One Hit Wondering – Le Click

One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. 

An uptempo beat that compels you to move, a powerful female singer (usually singing about love), and a spoken verse, or two from a male vocalist – these were the musical ingredients for Eurodance, and in the ‘90s the genre was a staple of party playlists, Top 40 radio, and exceedingly sweaty late nights out.

A genuinely fun genre of music, Eurodance burned brightly for just a handful of years, but one of the groups that had a genre-defining hit was Le Click, with “Call Me.”

Released in February of 1997, “Call Me” reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, and climbed all the way to #4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, making it a presence at every party, and pushing Swedish-Nigerian singer Kayo Shekoni, and American rapper/singer Robert Haynes into the spotlight.

The song should have been the start of something big for Le Click, but a long run was not in the cards.

The fact that they had any run at all was slightly miraculous, as the group didn’t actually exist when they received their initial radio airplay.

Yeah, it’s complicated, and their story is intertwined with fellow Eurodance duo La Bouche, as well as Milli Vanilli creator Frank Farian, and, of all things, the U.S. military.

It’s a story that, while it reaches its peak in 1997, has origins that date all the way back to 1979.

It was during that final year of the ‘70s when the Swedish synth-pop band Freestyle was formed, and their best known lineup included a teenage Kayo Shekoni. 

Despite the group being popular, Kayo left after the release of their fourth single, “Vill Ha Dej” (which translates to “I Want You”), in 1980.

The song reached #1 in Sweden, and #2 in Norway, but Kayo was reaching for something else musically.

After she left Freestyle she found plenty of work as a singer, and backup dancer, and eventually connected with SweMix, a record label founded by a Stockholm-based DJ collective. In 1990, SweMix released her self-titled debut album.

The sound was wildly different from her synth pop roots, focusing instead on soul, and New Jack Swing.

She followed it up in 1993 with a Swedish-language album titled Kärleksland.

During this time her eventual Le Click partner, Robert Haynes, was quietly making a name for himself in Germany.

Formerly a DJ at the University of California at Berkeley radio station KALX, Haynes joined the U.S. military in 1984, which is how he wound up overseas, DJing in clubs around Frankfurt, while also working on his production, and songwriting skills.

In 1990, while Kayo was releasing her solo album, Haynes was releasing a single titled “What is Sadness” under the name Device. Buried in the liner notes is that the song was published by Songs Of Logic, which was the publishing arm of Logic Records. This would come into play a few years later with the founding of Le Click.

“What is Sadness” was a downtempo, trip-hop song that featured a variety of chants. Believe it or not, the combination sounded pretty dope.

At the same time, Haynes was also working as a songwriter for other artists, and co-wrote a song titled “Sweet Dreams” for a session singer named Melanie Thornton, who was cutting a demo.

By 1993, Thornton, who had moved from South Carolina to Germany to pursue her music career, had provided vocals for a number of Eurodance producers, and was looking to move from session singer, to lead vocalist.

“Sweet Dreams” was sent to producer Frank Farian, the man perhaps best known for creating Milli Vanilli, and Boney M.

Farian loved “Sweet Dreams,” and asked Thornton to find a male rapper to join her on the song. She called Haynes, who was game to provide some lyrics.

“Sweet Dreams” was released internationally in April 1994, and first become popular in Italy. Seeing the potential for a hit on his hands, Farian wanted Haynes and Thornton to team up as duo. Haynes, however, wasn’t a fan of the spotlight, and passed on the opportunity, preferring to be a producer, and songwriter.

Thornton knew someone else who might be interested, her friend Lane McCray, who she performed with in a previous band named Groovin’ Affairs.

Coincidentally, just like Haynes, McCray was an American living overseas because he was in the military, and he was still a member of the Air Force when he received the call from Thornton.

In what would turn out to be a great decision, he jumped at the chance to team up with her again. The duo were then signed to Farian’s label, MCI Records, as La Bouche.

La Bouche’s debut album, Sweet Dreams, was released in 1995, with the lead single finally hitting radio in the U.S. in November of 1995.

While La Bouche was filling dance floors, and crossing over to Top 40 radio, a second song from Thornton’s demo was released, but under the name Le Click, and via Logic Records.

The song was “Tonight is the Night.”

Featuring Thornton, and Caribbean artist Mikey Romeo, it caught the ear of a radio DJ in Florida who began playing the record.

While not a major hit – the song never cracked the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 – it was gaining enough popularity to have Logic Records want to capitalize on it. The only problem was Le Click no longer had a singer, because Thornton was signed as a member of La Bouche.

This is when Kayo entered the mix.

