the single went # 16 on the America Top 40 radio charts. 

Thanks to Karine Sanche & Culture Beat Fanbase

Melanie Thornton ep 10

This sudden success was great for Melanie, but to her it was like a gradual thing, a very happy feeling. She explains:

"It was like, "Oh, wow! This is something I dreamed of when I was six years old." But, at the same time, we were traveling so much. We really didn't have the time to soak in the momentum of our success - to soak in the hype and believe the hype. We were working really hard at this point. We would go places and people would go crazy to see us, and this was interesting. At the same time, I kind of kept in mind.
This is really great. I hope we can continue to produce music our fans love. But I always tried to keep a reality check. This is because this song is so widely publicized and promoted. And it IS a great song, but it's more about the product at this point than ourselves."

The next single was "Be My Lover" in 1995 in the new formula Lane & Melanie, becoming an instant hit once again : #8 in Israel, #1 in Germany and Spain, top 10 in Holland, Austria and Belgium, #3 in Australia, #2 in Canada, #2 in Italy, #3 in France, #5 Switzeland, and #25 in the UK.

After the huge success of " Be my lover" & "Sweet Dreams" in Europe they were invited to the USA to promote the single " Be my lover" on several radio stations and to do a new version of the video for the song, 'cause the original video was too hot to show on American music television. After the promotions & the shoot they also did a trip to the East River and they did a helicopter-flight over Manhattan.

The single "Be my lover" sold gold in USA and went #6 in the USA Billboard Hot 100.

Thanks to Karine Sanche & Culture Beat Fanbase

Melanie Thornton ep 9

In a old interview, Melanie said "Looking back, it seems like it happened very quickly. In the process, it really didn't blow me away. I did the studio session with Amir Saraf and Uli Brenner in November 1993. Meanwhile, I was gigging, making my money, earning my living. Two months later, they called and said a record label was interested in releasing "Sweet Dreams" as a single".
At that time, Melanie was still hesitating between the 2 projects : La Bouche and Le Click.
But the success was immediate because "Sweet dreams" went #3 in Israel, #1 in Italy and Spain, #8 in Germany, #8 in Australia, #8 in France, #5 in Switzerland, top 30 in the UK, # 13 in the USA Billboard Hot 100 (where it stayed not less than 33 weeks !).
With Le Click release "Tonight Is The Night" at the same with "Sweet Dreams" like I said both songs with massive success in USA.

Melanie Thornton ep 8

On January 1995 was released another single that Melanie Thornton contribute, the project was Orange Blue and the tune was called "If you wanna be (my only)". 

Orange Blue was a dance project from Italy and the song was composed and written by R. Arduini, Abaribi and Randone and it was released under the label Italian Style.

Another project was Loop the project features the champion skater Katarina Witt, Melanie Thornton, Joan Faulkner & Linda Rocco. The single was composed by Dehm, Walger and Wilder, wirtten by Dehm, produced by Frank Farian, recorded in Far Studios.

Both singles didn’t achieved charts success even if were good eurodance tracks.

Meanwhile on La Bouche things were on the way… because Melanie & Lane were preparing the second single from this project but the first in this formula Lane & Melanie.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 7

In the same year, in 1994 was released “I Surrender To Your Love” from Comic Project another dance act that Melanie gave voice, and for the 1st time team up with the rapper of Snap!- Turbo B! but the single was not a chart success .
The music was composed by Giora Schein, Oliver Reinecke and Frank Schlingoff .
Meanwhile on La Bouche project after of departure of Robert the rapper, Melanie remembered Lane and called him to join the project.
The name of the band came on recording session for the first album, the whole team was thinking about the best name for the band and La Bouche was decided to be the name .
Thanks to Culture Beat FanBase

Melanie Thornton ep 6

Melanie continued to record songs in Germany and the next group that she contribute was 100%.
The song "Power of the light" was launched in ’94 featuring the voices of Melanie Thornton and Mike Romeo. It was produced by Rachid Nouri and R. Nagachian, under the WEA Music label.

In this periode of time, Melanie and Lane met for the first time in Frankfurt and they made a project "Groovin Affairs" but without any chart success like 100% too.

In the same year Melanie got the call from the Men Behind producers Ulli Brenner and Amir Saraf who wanted a new female vocalist for the new project, and Melanie was undoubtedly the perfect singer for project and La Bouche was born.
"Sweet dreams" was recorded with the rapper Robert, but Robert later left the band. More tomorrow....
Thanks to Culture Beat FanBase

Melanie Thornton ep 5

The next project who Melanie contribute was Hysterie and the first collaboration with the people who soon will mark her career, I’m talking of course about Ulli Brenner and Amir Saraf ( La Bouche producers).
With this project released a single in January of ’94 called " (Oh Oh Oh There Is) Nobody" also this track was written by Melanie herself, but not even this track made it in the charts.

Melanie Thornton ep 4

Pictures from the early career can be seen here.

The first eurodance project to which Melanie contributed was Men Behind, a German studio project. With this project, 2 singles were released : Feel the Life in ’93 and How Can I at the beginning of 94. This track, written by Melanie herself, was remixed by the Masterboy.
But the project was not so successful, contrarily to La Bouche which would launch Melanie's European career.
And La Bouche is another story that I will tell later in the following days.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep.3

Melanie she had been singing on that period in a Macon, Ga band, Danger Zone, pulling down $50 on a good night.

However, Bob Chisolm told her that on a bad night in Germany she would make $150.On her second evening in her new homeland she was already on stage in Munich.
Thornton tried it, and soon found work in studios recording demos.

 "I did several studio sessions where for me it was just more income and fun work, new experiences, working in the studios, co writing with producers on these dance songs".  said Melanie

More tomorrow.

Thanks to Karine Sanche