La Bouche (French for "The Mouth", ) is a German-American Eurodance duo best known for the hits "Be My Lover", "Sweet Dreams", "You Won't Forget Me" and "S.O.S." La Bouche was founded in 1994 by record producer Frank Farian in Frankfurt am Main. He worked together with techno DJ Ulli Brenner and producer Amir Saraf to produce the music, while American singer Melanie Thornton and American rapper-singer Lane McCray fronted the act.
Thornton and McCray had already worked together in music, prior to La Bouche's creation. Thornton departed La Bouche in 2000, continuing her career as a solo singer.
On 24 November 2001, Thornton died in the Crossair Flight 3597 crash in Zürich, Switzerland at 34. As a tribute to the singer, Farian released "In Your Life", a previously unreleased song featuring vocals recorded earlier with Thornton and McCray. Farian released The Best of La Bouche featuring Melanie Thornton, a compilation album featuring Thornton's solo tracks alongside La Bouche hits in 2002.
McCray continues to tour the world as La Bouche, keeping the brand alive.
In 2015, McCray pulled Hungarian-born singer Sophie Cairo out of obscurity to be the new official singer of the act. A new official remix titled "Sweet Dreams 2017" was released featuring vocals from McCray and Cairo.
History
Beginnings with Groovin' Affairs
Prior to forming La Bouche in 1994, Melanie Thornton and Lane McCray were lead vocalists in a German cover band called Groovin' Affairs. While touring with the band in various parts of Germany, Thornton also did regular studio session work with producers Amir Saraf and Ulli Brenner. Eventually, Thornton asked her bandmate McCray to join her in the recording project.
Mainstream success with "Sweet Dreams" and "Be My Lover" The song "Sweet Dreams" had quickly caught the attention of Farian and he later secured the track through his MCI label. "Tonight Is the Night" went to Logic Records in Germany under the band name Le Click. The single was released in 1994 and was a pan-European and Australian hit. It was later revealed that the rap performance was not done by Lane McCray, but by Robert Haynes, a former member of Le Click.
It was followed by "Be My Lover" in March of 1995, which peaked at number one in Germany and Sweden, while also reaching the Top 10 in fourteen European countries. It also peaked at number 27 in 1995 and number 25 in 1996 in the UK Singles Chart when re-issued in that year. "Be My Lover" went to number 1 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1995 and climbed to number 6 on the Hot 100 in early 1996. It was then re-released in the UK and reached a new peak of number 25. 1996 It went on to win the ASCAP award for the "Most Played Song in America" and sold 6 million copies worldwide. In Australia it was the debut single (before Sweet Dreams) and reached a peak of #2. La Bouche went on to become one of the biggest Eurodance groups of the '90s, with a string of hits worldwide. The debut album Sweet Dreams was released on June 12, 1995, which went to number 13 in the US, featured two more hit single releases, "Fallin' in Love" (a cover of the 1975 Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds song) and "I Love to Love".
While still with the group, Thornton had some American chart success as featured vocalist on the Le Click hit "Tonight Is the Night", which reached number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was included on the US version of La Bouche's debut album, peaking at number 28 on the Billboard 200. It was certified platinum by the RIAA and sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Thornton provided guest vocals on a lot of dance projects on single releases such as on Orange Blue's "If You Wanna Be (My Only)", Comic's "I Surrender to Your Love", 100%'s "Power of the Light", Trance-Vision's "Take Me 2 Heaven 2 Nite" and Men Behind's "How Can I".