Ten Thousand Lightyears

Ten Thousand Lightyears is the seventh studio album by Boney M. and the first to feature new member Reggie Tsiboe who had taken over Bobby Farrell's role as the band's leading man in early 1982. The first single to emerge from new recording sessions in 1982 was a cover version of The Seekers 1965 hit "The Carnival Is Over" backed with Jimmy Cliff's "Going Back West" in June 1982 - "The Carnival Is Over" had an ominous ring to its title, being the first Boney M. single not to enter the German Top 20, peaking at a disappointing #41, and prompting Hansa to send out a new mix of "Going Back West", promoting this as the A-side.

After a break in the spring of 1983 when Liz Mitchell gave birth to her second child, and Marcia Barrett recorded demos with Eddy Grant, the band issued "Jambo - Hakuna Matata (No Problems)" backed with a new remix of "African Moon" from the Boonoonoonoos album. In Spain and Portugal, the single emerged with the original 1981 mix of "African Moon". The Iberian 12" singles furthermore included the full 7:44 mix of "Jambo" (the German 12" included a 5:35 edit) and another 1983 recording, "I Need A Babysitter" (a cover of French punk rocker Mahjun's 1980 hit), unavailable elsewhere. "Jambo" was originally intended to be the lead single for the seventh Boney M. album scheduled for release in the Autumn of 1983, but due to the poor chart performance of the single (#48 Germany, 5 weeks) both "Jambo" and "Babysitter" were omitted from the album, and the project postponed for another six months.

During the winter of 1983/1984 new recordings were made and the album was then given a whole new approach. It was supposed have been a continuation of the ethno-African themes, both musically and lyrically, of 1981's Boonoonoonoos but after the miscalculation with "Jambo" most of the new tracks which ultimately ended up as the side A suite were given a science fiction theme, the album title Ten Thousand Lightyears was chosen. Launched with a ZDF TV-special, the album was finally released in May 1984 and was also Boney M.'s debut on the new Compact Disc format.

The single chosen to promote the finished album was ballad "Somewhere In The World" - it became the fourth consecutive Boney M. single not to reach the German Top 40. What was carefully planned to be a triumphant comeback after a three-year-long absence on the European charts unfortunately and in hindsight rather unfairly instead turned out to be the band's and producer Frank Farian's biggest commercial failure to date. Even though the album peaked at #23 in the German album charts, it did very little elsewhere, and the second single "Living Like A Moviestar" was cancelled.