La Bouche
The Eurodance duo that carried producer Frank Farian's Midas touch from Boney M. into the '90s. "Be My Lover" didn't just top charts—it scored over 6 million copies sold worldwide.
La Bouche formed in 1994 in Frankfurt, Germany under the stewardship of Frank Farian, the man who engineered the global dominance of Boney M. and was a key architect behind Milli Vanilli. The duo paired Melanie Thornton's powerhouse vocals with rapper Lane McCray, a combination that hit the ground running. Their debut single "Sweet Dreams" arrived in April 1994, cracking the German Top 10 and setting the table for what would come next.
The second single, "Be My Lover," became the juggernaut. Released in March 1995, it claimed the #1 spot in Germany for four weeks and swept across Europe and beyond—#1 in Sweden, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, and Romania. In the US, it climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996, winning the ECHO award for best national dance single and accumulating over 6 million copies sold. The debut album *Sweet Dreams* reached #28 on the Billboard 200. La Bouche's worldwide record sales topped 12 million.
The heyday ended when Melanie Thornton departed in February 2000 to pursue a solo career. She released *Ready to Fly* in May 2001. On November 24, 2001, while on approach to Zurich Airport, Thornton was killed in the crash of Crossair Flight 3597; 24 people perished in what became a defining tragedy. Lane McCray later revived the La Bouche name in 2007 with new vocalists, but the original magic belonged to that first, blazing run.
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