Captain Jack | |
---|---|
Franky Gee and Maloy (circa 1999–2000) | |
Background information | |
Origin | Darmstadt, Germany |
Genres | Eurodance, dance-pop |
Years active | 1995–2005, 2008–present |
Website | http://www.captain-jack.com |
Members | Bruce Lacy Michelle Stanley |
Past members | Sharky Durban (1995) Franky Gee (1995–2005) (deceased) Liza da Costa (1995–1999) Maloy Lozanes (1999–2001) Illi Love (Ilka Anna Antonia Traue)(2001–2005) Jamie Lee (Nadja Biereth)(2008–2009) Laura Martin (2010–2012) |
Captain Jack is a German Eurodance project formed in Darmstadt, Germany in 1995. The project is best known for the single "Captain Jack", which reached the Top-10 in many countries in Europe.
Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of techno, Hi-NRG, house music and Euro disco.
Darmstadt is a city in the state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine-Main-Area. Darmstadt had a population of around 157,437 at the end of 2016. The Darmstadt Larger Urban Zone has 430,993 inhabitants.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north and the Alps, Lake Constance and the High Rhine to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
The original formation consisted of Sharky Durban and Liza da Costa. They recorded the songs "Dam, Dam, Dam" and "Captain Jack". The latter is the only featured song on the band's debut album "The Mission".
Sharky left in 1996 and was replaced by Francisco Gutierrez alias Franky Gee. After serving in the United States Army, Gutierrez had remained in Germany, where he was last stationed, and had begun a recording career under the name "Westside". While recording music under that name, he proposed the idea of a dance track based on a drill routine. That idea became the Captain Jack style. Gutierrez also introduced the Captain Jack costume, a stylized military officer's uniform based on a US Army officer's dress uniform, with a red hat based on that of the US Marines.
Francisco Alejandro Gutierrez, more familiarly known as Franky Gee, was a Cuban-born American-German recording artist, rapper and soldier, best known as the lead vocalist for the German-based Europop group Captain Jack.
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations with the United States Navy as well as the Army and Air Force. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.
Gutierrez and Liza da Costa released the albums "The Mission" and "Operation Dance" and the singles "Drill Instructor" and "Holiday" before Liza da Costa left in December 1998, started a solo career and formed a jazz band called Hotel Bossa Nova in 2005.
Liza da Costa was replaced by the singer Maria Lucia Lozanes who went by the stage name Maloy. In this formation they released one album, called "The Captain's Revenge" and the three singles "Dream a Dream", "Get Up" with the Gipsy Kings and "Only You" before Maloy left in November, 2000.
Maria Lucia Moreno Lozañes, better known by her stage name MaLoY, is a Spanish Filipino singer. She was the second female singer of the German Eurodance act Captain Jack from 1998 until 2000. After taking a break from the record music scene, she returned in 2006 with the German DJ act Shaun Baker.
The Gipsy Kings are a group of flamenco, salsa and pop musicians from Arles and Montpellier in the south of France who perform in Andalusian Spanish. Although group members were born in France, their parents were mostly gitanos, Spanish gypsies who fled Catalonia during the 1930s Spanish Civil War. They are known for bringing Catalan rumba, a pop-oriented music distantly derived from traditional flamenco music, to worldwide audiences. The group originally called itself Los Reyes.
Maloy was replaced by Ilka Anna Antonia Traue, alias Illi Love, who stayed until 2005. In this formation they released the five albums "Top Secret", "Party Warriors", "Cafe Cubar", "Music Instructor" and their first "Greatest Hits" totaling eleven single up to the release of "Capitano". Soon after, Franky suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking with his son in Spain on October 17, 2005. Doctors predicted that the damage was fatal, and Franky Gee died at the age of 43 on Saturday October 22, 2005, after spending five days in a coma. This forced the producers to pause the project Captain Jack.
