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Real McCoy   (Germany)

EuroDance group
Added : 24/01/2000
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Latest Real McCoy news

30/11/2024 : Real McCoy's hit Another Night was covered by Aesaf

15/02/2024 : Today, Eurosoul's remix for Real McCoy's current single Magnify was released for Latin America only, just in time for O'jay's birthday (thanks to Billy)

27/12/2023 : After almost 15 years of silence, Real McCoy released a new song entitled Magnify (thanks to Pim)

17/06/2022 : A digital remix package entitled Love & Devotion (The Essential 90s Mixes) was released for Real McCoy

18/04/2019 : Real McCoy published the teaser of a 3.0 remix for Two Hearts.

09/09/2016 : Today, MC Sar & the Real McCoy released a best of compilation entitled The Real Best.

07/04/2016 : DJ Crayfish just released a special Real McCoy video megamix.

More news

Real McCoy albums

	Singles Collection		BUY X
	On The Move	1990	BUY X
	Space Invaders	29th Aug 1994	BUY X
	Another Night (US album)	1995	BUY X
	The Remix Album (Canada)	2nd Jul 1996	BUY X
	One More Time - European Version	1997	BUY X
	One More Time - US album	17th Aug 1997	BUY X
	Love And Devotion (re-release of Space Invaders)	1998	BUY X
	Platinum & Gold Collection	17th Jun 2003	BUY X
	Best Of Real McCoy - Another Night	24th May 2005	BUY X
	The Real Best	9th Sep 2016	BUY X

Real McCoy singles

	Shining Star Compilation only		BUY X
	Love And Devotion	3rd Apr 1995	BUY X
	Come And Get Your Love	29th Jun 1995	BUY X
	Operator (US only)	1996	BUY X
	Sleeping With An Angel / Ooh Boy	19th Feb 1996	BUY X
	One More Time	29th Jan 1997	BUY X
	I Wanna Come With You	25th Jul 1997	BUY X
	(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here	16th Sep 1997	BUY X
	Pump Up The Jam Rap Remix '98 (Feat. DJ Dee)	9th Sep 1998	BUY X
	It's On You '99	19th May 1999	BUY X
	Hey Now	17th Mar 2000	BUY X
	Slave 2 My Feelings (Digital release only)	2005	BUY X
	4 The Lover (Digital release only)	2006	BUY X
	People Are Still Having Sex (Digital release only)	1st Sep 2007	BUY X
	Two Hearts	Nov 2009	BUY X
	Magnify	19th Dec 2023	BUY X

Real McCoy remixes

	Another Night US mix	21st Nov 1994	BUY X
	Come And Get Your Love	1995	BUY X
	Love And Devotion	1995	BUY X
	Automatic Lover US mix	2nd Oct 1995	BUY X
	I Wanna Come (With You)	1997	BUY X
	One More Time	1997	BUY X
	Magnify (Eurosoul mix)	15th Feb 2024	BUY X

Aliases - Records released under other names

	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - It's On You (The Re-Remixes)	1990	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - It's On You (Remix By Freshline Allstars)	1990	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Pump Up The Jam Rap	Feb 1990	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - It's On You	Apr 1990	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Make A Move (Gypsy Man Remix)	1991	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Don't Stop	Jan 1991	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Make A Move	17th May 1991	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Let's Talk About Love	20th Mar 1992	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - No Showbo	11th Sep 1992	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Another Night	1993	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Another Night	16th Jul 1993	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Run Away	1994	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Automatic Lover	1994	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Automatic Lover	14th Jan 1994	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - Run Away	7th Jul 1994	BUY X
	MC Sar & the Real McCoy - It's On You Remix 94	Sep 1994	BUY X

Real McCoy biography

Musical and producing team : Jurgen Wind, Quickmix (Frank Hassas aka Ritchie), O'Jay

Real McCoy started in the Summer of 1989, when Reinhard Piel, A&R Manager of the german based label ZYX Records, called the little production company "Freshline Records" belonging to O'Jay, a musician and former photographer (he had already been part of a trio project called Masterplan, then took part to The Admirers and released the tracks Action! and Come Into My Life). Before this time they had already worked on a couple of other products with ZYX. This time they were looking for a cover "rap" version of the song Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic. A real artist at that time was not so important for ZYX, what they wanted was a quick production, something they could release ASAP.

O-jay wrote and recorded his rap within 2 days. They hired a studio vocalist for the female chorus part. The result was pretty poor (she was not even close to the unique voice in the original version) but they sticked with it, since we had no other option.