In an interview with GalloTheGuyYouKnow, Kayo revealed that an A&R at SweMix had a connection with Logic Records, and set up a meeting with the label.

After inquiring about what kind of family responsibilities she might have, the timeline Logic Records gave her was insane. Kayo said they asked her, “Can you leave in a week? Because we have a hit, and we need a singer right now.”

Kayo took the leap, and became the vocalist for Le Click.

Haynes was somehow already the other half of Le Click, although how that happened is a bit murky. My guess is his previous affiliation with Logic Records, and the label being fine with his stated desire to stay mostly behind the scenes, led to him accepting the position.

Strangely, he’s nearly absent from the liner notes of the album, only being credited as one of the songwriters for “Call Me,” and having some thank you shout outs, and one small photo.

Kayo took a week to learn the songs she’d be singing, and then packed a bag, and headed to New York City, where Le Click had a gig.

The first time she met Haynes was on stage.

The fact that this worked is kind of insane.

Kayo and Haynes somehow clicked as Le Click, and in February of 1997 they released “Call Me,” their first song with Kayo as the featured vocalist.

As it rose up the charts, and became a staple in nightclubs, the duo’s debut album, Le Click Featuring Kayo, was released in July of 1997.

The follow up singles to “Call Me” failed to make an impact, and just as quickly as Le Click was formed, they disbanded, calling it quits in 1998.

That same year, however, Kayo was on a song with the boy band LFO titled “If I Can’t Have You” that featured her singing an interpolation of a Bee Gees chorus.

While continuing her music career, Kayo also became a television personality in her native Sweden.

In November of 2001, tragedy struck when Le Click’s original vocalist, Melanie Thornton, lost her life in a plane crash, just three months after the world lost Aaliyah in the same way.

Exactly one year later, Frank Farian put together a tribute single for her titled “In Your Life.” A previously unreleased song, Farian combined Thornton’s vocals with new vocals from Kayo to complete the mix.

That same year, Kayo represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest with the group Afro-dite.

Five years later, in 2007, a three-song EP under the Le Click name titled Let’s Click! (90’s Dance Classics) appeared in the iTunes store. The songs were from La Bouche recording sessions that didn’t make the cut for either of their full length albums.

In 2014 things truly came full circle, as La Bouche, having worked with a seemingly never-ending list of singers in hopes of recapturing the magic, had Kayo fill in as vocalist for a year.

Returning to her solo career in 2016, she released a reggae album titled Sisters in Crime.

Since then Kayo has released a few singles, including “Do You Love Me” in 2021, and a collaboration with Robert Fux in 2023 titled “Every Queen.” The latter came about when she and Robert were judges on the Swedish edition of Drag Race.

Last year Kayo released a book titled Innan natten är över (Before the night is over), and she’s still performing music, and booking shows.

Kayo’s Le Click partner, on the other hand, has seemingly disappeared.

Robert Haynes shunned the spotlight during Le Click’s prime, so perhaps he’s making music under an alias, or simply living a life away from the internet.

As far as I can tell there’s only one photo of him in existence, and it’s the one from Le Click’s album. He’s like Mutt Lange before the divorce from Shania Twain, and in an internet age it’s actually quite impressive.

Wherever he is, hopefully he’s enjoying some tunes.

Rewinding back to when Eurodance was all over Top 40 radio, I popped Le Click’s lone album into my CD player, and found three songs, other than “Call Me,” that you should hear, two of which are surprisingly soulful selections.

“Come Into My World”

“Come Into My World” is a mixture of disco and soul that features a seriously dope groove. Decidedly laid back as compared to their Eurodance fare, this would’ve been gigantic on R&B stations, and probably would’ve crossed over to Top 40 radio. With how quickly Le Click disbanded, there’s a chance that may have been the plan, but I guess we’ll never know. We can, however, enjoy the heck out of this song.

“Voodoo Fever”

Another disco-meet-soul type of groove, “Voodoo Fever” is a wonderfully addictive dance floor ready tune. When you hear songs like this, and “Come Into My World,” it makes you think Le Click didn’t want to be labeled as simply a Eurodance outfit, and had they lasted longer maybe we’d have seen more of a realization of their musical goals.  

“Tonight is the Night”

I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the song that started it all. “Tonight is the Night” is pure Eurodance, and it’s kind of crazy that it didn’t crack the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. I feel like I heard it all the time. Of course, that might be because it received a heck of a lot of spins at every college bar during my years as an undergrad. What a time to be alive, and partying at 2am!

Until next time, here’s to discovering more great music from one hit wonders!