Louise Survivor: Round TWO

Vote to EVICT

  • Total voters
    26
C’est la VoR

C’est la VoR

Take it or leave it
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
Messages
131,966
Location
The Cinema
First on the chopping block, we get two singles from her debut and two from the tail end of her initial run of pop stardom.

I must confess I thought Light of my Life might hang around a *little* longer. It was a bit of a strange choice to try and launch her with a Dina Carroll style ballad given she was never really a vocal powerhouse, but I do find it quite sweet. It peaked at #8 in 1995.



One Kiss From Heaven was the fifth and final single from the Naked album, and is probably most notable for its celeb-packed video, featuring cameos from such stars as Michelle Gayle, Martine McCutcheon, former bandmate Kelle Bryan and future ex-husband Jamie Redknapp. It reached #9 in the tail-end of 1996, helping to push the album past Platinum status. I don't find it to be a terribly exciting song, but I am sort of nostalgic for these low-stakes kind of single releases that would wrap up an album campaign.



Fast forward five years, and following disappointing sales for third album Elbow Beach, Louise needed a surefire hit to launch her first greatest hits collection Changing Faces. Stuck In The Middle With You is perhaps the definition of a cover version nobody needs, but it did the job. I remember being very excited that this spent three whole weeks in the top ten. The video was also good fun, and I cannot begin to tell you how much I wore out the CD single of this lip syncing and dancing along to the iconic MEGAMIX on the B-side.



Finally, we lose Louise's final charting hit (to date 🙏), one-off single Pandora's Kiss from 2003. Poor Lou was suffering a bit of an identity crisis at this stage. I'm not sure going down the (very soft) rock route was ever really a viable option for her. There was an album, which was scrapped and to my knowledge was never leaked. This did get as high as #5, but it had a very brief run and she stepped away from music shortly thereafter to focus on raising her kids. She seems quite fond of it herself, she often wheels it out on her live shows to this day.




Moving on, vote for up to another THREE to evict.

=13 Light of My Life
=13 One Kiss From Heaven
=14 Pandora's Kiss
=14 Stuck In The Middle With You
 
Iguana said:
Kind of surprised Stuck came joint last, I really quite enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Usually these survivors have all the new stuff going out last so it was quite surprising.

She hasn’t really had a TERRIBLE single through.
 
Last edited:
I could only bare to vote for 2. Hurt is the stronger of the recents and Stretch has that ridiculous remix. Magic isn't doing it for me so far other than thinking it's pleasant.
 
@VoR you technically can’t have two equal 13th places and two equal 14th places. Or can you? (says the guy studying maths at uni :D)
 
I don't get the love for Let's go round again. It's a really cheap cover of a disco anthem.
 
This feels UNNECESSARY

Why don't we just skip to the final of Naked vs Arms Around The World vs Hi Girls, HI LOUISEEEE

I don't really understand the fondness for Let's Go Round Again - it was an utterly basic cover for those who found Heart FM too edgy for the morning school run
 
How did she manage to STRETCH her career from ‘96- ‘01? Surely she never made a penny for her record label?
 
I like Beautiful Inside although the lyrics bug me with Louise being all dressed up and made up (but not doing push ups) in the video and telling the rest of us:

“Try givin' up
The make up
Try givin' up
The dressin' up
Try givin' up
The pushups
And try livin' up
To higher aspirations”
 
BoysForSeles said:
I like Beautiful Inside although the lyrics bug me with Louise being all dressed up and made up (but not doing push ups) in the video and telling the rest of us:

“Try givin' up
The make up
Try givin' up
The dressin' up
Try givin' up
The pushups
And try livin' up
To higher aspirations”
Click to expand...

Sage advice from FHM's fittie of the decade (1990-99).
 
Not that anyone really cared by then and in 2000 it was easier to sell such hypocrisy, but Beautiful Inside, whatever the intention, really was rather TONE DEAF :D And I don't hate it
 
I gave Woman In Me a play earlier. Those ballads (apart from Love Will Bring You Back To Me) are a torturous slog.
 
You have to remember as well, it all depends on what her deal was with the record company. She must have made a mint in promotional stuff at the time- if the record company had a stake in that, she will have earned loads for them.
 
Iguana said:
Yeah she was absolutely EVERYWHERE in 1996 so she must have had enough credibility with the label to keep going
Click to expand...

Sheena said:
You have to remember as well, it all depends on what her deal was with the record company. She must have made a mint in promotional stuff at the time- if the record company had a stake in that, she will have earned loads for them.
Click to expand...

Was the promotional stuff modelling? I recall she was a bit of a lads mag favourite. I can’t really recall her doing anything else?
 
Rita said:
Was the promotional stuff modelling? I recall she was a bit of a lads mag favourite. I can’t really recall her doing anything else?
Click to expand...

The lads mag stuff will have paid a fair bit and there will have been promo stuff around that. There was that Asda deal and I’m quite sure loads more stuff of which I was not the target market, so don’t personally remember…a quick Wiki check suggests Boots, Flora and BT at the least, but not sure when that was.
 
Sheena said:
The lads mag stuff will have paid a fair bit and there will have been promo stuff around that. There was that Asda deal and I’m quite sure loads more stuff of which I was not the target market, so don’t personally remember…a quick Wiki check suggests Boots, Flora and BT at the least, but not sure when that was.
Click to expand...

I think that is it. I paid little interest in what she was promoting so it has slipped my mind completely, and that may also be the case why I can’t remember how big she was either. From my memory she did have a few good songs (I bought the greatest hits at the time) but she was always someone who seemed to trudge along rather than hit major heights. I have never ever known a Louise fanatic until I came on here and saw Steve UK.
 
She definitely had some kind of deal with a beauty brand in the 90s, I forget what it was but I remember she was on a load of billboards and I think it tied in with her tour at the time.

Anyway, her records wouldn't have cost that much to produce, it wasn't like she ever worked with the big international names. And as mentioned, the first two albums both comfortably cleared Platinum. I'm sure she was a perfectly decent local star investment for the record label up until Elbow Beach tanked. (And even then the Greatest Hits went gold with one single release).
 
She is absolutely beautiful so it doesn’t surprise me that she would be beauty/fashion company fodder.

Platinum is shipping of up to 300k copies, right? I remember having this conversation regarding Gabrielle in a discussion at the time. Collective sales/shipping of 300k was not a lot of sales for that era.
 
Remember singles weren’t the loss leader they are now too. What did a record company make off a cd single- 25%? I guess most of her top tens sold around or just under 100k- probably half at £1.99 and half at the post week one £3.99. That’s £75k-ish label gross profit before you even get to airplay/ video play royalties/ if they ever licensed the songs elsewhere and things like her videos won’t have been expensive to produce looking at them.

Can’t believe I’m having a conversation about the financial validity of Louise’s pop career :D
 
Sheena said:
Remember singles weren’t the loss leader they are now too. What did a record company make off a cd single- 25%? I guess most of her top tens sold around or just under 100k- probably half at £1.99 and half at the post week one £3.99. That’s £75k-ish label gross profit before you even get to airplay/ video play royalties/ if they ever licensed the songs elsewhere and things like her videos won’t have been expensive to produce looking at them.

Can’t believe I’m having a conversation about the financial validity of Louise’s pop career :D
Click to expand...

On Wikipedia none of her singles are certified which shocked me as I do remember Naked seeming quite huge at the time even though it only reached number 5.
 
I did read somewhere that she also made a lot of money for the label for, the NOW compilations. She appeared on about three of them a year and the label obviously get money for each track included so just having her regularly on them surely would’ve covered the costs of the music career at least.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom