Is this the right forum for this group? I don't really know a whole heck of a lot about this group since they never hit the US charts. I do have a couple of their songs like "You're my heart, you're my soul" and "Brother Louie". I know they hit both the German and UK charts in the 80's. They are from Germany and I understand that the lead singer is the host of the German version of "Pop/American Idol". My cousin, who lives in Germany, asked me if I ever heard of them. Can anyone else tell me more about them?

Is this the right forum for this group? I don't really know a whole heck of a lot about this group since they never hit the US charts. I do have a couple of their songs like "You're my heart, you're my soul" and "Brother Louie". I know they hit both the German and UK charts in the 80's. They are from Germany and I understand that the lead singer is the host of the German version of "Pop/American Idol". My cousin, who lives in Germany, asked me if I ever heard of them. Can anyone else tell me more about them?

Jeez, I wish Wavemeister were here!

Modern Talking are fronted by Dieter Bohlen and Thomas Anders (vocals), and are one of Germanys most internationally successful bands ever (in fact, in terms of record sales they may be the biggest). Although Brother Louie was the only UK top ten hit, long before this hit in 1986 they had established themselves all over Europe with smash hits like 'You're My Heart, You're My Soul' and 'You Can Win If You Want'.

The song that I think they are most remembered for is 'You're My Heart, You're My Soul' rather than 'Brother Louie', and following these early successes they had more hits with 'Jet Airliner', 'Geromino's Cadillac' and 'In 100 Years'.

They split in 1987, citing differences of opinion with Anders getting married. But, in 1998 they were back on the scene with the hit album 'Back For Good', which featured all the hits slightly remixed for a 90's feel plus 2 original hit tracks from 1984. This put them back on the map, and they picked up an award at the European music awards in 2000.

By this point however they had changed their sound from Euro pop crooning to Rap/Hip Hop. After several more chart hits I think they may well have called it a day again, but I'm not sure on this.

I really like Modern Talking, they were easy on the ears and had great synth arrangements over a cheesy beat. You either Love them or Hate them....there is no in-between. :lol:

I would agree. I loved "You're my heart, you're my soul" rather than "Brother Louie" as well.

I'm also with my esteemed colleagues on this one. "You're my Heart, You're My Soul" is a classic song. :thumb:

I've only heard 'You Can Win If You Want'. I liked it.

I actually forgot to list two of there other bit hits, 'Cheri, Cheri Lady' and 'Atlantis Is Calling'....

Ya asked for me? :D

First: no, this is not the right forum...like Chasey already said, Modern Talking is Dancefloor, influenced by Euro Disco and Italo Disco.

Dieter Bohlen was not a newbie on the scene when he founded Modern Talking in 1983 - he penned his first songs with twelve (Bohlen was born in Oldenburg, Germany on 2/7/1954) and played in various amateur bands. After finishing his studies as an BA in Marketing and Management, he sought a career as a producer, but until 1978, no record label showed any interest.

In 1978, the Hamburgian label Intersong finally offered him a producer job. He produced many nationally known and successful artists like Roland Kaiser, Bernd Clüver, Katja Ebstein and Bernhard Brink. But Bohlen wanted more...and found his chance in Thomas Anders whom he produced in 1982 and 1983, with songs in German language. The first single from this collaboration was the German version of F.R. Davids "Pick Up The Phone" which failed to place in the charts. A second single, "Wovon träumst Du denn", sold at least 30,000 times.

Still eager to make it to the top, Bohlen asked Anders to sing the lyrics for a certain song - with a minor obstacle: the lyrics were written in English...
One day, Bohlen played the mastertapes of the artists he produced to the audience consisting of the label bosses, with exception of one tape. This behaviour fanned the curiousity of the label bosses, and they asked Bohlen to play that tape. After they heard that track, they said "Dieter...this is it!".

That certain track was "You're My Heart, You're My Soul".

After the first copies (now under the soon-to-be-well-known band name Modern Talking) were pressed in October 1984...nothing happened, the singles laid like lead in the shelves of of the record stores. It took an appearance in Germany's most popular chart show of the 80s, Formel Eins, until the single charted finally on 1/25/1985. From this moment on, "success" was not longer a foreign word to that duo.

"You're My Heart, You're My Soul" became a top-seller, with a heap of #1- and #2-chart rankings worldwide. The following singles, "You Can Win If You Want" and "Cheri Cheri Lady" hitted in the same notch, musically as well as commercially. In the meanwhile, Bohlen must have worked like a maniac, since MT released two longplayers in 1985, "The First Album - The 1st Album" and "Let´s Talk About Love - The 2nd Album" (from this moment on, all longplay releases featured the number of the release in addition to the title with exception of the Best-Of compilations). Needless to mention that both LP's topped the charts.

Like Dieter Bohlens general attitude, Modern Talking didn't left many differing opinions - you loved or you hated them, and Germany (and probably the rest of the world, too) was divided into devoted MT-fans and equally devoted MT-haters.
The critics accused MT "to sell the same song again and again", and especially Thomas Anders was in the focus of many snideful remarks about his appearance and his relationship to his girlfriend Nora which he obviously displayed by wearing a heavy golden chain with the letters "N-O-R-A". The fans remained unfazed by the bucketloads of maliciousities dropped over them and MT and kept on buying the 1986 releases into the top spots of the charts.

