Spike

Spike is an American dance project founded in New York in 1998 by DJ, producer and remixer Darrin Friedman. The formation consists of the rapper Barrelhouse J.M. and the singer Pamela Mitchell. Florian Richter alias Judge Flow, Marc Lennard and Lafayette Karrington are involved as songwriters and producers. Spike's sound is based on elements from Whitney Houston's "My Name Is Not Susan" and combines electronic beats with soul and rap elements. The breakthrough came in 1998 with the debut single "Respect", which reached number 11 in Germany and was awarded gold. In Austria the song climbs to number 6, in Switzerland to number 10. The follow-up single "It Takes Two (Deeper Love)" reaches number 8 in Germany and number 10 in Austria and Switzerland in 1999. In June 1999, the album Spike - The Album is released, reaching number 6 in Germany, number 7 in Switzerland and number 12 in Austria. Further singles such as "Responsible" (number 52 in Germany) and "So in Luv" (number 51 in Germany, number 59 in Switzerland) achieve moderate success. In 2001, Spike releases the songs "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "A Moment of Love", which are his last minor chart successes. A planned second album entitled So Called Friends is not completed. Until 2005, two collaborations were released under the name Spike: 2003's "(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" with Nomad and 2005's "Crazy for Your Love" with Luniz. No further releases followed.