The Captain Jack name was revived in summer of 2008 with Bruce Lacy and singer Jamie Lee. The new lineup's first single, "Turkish Bazar", released on 18 September 2008, was of the dance-pop and hip hop genres, dropping the original lineup's eurodance roots. [1] It was followed by the album "Captain Jack is Back", released in 17. October 2008, and two more singles "Push It Up" and "We Will Rock You" before Captain Jack and Jamie Lee parted ways.
Dance-pop is a popular music sub-genre that originated in the early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a combination of dance and pop with influences of disco, post-disco and synth-pop, it is generally characterised by strong beats with easy, uncomplicated song structures which are generally more similar to pop music than the more free-form dance genre, with an emphasis on melody as well as catchy tunes. The genre, on the whole, tends to be producer-driven, despite some notable exceptions.
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rap music, is a music genre developed in the United States by inner-city African Americans and Latino Americans in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s. It consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, and rhythmic beatboxing. While often used to refer solely to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
In 2010 Laura Martin, participant of the fourth installment of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of Pop Idol, and the first season of "The Voice of Germany", joined Bruce Lacy and replaced Jamie Lee. They released the album "Back to the Dancefloor" in April 2011, which featured Captain Jack classics in new DJ remixes with new songs. The album was followed by three singles "Crank It Up/Deutschland schieß ein Tor", "People Like to Party" and "How Does It Feel". In the end of 2012 Laura left the band to focus in her solo career. Michelle Stanley replaced her, and is touring with Bruce Lacy.
Captain Jack's music was stylized as a form of military training mixed with Europop and dance pop music. They were musically influenced by the eurodance genre that was popular in Europe, Oceania, and South America in the 1990s. The style of eurodance was dance music with a female singer and a male rapper to follow a traditional verse-chorus structure. Captain Jack are best known for dance tracks like "Captain Jack", "Drill Instructor" or "Little Boy". Although they also made slower tracks such as "Back Home", "7 Days" and "I Feel" that strayed from the europop genre. There are also some Ace of Base influenced reggae pop songs like "Soldier, Soldier" on their early albums. Captain Jack covered numerous of songs such as A-ha's "Take On Me", Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" or Madonna's "Holiday". They also sampled classical elements like Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in their dance song "Dream a Dream" or Johann Pachabel's "Canon in D major" in their ballad "Children". During the early 2000s Captain Jack changed their musical style from eurodance pop to summer vibe tunes, following the styles of the previous single releases "Soldier, Soldier" and "Holiday". They covered numerous well-known famous summer songs, such as Chico Buarque's "A Banda" (in their version, "Get Up"), Captain Sensible's "Say Captain, Say Wot", Huey Smith & The Clowns's "Don't You Just Know It (Don't Ha Ha)" or KC and the Sunshine Band's "Give It Up". They continued that style til the band's hiatus in 2005. In 2008 Captain Jack returned with a different new musical direction consisting of more matured dance techno sound with more R&B, Hip Hop and Oriental influences, such as "Turkish Bazar".
Fans of the Konami arcade game Dance Dance Revolution know them from the numerous songs that, through the Dancemania series of albums, have been used in the game series. The group's music was also featured in other Konami music games such as beatmania and Dance Maniax . [2]
Their songs "Children" and "Children Need a Helping Hand", collaborations with Hand in Children e.V., a supergroup charity collective, were released in 1996 and 1997.
