Captain Jack is a German

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

and

dance-rock Dance-rock is a dance-infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and disco ...

project formed in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, Germany, in 1995. The project is best known for the single "

Captain Jack Captain Jack may refer to: People * Calico Jack (1683–1720), a pirate in the 18th century * Captain Jack (Hawaiian) (died 1831), Naihekukui, commander of Kamehameha's fleet and father of Kalama * Captain Jack (fl. 1830s on), Kaurna man in c ...

", which reached the Top-10 in many countries in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

History and career

1995–1996: Career beginnings

The original formation consisted of Sharky Durban and Liza da Costa. They recorded the songs "Dam, Dam, Dam" and "

". The latter is the only featured song on the band's debut album ''The Mission''.

1996–1998: Second lineup, ''The Mission'' and ''Operation Dance''

Sharky left in 1996 and was replaced by Francisco Gutierrez alias

Franky Gee Francisco Alejandro Gutierrez (February 19, 1962 – October 22, 2005), known professionally as Franky Gee, was an American-German singer, rapper and soldier. He was the lead vocalist of the Europop group Captain Jack. Early life Gee was bo ...

. After serving in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, 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 The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

officer's dress uniform, with a red hat based on that of the

US Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

. 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.

1999–2000: Third lineup and ''The Captain's Revenge''

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 Gipsy Kings are a group of flamenco, salsa, and pop musicians from Arles and Montpellier in southern France, who perform mostly in Catalan but also mix in Spanish with southern French dialects. Although the group members were born in France, t ...

and "Only You" before Maloy left in November 2000.

2001–2005: Fourth lineup, Franky Gee's death and Forced hiatus

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 Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

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.

2008–2009: Reunion, new lineup, and ''Captain Jack is Back''

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 Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to 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 ...

and hip hop genres, dropping the original lineup's

eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

roots. 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.

2010–present: Sixth lineup and ''Back to the Dancefloor''

In 2010 Laura Martin, participant of the fourth installment of ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'', the German version of

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

, 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.

Musical style

Captain Jack's music was stylized as a form of military training mixed with Europop ,dance-rock 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 A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

's "Take On Me",

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

's "Another One Bites the Dust" or

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's "Holiday". They also sampled classical elements like

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

's "

In the Hall of the Mountain King "In the Hall of the Mountain King" ( no, I Dovregubbens hall, , In the Dovre man's hall, link=no, italic=no) is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music for the sixth scene of act 2 in Henrik Ibsen's 1867 ...

" 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 Francisco Buarque de Hollanda (born 19 June 1944), popularly known simply as Chico Buarque, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer, and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, economic, ...

's "A Banda" (in their version, "Get Up"),

Captain Sensible Raymond Ian Burns (born 24 April 1954), known by the stage name Captain Sensible, is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. Captain Sensible co-founded the punk rock band The Damned (band), the Damned, originally playing bass before switc ...

's "Say Captain, Say Wot",

Huey Smith & The Clowns Huey, used as a given name, is a variant of Hughie. It may refer to: People * Huey (rapper) (1987–2020), American rapper * Huey Dunbar, Puerto Rican salsa singer * Huey Johnson (1933–2020), American environmentalist and politician * Huey Lewis ...

's "Don't You Just Know It (Don't Ha Ha)" or

KC and the Sunshine Band KC and the Sunshine Band is an American disco and funk band that was founded in 1973 in Hialeah, Florida. Their best-known songs include the hits "That's the Way (I Like It)", "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty", "I'm Your Boogie Man", "K ...

'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".

Other endeavours

Fans of the

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance V ...

'' know them from the numerous songs that, through the

Dancemania ''Dancemania'' is a series of remix compilation albums by i-DANCE. The series deals primarily with dance music, especially Eurodance. Despite many of its tracks being made by various musicians from all over the world and mainly from the European ...

series of albums, have been used in the game series. The group's music was also featured in other

music games such as ''

beatmania (styled as ''beatmania'') is a Rhythm game, rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japan, Japanese game developer Konami and first released in December 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series e ...

'' and ''

Dance Maniax , stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, mos ...

''. Captain Jack Franky Gee , Mallorca TV Teleweb
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.

Members

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Video games

Captain Jack has a total of 12 songs which appear in the ''

'' arcade series. The band's premiere appearance was in the home release of ''

Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix , sometimes abbreviated as , is the second game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series of music video games. It was released as an arcade game by Konami on January 29, 1999. The initial release has a total of 33 songs: 22 brand new songs, and 1 ...

'', with three songs that were also featured in the arcade release of ''Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMix''. This included the band's signature song, "

", which appeared in a total of eight arcade releases. Additionally, two Captain Jack songs are available in the ''

StepManiaX ''StepManiaX'' (abbreviated ''SMX'' and pronounced "Step Maniacs") is a rhythm game developed & published by Step Revolution, a studio formed by former developers of In the Groove, ReRave, and Pump It Up Pro. It is considered a spiritual succ ...

'' arcade game. "Dream a Dream ~Cheeky Trax UK Remix~" is available on all versions, while "My Generation (Fat Beat Mix)" requires a free online update released on December 20, 2020.

References

External links

Official Captain Jack WebsiteOfficial YouTube ChannelUpcoming GigsRussian Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Jack German musical duos German Eurodance groups Video game musicians English-language singers from Germany