Whatever happened to... The Real McCoy?

They may love their extra long sausages and still consider the mullet "sehr cool", but the Germans are also responsible for some of the finest Eurodance of the 1990s. Evidence in hand comes from The Real McCoy, who in 1994 scored a worldwide smash with 'Another Night'. With follow-up singles 'Run Away', 'Love & Devotion' and 'Come And Get Your Love' proving nearly as popular, they racked up four top 20 singles in under a year. Eager to find out what happened next, we called up founding member Olaf 'O-Jay' Jegliza for a chat.

How did 'Another Night' end up becoming a worldwide hit?
"The whole process was pretty slow - it built up step by step. We started out in Germany and then the song went to number one in the French club charts. The major change for us came when we got a number one in Canada. After that it was picked up in the United States and only then did we realise that it could be quite big. It was pretty much three years of always being in different countries doing promotion."

Did you imagine it would be so successful?
"No, never, never! It's always hard when people ask why it was so successful because after playing the song so many times, it's kind of like 'Whatever!' The whole Eurodance thing was obviously popular, but we had more of a pop appeal to our music - we weren't too clubby or techno. I was never that excited about 'Another Night' though. I always preferred songs like 'Run Away'. Maybe it was the sort of thing that parents could listen to with their children because it was quite simple and had innocent lyrics... or so they thought!"

What are you up to these days?
"We've spent the past six months putting a new album together. We've got a new lineup, including a singer called Debbie from London. There will still be parts of our old sound but mixed in with something more updated. We've had quite a few touring requests and will be over in Canada next month playing a festival wth Akon. Britain and Australia are high on our list too as well as promoting the album."

Would you be interested in collaborating with someone like Akon?
"Oh, for sure. Guys like Akon and Timbaland are young and have lots of good ideas. Hip-hop has been taking a lot from Eurodance recently, which is funny because in the past we would always take their stuff and now they're doing the same. I did a lot of production work over here in Germany and had quite a lot of success. In the long run, being a producer is always something I want to do, so watch this space!"

Click to watch the video to 'Another Night':