In the process of the writing, O-jay gave the "maginary" rapper of my voice the name M.C. SAR. He explains : "Since my English was pretty basic I produced a name that should have been "M.C. ZAR" but I used the german way of writing Cezar. I also added "The real McCoy" in the name (maybe even in the lines) to represent myself and not (like it is many times mistakently written) to represent the people behind the project. I knew already that I would not appear on the cover or even the stage for this song. So I gave my "fake" rapper a name and added myself into it with the trademark "The real McCoy"."

A week later ZYX had a finished production on the table. In that time everyone thought that this product would only be a "one timer", so they used the name of a project O'Jay created two years ago : M.C. SAR & the Real McCoy.

Pump Up The Jam made it up to number 16 in the German billboard charts. So when ZYX asked for a follow-up single, they went back to the studio and recorded It's On You (with Patricia Peterson as singer). "It was strange but we knew in our hearts and souls that this follow up single was a hit" explains O'Jay.

"The song was simple (like almost all of the self-composed songs we did). Ritchie worked with a bumping bassline and added some trendy synths on top. The beat was drumloop of a song called Break 4 Love by Raze. The beat was pretty popular, since a guy called Sydney Youngblood had a smash hit (If Only I Could), using the same beat. The rap was already recorded and we added some samples (we still liked that kind of stuff and still did not care of any copyright problems). Ritchie prerecorded my chorus melody." O-jay reminds. "Patsy was perfect for the song. Her voice reminded us a little of Wommack & Womack's Footsteps on the dancefloor. Somehow her voice was unique. Everybody was happy with the result and made the final mix for ZYX."

According to the official story, It's On You reached #1 in 12 countries and sold over 2 million copies world-wide. Actually, according to O-Jay himself, even if the single was very succesful, it only reached #1 in a chart in Spain (40 Principales). It was #4 in Austria, #8 in Switzerland, #7 in France and stayed in the French charts during 28 weeks.

When ZYX wanted to produce a video and the clubs asked for shows at the same time, they just needed to find a face for the project for the rap parts, since O'Jay decided to use his voice but not his face. A year ago, when O'Jay met Patsy in the legendary Berlin club "Dschungel (jungle)" he was also hanging out with a guy called Shampro. He was a good looking black guy from France with origins from Zaire, a good dancer and he knew also a little bit about rapping. He was also fluent in English, German and French. "So I called him up and made an agreement. Of course everything needed to be organized pretty fast, since the song was already in the charts and still climbing up" recalls O'Jay. So on the peak of the success with It's On You, Shampro and Patsy were touring across Europe (Quickmix and O'Jay even joined the tour for a couple of concerts in France) while the producers went back in the studio to record the material for the album. They used a lot of different guest vocals, musicians and keyboarders, since they saw the whole thing still as a project.

As for the video, the budget was pretty small. O-jay had organized a photo shoot with 2 other photographers. He remembers : "It is a remarkable piece of crap but in that time we was pretty satisfied with the result".

The album On The Move ! and the third single Don't Stop were released in 1990. While the single still made its way into the charts, ZYX didn't manage to place the album in the charts. In the following years MC Sar & the Real Mc Coy recorded 3 more singles (Make A Move, No Showbo and Let´s Talk About Love) but somehow none of these productions made a big impression on the market. So for a while, it looked like the project had his five minutes of fame and would disappear from the music scene. But as we all know today, that was not the case, cause everything changed in 1993.

Vanessa Mason, an American whose father was stationed at a U.S. Army base in Berlin, joined Real McCoy during the recording of Another Night. Arista Records brought the group to the U.S. with the album and spearheaded the eventual recognition of the group as one of the break-out artists of 1995.

O-jay revealed that Patsy has never sung on any of the "new" M.C.SAR & The Real McCoy a.k.a. Real McCoy releases. The name of the original singer was Karin Kasar. She was casted by the Boogie Park studios in Hamburg and made a test recording with these guys on Another Night. This recording found his way on the final playback of Another Night. She was offered a little money to record some other tracks on the album, but never received any royalties for the whole album. Only Ritchie, David and the Berman Brothers knew her. O-Jay himslef never met her in all that time. A lot years later, he met her recently and had a chance to thank her for her great work and also to say that he was sorry that things turned out this way. She was never considered as the real artist because she had a few pounds too much on her body. That was the only reason and of course there was the reason that Patsy was looking the right way...

Their album Another Night, an explosive blend of Rap, Techno, and Pop, fueled by three smash singles (Another Night, Automatic Lover and Runaway), went Platinum (1,000,000 copies sold) in under 8 weeks and has since gone Double-Platinum. It peaked to #13 on the US Billboard Album chart. The exciting debut album included such hits as the Platinum-selling title track which hit Billboard's top 5 at place #3, went up to #2 in the UK, to #18 in Germany, to #42 in Switzerland, to #30 in Austria, and stayed #1 in Australia during 6 weeks.

