Modern Romance

Ready for Romance is the third studio album by German duo Modern Talking. It was released on 26 May 1986 by Hansa Records. The album spent five consecutive weeks atop the German chart, and was eventually certified platinum by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) for shipments in excess of 500,000 copies in Germany…

Modern Talking was a German duo consisting of singer Thomas Anders and arranger, songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen, with the participation of Luis Rodríguez in the production, the choir and background voices of Rolf Köhler,] Michael Scholz and Detlef Wiedeke. They have been referred to as Germany's most successful pop duo, and have had a number of hit singles, reaching the top five in many countries…

This is an MJQ album that, for most fans, is somewhat off the beaten path. At a time when they had left Apple Records to return to Atlantic, and when fusion was just getting started, the group incorporate more Brazilian music in the mix, and John Lewis plays Fender Rhodes electric piano on two tracks. While their laid-back, mellow, chamber-like sound is very much intact, the rules of sonic preparation had changed, and the band followed in kind. Drummer Connie Kay even adds a bit of R&B funk to the proceedings, as on the chunky opener and title track, which is very atypical for the group. One of two Lewis originals, "Valeria" is a light bossa nova, energized as it goes along, while the absolute beauty of "Romance" is marinated in waltz pace with accenting cymbal zings - the perfect candlelight-and-wine dinner music…

German dance-pop duo Modern Talking were formed in Berlin in early 1983 by Dieter Bohlen, then a composer and producer employed by the Intersong label. Teaming with vocalist Thomas Anders, they soon began work on their first single, 1984's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul." Modern Talking's debut LP, succinctly titled The 1st Album, followed a year later on the heels of their second single, "You Can Win If You Want." …

Christmas came early in 1971; in May, Atlantic released Plastic Dreams, the penultimate studio album from the Modern Jazz Quartet during their main, 22-year run as an ensemble. Of the MJQ's albums, Plastic Dreams has never been a critic's favorite, and was an album that mystified many of the group's longtime followers. First was the gatefold front cover, which featured a "plastic" image of a nude woman that was really pushing the envelope by 1971 standards; it was almost "indecent." Second, the liner notes by arch-New York jazz critic Martin Williams, while appreciative, really made you wonder if Williams was listening to the same album you were…

As the title implies, Golden Years 1985-87 covers Modern Talking's impressive two-year creative spurt, which saw them release no less than six albums – 1st Album, Let's Talk About Love, Ready For Romance, In the Middle of Nowhere, Romantic Warriors, and In the Garden of Venus…

German dance-pop duo Modern Talking were formed in Berlin in early 1983 by Dieter Bohlen, then a composer and producer employed by the Intersong label. Teaming with vocalist Thomas Anders, they soon began work on their first single, 1984's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul." Modern Talking's debut LP, succinctly titled The 1st Album, followed a year later on the heels of their second single, "You Can Win If You Want." The duo's sophomore effort, Let's Talk About Love, appeared in late 1985, launching the smash "Cheri Cheri Lady." With 1986's Ready for Romance, Modern Talking scored their biggest hit yet with "Brother Louie." However, after 1986's In the Middle of Nowhere, tensions between Bohlen and Anders reached a boiling point, and following the release of their fifth LP, Romantic Warriors, Bohlen assembled a new project, Blue System…

German dance-pop duo Modern Talking were formed in Berlin in early 1983 by Dieter Bohlen, then a composer and producer employed by the Intersong label. Teaming with vocalist Thomas Anders, they soon began work on their first single, 1984's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul." Modern Talking's debut LP, succinctly titled The 1st Album, followed a year later on the heels of their second single, "You Can Win If You Want." The duo's sophomore effort, Let's Talk About Love, appeared in late 1985, launching the smash "Cheri Cheri Lady."…

New York comedy and cabaret singer-cum-jazz vocalist Donna Brooks is heard here on her third recorded outing for the Dawn label, and her first true full-length. Recorded in 1956, the smoky, sultry-voiced Brooks has a delivery that is a dead cross between Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. With a fronting band of a generic piano trio, Brooks is nonetheless a fine interpreter of modern jazz song. Here she covers the Kaye/Mossman classic "Full Moon And Empty Arms," Mel Torme's "A Stranger In Town," Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To," and the Martin & Blane nugget "An Occasional Man," and infuses them with a beautifully haunting femme fatale quality, with a perfect ear for nuance and color, and stunning pronunciation and articulation…