Louise 'Arms Around The World'

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

'Arms Around The World' made No. 4 in late September '97 and Louise's 6th solo hit since leaving Eternal in 1995... Her 7th hit, a cover of the Average White Band's 1980 classic 'Let's Go Round Again' is due for mid-November release.

Second sleeve note running to plug the follow-up single, which seems a bit like it's underselling the track it actually has to offer. Perhaps they were hoping to keep the 70s retro connection going, tenuously. It's slightly odd to be reticent about this, which proved to be her biggest-selling solo single, although admittedly it was favoured by being the first single from the album, released at the peak of her career and in one of the best years ever for single sales.  It's fair to say it's not the song she's most remembered for these days but it's actually not bad, although it is one of those songs that starts with a panoply of different "ethnic" instruments and then reverts to conventional late-90s pop. Still, it's got a good positive-sounding chorus and at least it makes me want to like it.

Also appearing on: Now 32, 33, 34, 35, 39, 46, 47, 50
Available on: Greatest Hits: 90s

Eternal 'Oh Baby I...'

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

'Oh Baby I...' was Eternal's 5th consecutive hit and one of the biggest to date for Vernie, Easther, Louise and Kelle... It was a No. 4 smash in November '94

Nothing seems more inevitable on a mid-90s Now album than an Eternal track, does it? This at least has some significance as the last appearance (though penultimate hit) by the original quartet before Louise left/was pushed out. It's also the song that gives debut album Always and Forever its title, despite being the fifth single released from it.

To be honest it's a bit sappier than I remembered it being, but it is sort of catchy and the single mix has some nice sitar-like guitars that remind me of some early-70s soul tracks. Much as they remind me that I'd rather be listening to those instead of this, I'm still happy to rank this among the better Eternal singles.

Also appearing on: Now 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38
Available on: The Best

Louise 'In Walked Love'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

Due for release on 4th March 1996, 'In Walked Love' is Louise's hot follow-up to her debut top 10 solo success 'Light Of My Life'.

Hot is not the word I'd use for this song, another from the pen of blandness queen Diane Warren but given a vaguely RnB production by Simon Climie, who doesn't really seem to know what he's doing. It's not one of Warren's more memorable songs and Climie's attempt to make it sound less like a power ballad leave it falling between stools. A star name and glamourous video were enough to lift it to the Top 10 at the time, but like the bulk of her solo material (and Eternal's, come to that) it's almost entirely forgotten now.


Also appearing on: Now 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 46, 47, 50, 56
Available on: This Is... 1996

Louise '2 Faced'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

After a 2 year break, Louise is poised to take on the UK charts once again with a hot new pop single '2 Faced' and her third solo album... The title of her new long-player, Elbow Beach, is taken from the Bermudan location where she spent her honeymoon with footballer-husband, Jamie Redknapp, in June 1998.

Well, Jamie Redknapp was indeed both a footballer and her husband (he still is the latter) but it seems odd to hyphenate the two nouns like that, I can't quite put my finger on why. Anyway, his wife's acquisition of a new surname didn't persuade her to follow Billie's lead and start using it professionally, but she was emboldened to make what was supposed to be her most personal music yet. Whilst that's obviously very much relative, this particular song does seem to come from from somewhere with the insistent chorus of "stop your bitching," pretty strong stuff from a teenybop star. Whether she had somebody specific in mind I don't know but it inspired what's possibly her best single, a far cry from the insipid balladry she usually ladled onto the Now albums. It became her highest-charting solo single too, but the album performed less well and she's only really dabbled in pop since.

By the way that video is a bit creepy. It's a bit sad that even there she has to do a little dance drawing attention to her groin as well.

Also appearing on: Now 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 47, 50, 56
Available on: 100 Hits 2000's Pop

Eternal 'Stay'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Eternal are four all-singing girls from South London. 'Stay' is their very first hit and had reached No. 4 by 17th October '93.

Maybe it's just my pesky cynicism, but calling them "four all-singing girls" sounds a bit like an insult to their dancing abilities. It's a mid-90s Now album so of course Eternal are going to show up, a moment I rarely look forward to: it's not that I dislike their music so much as I struggle to find perspectives about it. 

'Stay' does at least have the distinction of being their debut single, and also their only hit in the US - it reached 19 on the Hot 100, which is not a bad achievement at at time when there was a little demand over there for British music as there ever has been. But that also tips you off to how exact a pastiche this is of then-current swingbeat. That too is something you can admire, since as far as I can tell it was produced by British people, but it feels rather pointless from any perspective other than a strictly commercial one. It feels too much of its time and place to have any resonance here in the 21st century. Even the title feels generic: it's the third most common one-word title for a hit single, and the group used one of the other two as well ('Crazy' in 1994). I think this is part of the reason why Eternal's actually mildly impressive chart feats rarely seem to get a mention nowadays, they're just too forgettable. 