It paved the way for Automatic Lover (#32 in Germany and Switzerland), the Top-10 Gold Single Runaway (once again #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, #4 in Australia, #6 in UK, #22 in Switzerland, #22 in Germany, #24 in Austria) and the follow-up top-20 singles Love And Devotion (which was remixed by Bass Bumpers and peaked #12 in the UK and in Australia, #16 in Austria, and #37 in Germany) and Come and Get Your Love (#18 in Australia, #19 in the UK, #53 in Germany).

The unprecedented success garnered the group awards for Best New Artist of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards, Best Selling German Artist at the World Music awards and nominations for Best New Artist at the American Music Awards and Artist of the Year for both 1995 and 1996 at the Billboard Music Awards.

In 1996 the group returned for One More Time, their highly-anticipated follow- up. One More Time featured O-Jay and Vanessa Mason along with their new addition to the group Lisa Cork. Lisa, a native Texan, had relocated to New York City to pursue her singing career. 'It's great singing with Vanessa', Lisa says, 'Our voices blend and compliment each other as if we grew up performing together!'.

The lead single One More Time was exhilarating high-energy dance/pop. 'This time we feel much more in control of what we want to express through the music,' says O-Jay 'We've all grown and tasted both the trappings and pleasures of fame. I think the songs, while still dance oriented, are a little more reflective because our lives have changed.'. Single was covered by SAIFAM project M. Steven.

Along with the title track on the album wereTake a Look at Your Life,I Wanna Come, and the Billy Steinberg (Whitney Houston, Madonna) penned Love Save Me. The group also explored other genres of music with the ballad Look at Me, the jeep-funk sounding Love Almost Faded, and a re-make of Shania Twain's #1 Country Record (If You're Not in It For Love) I'm Outta Here.. In the production seat on One More Time were some of the heaviest hitters in music today, with tracks produced by The Bermann Brothers (Amber's This Is Your Night), Tommy Eckman & Per Alderbrat (Ace of Base), Bass Bumpers and J.Wind (Real McCoy's Another Night).

Vanessa left Real McCoy afterwards. It was said she had been replaced by a vocalist called Lisa Styles. BMG Germany re-released the album Space Invaders but under the name of Love & Devotion. One could also find in Germany some 98 remixes of Pump Up the Jam. Then a '99 remix of their first hit It's On You was released. But the team totally changed : O'Jay officially left the band and was replaced by a rapper called Jason Ammon, who lipsynced on O-Jay's re-recorded raps. There were also 2 new singers named Gabriele Koopmans and Ginger Maria Kamphuis...

This new team released their following single in April 2000 : Hey Now.

2002 : Rimini Project covered Another Night on their album Heartbeats.

2004 : there were rumors about remixes of the old hits of Real McCoy that would be released this year. But no company agreed to release them.

2005 : according to his songwriter, Real McCoy will start 2005 with a new single and a new label. The release is planned for May 2005 in Germany and Europe. Another Night was covered by Morgana.

2006 : a reloaded version of Real McCoy's hit Another Night was said to have been released in January. Actually, it's the O-jay.com re-recording of Another Night, to be released as vinyl under the label A45, with the same title (no reloaded added or something). It will include new female vocals and re-recorded rap vocals of O-jay himself.

2007 : Real McCoy started releasing new songs in a series called Additional Series. The 2 first songs were entitled 4 The Lover and Slave To My Feelings. The third one was just released, it's a cover-version of LaTour's eighties club hit People Are Still Having Sex. You can listen to it on O-'jay's Myspace. A brand new single and album are planned...

2008 : Vogue did a cover of Another Night.

2009 : O-jay is working on new Real McCoy tracks with Debbie Butts and Gemma Sampson, the new vocalists. The new single Two Hearts, a very nice and uplifting track, is on its way, it should be released in Autumn... They peformed it in Toronto Summer Rush in July and in Engelberg in August.

2012 : Project Mista covered the melody of Run Away's chorus in their single Never Hide.

2013 : Real McCoy's hit Another Night was covered by Earlwood

2016 : Former vocalist Karin Kasar joined the project again and was on stage of Love Message Festival i Poland on August

2022 : singers Sara Mosquera and Mac, and music producer K.I.S.T.E. are sharing the stage with O-jay for 90s concerts and festivals.

Eurodancehits
Thanks to DH Hooligan, BookmanJones, Wild Ace, Anders Bøgh, Niklas Adolfsson and Amber June
Thanks to O-Jay himself and Apho for the latest informations

Real McCoy biography was last updated Wed, May 24th 2023

Charts (singles)

Love And Devotion	#7	#16	#12		#37	#16	#26	#28	#16	#11
Come And Get Your Love	#18		#39	#42	#53	#22	#37	#8		#19	#19
One More Time	#3			#8	#85					#81	#27
I Wanna Come With You	#82

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