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1987

This was the year that witnessed the first two main attempts to break Sandra into the United Kingdom music scene. The song "Everlasting Love" (written by Buzz Cason and Mack Gayden) was released in England and the United States as well as Japan and Germany. The European success of the song in 1987 encouraged the release in the UK (CD on Siren Records SRNCD85 ) and the USA ( promotional CD on Siren Records PRCD2334 ) in 1988. The reception was lukewarm.

One of the rarest items by Sandra may be the Japanese 3" promotional CD with Michael Cretu's "Extended Mix" of "Everlasting Love" otherwise only available on 12" vinyl ( Virgin Japan PRDS-1004 ) with an extended mix of the song "Dreaming" by the British band O.M.D. The massively successful production team of Stock Aitken and Waterman re-mixed the track into a 7:40 Hi-NRG anthem and a 6:57 dub mix that received moderate club play; and once again, cross-Atlantic success eluded Sandra.

The second attempt to introduce Sandra into the United Kingdom would be in 1990 with the release of the single "(Life May Be) A Big Insanity" from "Paintings In Yellow". The highly under-rated work of high quality was over-shadowed by the release of the most successful work of Cretu ever: Enigma - "MCMXCa.d."

Michael Cretu and Hubert Kemmler collaborated with the Australian group Inker and Hamilton on the album "Dancing into Danger". The album, fully electronic in production, sustained a rock feel about it mostly due to the vocal style of Hillary Hamilton that was reminiscent to some other female singers of the period such as Par Benatar. Most of the tracks were co-written by Cretu and Kemmler. Other collaborators included Ken Taylor ( who co-worte some of the songs on HUBERT KaH's "Tensongs". ) The album also contained a cover version of "Wild World" by Cat Stevens rendered to Cretu's crisp style with strong mid-tempo drum-loops. The title track was covered in 1993 by Mike Oldfiled's ex-wife Maggie Reilly on her album "Follow the Midnight Sun" with a different title and lyrics: "Every Single Heartbeat", produced by Armand Volker.

There continued to be some lesser-known collaboration during those years such as Münchener Freiheit's recording the album "Traumziel" in 1986 in Cretu's studio. Although Cretu's name did not appear in the credits, Data Alpha was mentioned as one of the recording studios. Moreover, Jürgen Turnau was thanked and Hubert Kemmler's name appeared as a co-writer on several tracks. One of the more remarkable songs is "Es Gibt Kein Nächstes Mal" with its strong electronic drums and abrasive synthesizers. Kemmler's name also appeared as a co-writer on the Hi-NRG classic "Love Spy" by the German singer Mike Mareen. The dance act was known as an underground Hi-NRG club act with lots of power mixes and pure European and Italo appeal. Mareen's album "Dance Control" ( CD Galaxis/ZYX 9017 ) - mixed by Luis Rodriguez, ( best known for life collaborations with Dieter Bohlen of Modern Talking and Blue System, etc.) boasted a team that included, in addition to, Dickie Tarrach, and Thissy Thiers of Moti Special.

A singles collection was released entitled "Ten on One" and a video-tape with the clips from those songs alongside footage showing Sandra and Michael Cretu. Sandra was the narrator on the tape in German. The vinyl issue of that compilation contained a beautiful glossy booklet that bore colour pictures of Sandra with a unique look per song title with a one-sentence commentary by Sandra. That collection was also issued on translucent blue vinyl in Czechoslovakia in 1990 ( L10004-1311. ) The Japan issue was on Ten Records ( the same label that released "Everlasting Love" in the UK and USA and "The Long Play") VJD-32-23.

Michael Cretu co-wrote and produced "I've Got the Beat (Magic Sticks)" that George Kranz sung; and the song appeared on the soundtrack to the movie "Magic Sticks". The song was only released in 12" format (Virgin 609 136-213); and the release included an Extended version (5:44). The song appeared for the first time a 1999 "Best of" CD of George Kranz released on the disco and hi-nrg American label Hot Productions. Only the "Radio edit" is included (3:44) with a credit note that the song appears for the first time on compact disc (Hot Productions CD HTCD 120-2.) That song was not the end of Cretu's appearances on movie-soundtracks.
HUBERT KaH had a number of appearances such as "Angel 07"on the soundtrack of "Gotcha" (1984), "Get Strange" on the soundtrack of "No Secrets" (1986.) Enigma, Cretu's later production, has particularly cinematic feel and is imbued with drama which resulted in strong interest in the trailers and soundtracks for several films such as "Sliver", "Boxing Helena", "Body of Evidence" (trailer), and "The Matrix" (trailer.)

Michael Cretu ~ "It takes a long time until I manage to forget the everyday and am able to really dissolve with this atmosphere. That's why I work at night."

Credits
Written and researched By Taha A. Al-Douri
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