Also appearing on: Now 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38
Available on: Stay - The Essential Eternal Collection

Eternal 'Save Our Love'

Chart Peak: 8

YouTube

Easther, Vernie, Louise and Kelle are Eternal... 'Save Our Love', which made No. 8 in January 1994, was the London Girls' 2nd UK smash and followed 'Stay' into the Top 10.

I think this is the first track that's been entirely new to me. I've mentioned before that I didn't hear 'The Sign' at the time, but at least I know it now; whereas to the extent that anyone remembers Eternal at all now this seems to be overshadowed by later hits. Mind you, it is just about possible that I did hear this record at some point in the past and just forgot about it, because it's not a very distinctive record. 'Save Our Love' is solid but standard-issue female RnB of the times, chiefly notable for having been co-written by the Eddie from Charles & Eddie. And possibly also for the fact that the title of their previous hit is repeated several times in this one.

It's impossible to be very critical of this, but not much easier to be very positive because they haven't given us a lot to work on here. A non-entity of a song really.


Also appearing on: Now 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38
Available on: Greatest Hits

Louise 'Stuck In The Middle With You'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Originally a Top 10 hit for Stealer's Wheel in 1973, 'Stuck In The Middle With You' was immortalised by Quentin Tarrantino {sic} when he featured it in his smash-hit movie "Reservoir Dogs"... Louise gave the track her own sensational treatment in 2001 - which earner her a huge No 4 hit in September

I suppose you could say this single was sort of emblematic of the way Louise, and many other female pop stars of the era, had to try and appeal to both the teen-girl and lad-mag markets more or less simultaneously. You'd imagine that not many of her younger fans would have seen the infamous scene in the film where the original of this song appears - but they might have heard about it, or at least been subconsciously familiar with the song. It's hard to think what they'd have made of the video, which is a sort of lapdancing pastiche of the torture scene - or is she supposed to be torturing him by lapdancing?

It's tempting to suggest that just making him listen to this record is torture enough, and indeed a YouTube commenter already has. That's arguably unfair, because this isn't terrible, but it's not really any good either. It was the new track on her Greatest Hits and seems to reflect the minimum possible investment of effort from any of the people involved.

Also appearing on: Now 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 46, 47, 56
Available on: The Best Of Top Of The Pops 2000-2006

Louise 'Light Of My Life'

Chart Peak: 8

YouTube

Louise's first solo single since her departure from Eternal was this big ballad... It was an immediate success, racing to No 8 in October 1995

You want a really tenuous link? Judging by the video I linked to in the last post, Louise was presenting TotP the week the Beautiful South were on. That aside, this track seems curiously out of place at this point in the sequence, beyond the fact that fits in with the generally quite mellow mood of these early tracks.

In some ways, though, it'd be tough to find a "right" place for this song, because there's not a lot to it. It's the first song on this album that I couldn't have hummed, though I remember it being a hit. Of course, that's partly because it wasn't the sort of music I was interested in at the time, and we're not yet quite in the era when I was listening to chart rundowns every week; but at the same time it seems quite fitting for Louise. On paper she was a major star of the era, scoring eleven consecutive Top 20 singles (most of them in the Top 10) between 1995 and 2001, plus a one-off charity single a couple of years later. Yet few if any of these hits could really be said to have left a major impression on the world.

I did check the title a couple of times, though, so this really is the single they chose to launch her. Somehow, it sounds of its time without having sounded modern at the time. It was co-written by Simon Climie, who of course cropped up a couple of times on Now 12. It has a very off-the-shelf quality about it, as if they just ordered a ballad and got this by return of post, but it's so utterly unmemorable that I've actually managed to forget it while I'm typing this.

Also appearing on: Now 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 46, 47, 50, 56
Available on: Changing Faces: the Best of Louise

Louise 'Naked'

Chart Peak:

YouTube

Well, that post title should get me a few more search hits, at least...

Sometimes it's tempting to try and sum up a song in one sentence. Were I to do that here it would be: This song rhymes "sensual" with "sexual".

...OK, but as this post is now two days late, you'll probably be wanting a bit more than that. Well, OK: the background for all who don't know is that this was that Louise Nurding as she then was (perhaps this is why she preferred to work under her first name - I've tagged this entry under the name she's better known by) had been a member of RnB-flavoured girl group Eternal for their first album and six singles, but was then spun off as a solo artist. 'Naked' was the title track of her first album and third of twelve consecutive Top 20 singles. Those rhymes do seem to encapsulate the nature of the song - the sort of subject matter and the level of lyrical brilliance involved. I don't really think you were expected to listen to the words though... It's certainly rather raunchier than anything Eternal would have attempted.

Also appearing on: Now 32, 33, 35, 38, 39, 46, 47, 50, 56
Available on: Finest Moments