Year | Rapper | Singer |
---|---|---|
1995–1996 | Sharky Durban | Liza da Costa |
1996–1998 | Franky Gee (Francisco Alejandro Gutierrez) | |
1999–2000 | Maloy Lozanes (Maria Lucia Lozanes) | |
2001–2005 | Illi Love (Ilka Anna Antonia Traue) | |
2008–2009 | Bruce Lacy | Jamie Lee (Nadja Biereth) |
2010–2012 | Laura Martin | |
2012- | Michelle Stanley |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GER [3] | AUT [4] | BEL (FLA) [5] | FIN [6] | NED [7] | NOR [8] | SWI [9] | |||||||
The Mission |
| 11 | 27 | 48 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 22 | |||||
Operation Dance |
| 47 | 37 | — | 10 | 21 | 21 | — | |||||
The Captain's Revenge | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Top Secret | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Party Warriors | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Cafe Cubar | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Music Instructor | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Captain Jack is Back | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
Back to the Dancefloor |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"—" denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart. |
Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GER [3] | AUT [4] | BEL (FLA) [5] | FIN [6] | NED [7] | NOR [8] | SWE [13] | SWI [9] | ||||||
"Dam, Dam, Dam" | 1995 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||
"Captain Jack" | 3 | 6 | 2 | — | 1 | 5 | 50 | 6 | The Mission | ||||
"Drill Instructor" | 1996 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 1 | — | 59 | 13 | ||||
"Soldier, Soldier" | 11 | 13 | 21 | 6 | 4 | — | — | 12 | |||||
"Little Boy" | 27 | 31 | 46 | 16 | 8 | — | — | 50 | |||||
"Another One Bites the Dust" | 61 | 33 | 41 | 5 | 12 | — | — | — | Queen Dance Traxx | ||||
"Together and Forever" | 1997 | 56 | 30 | 48 | 9 | 20 | — | — | — | Operation Dance | |||
"Holiday" | 1997 | 87 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Get Up" (with Gipsy Kings) | 1999 | 23 | 27 | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Captain's Revenge | |||
"Dream a Dream" | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Only You" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Iko Iko" | 2001 | 22 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — | 62 | Top Secret | |||
"Say Captain, Say Wot" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Don't You Just Know It (Don't Ha Ha)" (with DJ Ötzi) | 59 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Give It Up" | 2002 | 61 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Party Warriors | |||
"Centerfold" | 2003 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Viva La Vida" | 80 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Cafe Cubar | ||||
"Volare" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Miss Ibiza" | 2004 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Samba Brazil" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Music Instructor | ||||
"Hands Up" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Ein bisschen Spaß muss sein (We Wanna Have Some Fun) (New Version)" (with Roberto Blanco) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Greatest Hits | ||||
"Capitano" | 2005 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
"Turkish Bazar" | 2008 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Captain Jack is Back | |||
"Push It Up" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"We Will Rock You" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"Crank It Up/Deutschland schieß ein Tor" | 2010 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Back to the Dancefloor | |||
"People Like to Party" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"How Does It Feel" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"In the Army Now 2017" | 2017 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | |||
"—" denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart. |
Captain Jack has a total of 12 songs which appear in the Dance Dance Revolution arcade series. The band's premiere appearance was in the home release of Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix , with three songs that were also featured in the arcade release of Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix. This included the band's signature song, "Captain Jack", which appeared in a total of eight arcade releases.
Song | Arcade game | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | 3rd | 4th | 5th | MAX2 | Ex | SN | SN2 | X | X2 | X3 | 2013 | 2014 | |
"DRILL INSTRUCTOR (C-Jah Happy Mix)" | ![]() | ||||||||||||
"DREAM A DREAM (MIAMI BOOTY MIX)" | ![]() | ||||||||||||
"TOGETHER & FOREVER" | ![]() | ||||||||||||
"CAPTAIN JACK (GRANDALE REMIX)" | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |||||
"IN THE NAVY '99 (XXL Disaster Remix)" | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||||
"THE RACE" | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||||
"DREAM A DREAM" | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||||
"ONLY YOU" | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||||
"MY GENERATION (Fat Beat Mix)" | ![]() | ||||||||||||
"おどるポンポコリン" | ![]() | ||||||||||||
"LITTLE BOY (BOY OH BOY MIX)" | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||||
"CENTERFOLD (130BPM move it remix)" | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
O-Zone is a Romanian-Moldovan Eurodance trio that was active from 1998 to 2005 and consisted of Dan Balan, Radu Sîrbu and Arsenie Todiraș. The group gained global popularity with their song "Dragostea Din Tei" and their subsequent album DiscO-Zone. The group re-united in 2017 for 2 concerts in Chișinău and Bucharest.
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