Arabesque (group)

Arabesque started as an all-girl trio at the height of the disco era in 1977 in Frankfurt, Germany.

After the first album, the band lineup was changed by keeping only the original member Michaela Rose and replacing the two other girls with new members Jasmin Vetter and Sandra Lauer. After they split up in 1984, Jasmin and Michaela continued on as the duo "Rouge", while Sandra Lauer started her own career as a solo artist in collaboration with Michael Cretu as Sandra and later Enigma.

Arabesque became extremely popular in Japan, and also had a great deal of success in the USSR. In 1980, the single "Take Me Don't Break Me" became a hit, which only scraped the German Top 40. Their next single, "Marigot Bay", would become their only Top Ten hit a few weeks later. Their last singles "Ecstasy" and "Time to Say Goodbye", became hits only after their split, in various European countries, as they sounded very close to the Italo-disco sound, a very popular music genre on the European dance scene at that time. Those songs spread and gained success through LP compilations of dance/pop music, and bootleg tapes, so, the band could never take advantage of this success, as neither those songs could properly appear on any music charts as "singles" anyway. (That was a common problem for many '80s European dance artists.) These last Arabesque singles also introduced the "Italo-disco" sound to Japan, under the term "eurobeat", previously used in the UK for the Stock Aitken Waterman productions. That soon lead to Japan's Super Eurobeat music style.

Trivia

 * On 16 December 2006, Arabesque (featuring Michaela Rose and two new members, Sabine Kaemper and Silke Brauner) headlined the second Retro FM festival in Moscow. According to Russian press they are planning a tour in Japan and possibly releasing a new album.


 * In 2009 Fake Blood released the dance single "I Think I Like It" in which he used a sample of the 1979 Arabesque song "In the Heat of the Disco-night".

Albums

 * 1978 Friday Night (also called Arabesque-I)
 * 1979 City Cats (also called Arabesque-II)
 * 1980 Marigot Bay (also called Arabesque-III)
 * 1980 Midnight Dancer (also called Arabesque-IV)
 * 1981 In for a Penny (also called Arabesque-V)
 * 1981 Caballero (also called Arabesque-VI)
 * 1982 Why No Reply (also called Arabesque-VII)
 * 1983 Dance Dance Dance (also called Arabesque-VIII)
 * 1984 Time to Say Good Bye (also called Arabesque-IX)
 * 1994 Twin Best (2-CD compilation)

Singles

 * 1977 "Hello Mr. Monkey"
 * 1978 "Friday Night"
 * 1979 "Fly High Little Butterfly" (Japan only)
 * 1979 "Rock Me After Midnight" (Japan only)
 * 1979 "City Cats" (Germany only)
 * 1979 "Peppermint Jack"
 * 1980 "High Life" (Japan only)
 * 1980 "Parties in a Penthouse" (Japan only)
 * 1980 "Make Love Whenever You Can" (Japan only)
 * 1980 "Take Me Don't Break Me" (Germany only)
 * 1980 "Marigot Bay" (Germany only)
 * 1981 "Midnight Dancer" (Japan only)
 * 1981 "In for a Penny, in for a Pound"
 * 1981 "Billy's Barbeque" (Japan only)
 * 1981 "Hit the Jackpot" (Japan only)
 * 1982 "Caballero" (Japan only)
 * 1982 "Young Fingers Get Burnt" (Japan only)
 * 1982 "Indio Boy" (Germany only)
 * 1982 "Tall Story Teller" (Germany only)
 * 1983 "Why No Reply"
 * 1983 "Pick It Up" (Japan only)
 * 1983 "Dance, Dance, Dance" (Japan only)
 * 1983 "Loser Pays the Piper" (Japan only)
 * 1983 "Sunrise in Your Eyes" (Germany only)
 * 1984 "Hearts on Fire" (Japan only)
 * 1985 "Time to Say Goodbye"
 * 1986 "Ecstasy" (Germany only)
 * 1998 "Hello Mr. Monkey '98" (Remix)

Albums

 * 1988 Rouge (Japan only)

Singles

 * 1986 "Hold On" / "Perfect Timing"
 * 1987 "Einer Von Uns" / "Nobody Knows" (Entry in the German Eurovision selections 1987)
 * 1987 "The Leader of the Pack" / "So Close"
 * 1988 "Love Line Operator" / "Love Line Operator" (Instrumental)
 * 1988 "Love Line Operator" (Extended version) / "Love Line Operator" (Real Life Mix)
 * 1988 "Koi Wa No Time" (Japan only)
 * 1989 "Koi Wa No Time ~Loving Me Totally~" (Japan only) (English version of above, performed in the Tokyo Music Festival 1989)