Modern Talking was a German pop duo consisting of arranger, songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen[5] and singer Thomas Anders.

The duo released singles (many of which involved American rapper Eric Singleton) which again entered the top ten in Germany and elsewhere, one of which was a re-recorded version of "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", to whose title "'98" was added.

Due to the lacklustre reception accorded the sixth album, Bohlen announced the project's termination in a German interview given while Anders was away in Los Angeles.

After four decades of Cold War censorship and import restrictions, Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost reforms in the USSR in 1986 opened up the Soviet sphere to western bands, including Modern Talking at the height of their popularity.

[18] Immediately after the duo split in mid-1987, Bohlen formed his own project called Blue System and enjoyed several high chart positions, with tracks like "Sorry Little Sarah", "My Bed Is Too Big", "Under My Skin", "Love Suite", "Laila" and "Déjà vu".

Meanwhile, Anders went solo, touring under the name Modern Talking on several continents until the beginning of 1989, when he started to record some of his new pop-like material in Los Angeles and London, as well as Germany.

Their first comeback album Back for Good, which included four new tracks, as well as all of the previous hits remixed with up-to-date techniques, took the number-one spot in 15 countries, occupying Germany's for five consecutive weeks.

[22] The period of division between them was one in which Bohlen was involved with Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German edition of the UK's TV talent show Pop Idol.

Thomas Anders relaunched his solo career immediately after the end of Modern Talking, while Bohlen was devoting most of his time to new talent, especially those discovered on DSDS.

The studio vocal line-up of Rolf Köhler, Michael Scholz, Detlef Wiedeke and (on early albums) Birger Corleis, in addition to Bohlen and Anders, produced the high choruses characteristic of Modern Talking.

They received an out of court settlement and Bohlen published a sleeve note for his next release (Obsession, by Blue System), acknowledging the trio's contribution.

[23][24] Further influences include German-language schlager music, disco-pop (the Bee Gees) and romantic English-language songs of Italian and French origin, like Gazebo's "I Like Chopin".

Global sales of Modern Talking when the duo definitively broke up in 2003 stood at 120 million singles and albums combined, making them the biggest-selling German music act in history.

Although recognizing the catchiness and professional production of the songs, the lack of originality was criticized by British representatives of these genres of music, such as the Pet Shop Boys or Erasure.

[citation needed] In particular, criticism was levelled at the "sameness" among many of their songs, something Bohlen himself conceded to Der Spiegel in 1989: "I won't in any way deny that Modern Talking hits all have a very, very similar sound.