Real McCoy

The Real McCoy achieved broad success during the middle of the 1990s, as their Euro-dance track "Another Night" reached the Top 40 across numerous nations and earned distinction as the highest-selling single ever released by a German act in the United States. Formed in 1989, the ensemble had already built a following within Germany while cycling through multiple configurations, yet producer and rapper Olaf Jeglitza remained its consistent core. International recognition arrived only in 1994, fueled partly by Ace of Base’s breakthrough stateside and by producer Clive Davis’s desire to replicate that achievement with another act from Europe. Ahead of its arrival on American shores, the lineup shifted once more, resulting in the photogenic trio consisting of Olaf Jeglitza, Patricia Petersen, and Vanessa Mason. Karin Kasar, the vocalist who had fronted “Another Night,” “Run Away,” and the remaining tracks on the group’s international debut, was notably excluded from this roster. While Petersen mouthed the words to Kasar’s recorded performances, the Real McCoy briefly topped both pop and dance rankings throughout America, with “Another Night,” “Run Away,” and “Come and Get Your Love” each registering as successes and the self-titled international debut album Another Night attaining double-platinum status. Two years afterward, Petersen departed and Lisa Cork stepped in, supplying her own vocals for the 1997 release One More Time. That effort failed to match the commercial impact of its predecessor, prompting the band to disband before the decade ended. Throughout the 2000s, Olaf Jeglitza maintained his production work and later resumed performing under the Real McCoy name. In 2006 he teamed with Ich Troje to cut the track “Follow My Heart,” Poland’s entry for that year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Jeglitza then signed a Real McCoy deal with Sony Music Germany two years later, and by 2009 a fresh configuration centered on Jeglitza had begun touring in Canada and Europe.