But keeping together two completely different characters like Bohlen and Anders simply had to cause trouble...while Anders didn't cared for much else but singing, Bohlen felt left alone with the rest of the work. In addition to the continued flaming by the critics, it seemed that the concept of MT's music had reached it's zenith as "In Hundred Years" was the first single which didn't charted in Germanys Single Top Ten.
Consequently, Bohlen announced the end of MT in the fall of 1987, followed by a huge and dirty media battle between both band members.

Bohlen knew about his songwriting abilities and the possibilities which were still promising the continue of a successful career, so he kept on with his own project Blue System. Not quite as successful as MT but still being hunted by the critics, Blue System managed to chart in various countries and was active until 1997. Inbetween his solo work, Bohlen produced many artists like Nino de Angelo, C.C. Catch, Chris Norman and Bonnie Tyler.
Thomas Anders tried to hang on to the wave of MT's popularity and pursued a solo career, but failed miserably - MT was dead and gone.

While Anders remained in the limbo of forgotten pop stars, Bohlen was still very present - not necessary for his musical output but with different affairs around certain women which provided the soap press with an almost endless support of material.

In the february of 1998, Germanys largest newspaper announced the reunion of MT. With the latest fad of reviving old tracks of "Schlager pop" from the 70s in an updated sound, Bohlen probably felt that the time was ripe for rising from oblivion again. And, his sense for the perfect timing was right - with "You're My Heart, You're My Soul '98" (featuring Eric Singleton as a rapper and a generally more R'n'B approach), MT almost hitted the top spot again (YMHYMS '98 stalled at #2), 13 years after their first chart success.

And the history of MT continued, with eleven single and six album releases. Until the summer of 2003...when Dieter Bohlen surprisingly announced the second end of Modern Talking. Seemed that all the good chemistry beween Bohlen and Anders was used up again.

Meanwhile, Bohlen was respected as a producer but gained even more mixed reactions when he published his autobiography "Nichts als die Wahrheit" in 2002. This release created a follow-up of legal action against Bohlen since some of the mentioned people were not really happy about Bohlens opinion, so he had to delete some of the parts. Nontheless, he was now given the title "Titan of Pop" (that's topping MJ a bit, huh? :lol: ), and belonged to the most popular (or notorious) people in Germany. The sequel to his autobiography caused similar actions but rather dented Bohlens popularity a bit.

Since 2003, Bohlen is a jury member and composer for one of Germanys most popular TV shows, "Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS)", a derivate of "Pop/American Idol". His judgements about the contestans are frank and feared...

Thomas Anders is once again pursuing a solo career, and once again, with minor success.

What remains is the fact that Modern Talking is still belonging to one of the most successful bands ever, in chart positioning as well as in airplay and sales (for example, Bohlen claims that MT's songs climbed to #1 in 51 countries all over the world).

A superb and detailed insight into one of Germanys most successful bands ever. Many thanks Wavey! :clap:

I think that just about covers your original question Dan, and must leave you with one message - get hold of some more Modern Talking! Go on..ya know you want to :thumb:

You heard one song, you heard them all. Ok, i have to admit, i never really liked them much. Too cheesy for my taste. And Dieter Bohlen, doh, this guy is a pain in the butt, the way he acts, the way he talks, I do not like him at all.

^^ you will have to listen more to them because I can tell you that they got good songs and even if you think the beat is always the same at least, they are the only one who used this kind of beat! :) Maybe you will like their non-hits better! :thumb:

Just buy 2 cds of them with no hits and I can tell you that I don't give a damn because the cds are pretty good!! In fact no I will not lie because I don't really know if they were hits but the cds are the very 1st album from 1985 and ''in the garden of venus'', 1987 this one!


very great band, one of the reason why I like 80s so much ===) that kind of band!!! :thumb:

Oh I love their cheezy hits! "Brother Louie" and "Cheri Cheri Lady" are some of my fave songs from the 80s :)

Seriously, I didnt even think that Modern Talking had fans...no offense. I just can't stand their music. I heard the first album and Let's talk about love and I tought it sound truly horrible. Maybe if I was a little older and could have enjoy the music when it was released but then again, I think not.

No need to wish you were older Argon, you either love them or hate them. It's well cheesy, but I like cheese! :lol: :thumb:

I was going to do a post on Modern Talking, but nixed that idea when I noticed this one :lol:

I love 90's-current Modern Talking better than they sounded in the 80's. Their Back For Good CD in 1998 had a great song called We Take the Chance, which sort of sounds a little like The Final Countdown by Europe when it starts off

Their 2000 album Year of the Dragon had a great ballad called I'll Never Fall in Love Again which somehow always reminds me of Arthur's Theme by Christopher Cross, and I don't know why :lol:

The '98 versions of You Can Win If You Want and You're My Heart always get me in a dancing mood :dance:

Even though they had no success here in North America, i surprisingly bought 5 of their CD's (which includes a box set called Golden Years ) in stores w/out having to order them :thumb:

I also loved Dieter Bohlen's 90's project called Blue System. They had a GREAT song in '95 called Laila

It's always good when a band has two distinct sorts of musical eras, it means that they have more appeal.

For example I hated Bowies 'Ziggy' stuff, enjoyed his mid 80's stuff, now I don't particularly care for his recent stuff again.