A Touch of Class (band)

A Touch of Class
From left to right: Tracey Elizabeth Packham, Joseph "Joey" Murray, Livio Salvi, and Sarah Egglestone
Background information
Also known as	ATC
Born	(1974-07-05) July 5, 1974 (age 42) (Joseph "Joey" Murray) (1975-04-04) April 4, 1975 (age 41) (Sarah Egglestone) (1977-01-25) January 25, 1977 (age 40) (Livio Salvi) (1977-07-30) July 30, 1977 (age 39) (Tracey Elizabeth Packham)
Origin	Hamburg, Germany
Genres	Europop, Eurodance
Years active	1999–2003
Associated acts	DJ Jurgen, Judith Pronk
Website	www.ATouchofClass.de at the Wayback Machine (archived February 7, 2003)
Past members	Joseph "Joey" Murray Sarah Egglestone Tracey Elizabeth Packham Livio Salvi

A Touch of Class (originally known as ATC) was an international pop group based in Germany, although the four members each came from different countries — Joseph "Joey" Murray (born July 5, 1974) from New Zealand, Sarah Egglestone (b. April 4, 1975) from Australia, Livio Salvi (b. January 25, 1977) from Italy, and Tracey Elizabeth Packham (b. July 30, 1977) from the United Kingdom. The pop group was active from 1999 to 2003 and peaked its popularity after release of "Around the World (La La La La La)" in 2000.

The four met together in Hamburg, Germany as cast members of the international Broadway theatre German production of the stage musical "Cats" within October 1997-April 1998. Sarah Egglestone played Bombalurina, Livio Salvi played Mungojerrie, Tracey Packham played Syllabub, and Joey Murray played as Munkustrap/swing dancer. The four quickly became friends and decided to form a dance group. Egglestone noted, "We were there sitting watching television one day, seeing groups and saying 'there's no reason [...] why we can't do this.'" The group first met with producers Alex Christensen and Thomas M. Stein in 1999 and began working on material. The group experimented with merging male and female vocals together. "Producers don't seem to want to mix the voices so often [...] that helps give us that little bit of an edge," Murray remarked.

Their first single, "Around the World (La La La La La)" (which was an English cover of the song "Pesenka" by the Russian group Ruki Vverh!) was first released on May 9, 2000 and went number one in Germany for six weeks in summer 2000. It was later a Top 40 hit in the United Kingdom and United States. The song was in a television commercial for General Electric in the United States in early 2002.