49ers (band) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

49ers are an Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

house

Italo house

Italo house is a form of house music popular in Italy, Britain and United States since the late 1980s. It fuses house music and Italo disco. The genre's main musical characteristic is its use of predominantly electronic piano chords in a more lyrical form than classic Chicago House records...

and Eurodance

Eurodance

Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...

act

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, featuring producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

and DJ

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

Gianfranco Bortolotti and vocalist Ann-Marie Smith. They were named after the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

team, as Smith was the 49th vocalist to audition.

In 1990, two of their songs reached #1 on the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Dance Club Play chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

; "Touch Me

Touch Me (49ers song)

"Touch Me" is a 1990 single by the 49ers. "Touch Me" was the first four hits on the American dance charts for the 49ers. The single spent two weeks at number one and a total of eleven weeks on the dance chart. The song was released in the United Kingdom in January 1990 and reached number 3 on the...

" and "Don't You Love Me".

Formation and debut album

The project was formed in 1988, by the producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. The debut single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "Die Walküre", was based on a vocal from Freeez

Freeez

Freeez were a United Kingdom dance music group from London, known initially as one of the UK's main jazz-funk bands of the early 1980s. Initiated by John Rocca, Freeez consisted of various musicians, originally with Rocca and others such as Andy Stennet Freeez were a United Kingdom dance music...

's "I.O.U." (although the woman in the video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

is Josy Gil Persia) and reached #20 on the French Singles Chart. It was followed by "Shadows" one year later. After this, Bortolotti recruited Dawn Mitchell to front the act. "Touch Me" was partially based on an Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...

sample

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

("Rock-a-Lott"), whilst its chorus line

Refrain

A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

was taken from Alysha Warren's song, "Touch Me". "Don't You Love Me" featured a vocal sample from Jody Watley

Jody Watley

Jody Vanessa Watley is an American, singer, songwriter, record producer, and founder of Avitone Records whose music crosses genres from Pop, R&B, Jazz, Dance and Electronic Soul....

's hit "Don't You Want Me

Don't You Want Me (Jody Watley song)

"Don't You Want Me" is the third single from singer Jody Watley's eponymous debut album. The song was produced by Bernard Edwards of Chic-fame....

" and peaked at #78 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. Other borrowed phrases and hooks are dispersed throughout the accompanying album. It was revealed that Alysha Warren was the actual vocalist. Lip-sync was performed on the videos by Mitchell.

"Touch Me" became a #3 hit in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

in January 1990, whilst "Don't You Love Me" peaked at #12 in that same listing.

The follow-up albums

A remix

Remix

A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

album and the stand-alone single "Believe In Me" (which Mitchell co-wrote and sang) was released in 1991. Soon afterwards, Mitchell left the act and was replaced by Ann-Marie Smith. The second album, Playing With My Heart, was released in 1992. The album spawned five singles, "Move Your Feet", "Got to Be Free", "The Message", "Everything" and "Keep Your Love".

Other singles

The single "Rockin' My Body" reached #31 on the UK Singles Chart. They released four more singles including "Lovin' You", "Baby I'm Yours", "I Got The Music (aka I Got It)" and "Let The Sunshine In". Following this, the act broke up in 1998.

Former members

Gianfranco Bortolotti - production/arrangement/songwriting (1988–1998)
Pieradis Rossini - additional production/arrangement/songwriting (1988–1991)
Alysha Warren (real name: Alyesha Wallen) - lead female (uncredited) vocalist on various tracks (except "I Need You", "I Will Survive", "Die Walküre" and "Shadows") from the self titled Album. (1989–1990)
Josy Gil Persia - performer (1988–1990)
Dawn Mitchell - performer - although Mitchell's voice was used on "I Need You", "I Will Survive" and "Believe In Me". (1989–1991)
Ann-Marie Smith - vocals (1991–1998)

Albums

1990: 49ers (a.k.a. Touch Me Japanese edition) - UK
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

#51
1991: The Remix Album
1992: Playing With My Heart
2004: Greatest Hits 1990-2002

Singles