It's amazing that some acts that we see in North America as one hit wonders live on throughout the rest of the world with flourishing careers. One such act is Sweetbox. Created in Germany in 1995 by Roberto 'Geo' Rosan, Sweetbox was to be an exploration of different kinds of music, fronted by different voices over time. They released a few hip-house singles with various rappers/singers to some success in Europe, including "
Shakalaka", "
Booyah (Here We Go)" and "
Wot". Then Geo met American singer Tina Harris, who had previously recorded as part of eurohouse groups
B.O.Y.,
Security and 2 Secure. Impressed by her ability to both rap and sing well, he recorded an album with her, self-titled in Europe and titled "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" in North America. The title cut, which incorporated "
Air On The G String" by Johann Sebastian Bach, was released worldwide and became a huge hit everywhere, even almost hitting the Billboard Top 40 (like Isle postees
The Braids, almost but not quite). It stood out as it was a hip hop track that incorporated classical music in the background (a theme that the album and Sweetbox's future music would also follow), and also echoed
Bob Marley in the chorus. The album followed suit, featuring Tina's raps and considerable vocals over pop-rap tracks. Four more singles were released from the album, but nothing became of them in North America. After one last non-album single, "
Shout (Let It All Out)," Tina left to pursue a solo career, releasing a solo album,
Love Makes The World Go Round, in 2003 in Japan, but never managed to reach the same heights. But Geo kept the group alive, hiring Jade Villalon as lead vocalist. With Jade he recorded several albums, with the focus on a more J-Pop sound (they even remade "
Everything's Gonna Be Alright"). Unsurprisingly, they were huge in Japan, and also Europe. None of these albums were released in North America, however, and Sweetbox faded from memory. In 2007, Geo and Jade left Sweetbox and now record as
Jade Valerie, while
Sweetbox - The Next Generation emerged in 2009 with new frontwoman Jamie (and also recorded a new version of "
Everything's Gonna Be Alright"). Who knew?
Video for
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
Video for
Don't Go Away
Video for
I'll Die For You
Download
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
| 1 |
| Don't Go Away |
| 2 |
| He Loves Me |
| 3 |
| Mama Papa |
| 4 |
| Everything's Gonna Be Alright |
| 5 |
| If I Can't Have You |
| 6 |
| U Make My Love Come Down |
| 7 |
| Never Never |
| 8 |
| Get On Down |
| 9 |
| Never Wanna Be Alone |
| 10 |
| Sometimes |
| 11 |
| I'll Die For You |
This looks brilliant! I prefer Jade as lead singer but to each their own :D
ReplyDeleteBtw - Everything's Gonna Be Alrifght hit Top 5 in UK :S
I know. I changed my qualifications to a North American top 20 hit (actually, more a Billboard top 20 hit, as Canadian charts are unreliable!). It's just too hard to find charts across the globe that are reliable, and I'm coming from a North American perspective, so... But anyone who was huge in the UK, like Pepsi & Shirlie, Sinitta, Mandy or Lonnie Gordon, for example, aren't likely to make it here (until I run out of albums, that is! ;)
ReplyDeleteSweetbox is still very huge in Asia :)
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for posting this, I was looking for the stuff with Tina Harris!!
Thanks but the link is dead , would you re-up it please ;)
ReplyDeletehey Nasty G...wassup
ReplyDeleteany way of re-up this one pls, link is dead...
thanks
It's been reupped.
DeleteExpanding on the J-Pop element of Sweetbox's success, if I remember correctly, I believe I saw GEO credited as a composer on a couple of tracks by former J-Pop darling Ayumi Hamasaki's "(miss)understood" album. If I also remember correctly, I believe they also had Jade sing the English Version of "real Emotion" for Final Fantasy X-2. They were gonna have the original singer, Koda Kumi, do it, but her English wasn't easy to understand. (Or something like that.)
ReplyDelete