Lil Louis
Musical artist
Marvin Louis Burns (born May 13, 1962), known by his stage name Li'l Louis (sometimes expanded to Li'l Louis & the World and Li'l Louis & the Party), is a Chicago-born house-music producer and DJ . He scored a number of hits on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, three of which hit number one.
His best-known song, "French Kiss", spent two weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1989. Originally an instrumental, the track features a several-minute breakdown in which the tempo gradually slows to a stop. As the song gained popularity, vocals by Shawn Christopher were added. Even with its erotic sound, it crossed over to some pop radio stations and climbed to No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a big success throughout Europe, reaching No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, despite being banned by the BBC, and in Germany, and No. 1 in the Netherlands. The video was directed by Marek Budzynski. British drum-and-bass producers Ed Rush and Optical later produced a remix.
In the track "Teachers" from the 1997 Homework album by Daft Punk, Lil Louis is one of the many musicians mentioned.
Laurent Garnier's 1997 single "Flashback" contained a remix by Lil Louis called "Lil Louis Civilized Instrumental Painting."
In 2000, fellow producer Josh Wink released "How's Your Evening So Far?", credited to Wink Featuring Lil Louis, a track that heavily sampled "French Kiss". The song peaked at No. 3 on the dance chart. The song was also sampled in 2000 by hip hop emcee Lil' Kim on the track "Custom Made (Give It To You)," which was featured on The Notorious KIM.
In 2009, Louis was featured in the track "One More Chance" by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx from their fifth studio album Scars.
In 2013, John Legend released the song "Made to Love", which features a prominent sample of the Lil' Louis song "Video Clash", on Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label.
On January 24, 2015, Louis suffered permanent sound-induced hearing loss in his left ear during a soundcheck in Manchester, England, when an air horn was let off near him.
On April 17, 2026, American singer-songwriter Madonna premiered "I Feel So Free" on iHeartRadio's Pride station, and released the first promotional single from her upcoming fifteenth studio album, Confessions II (2026) two days later. The song, written and produced by Madonna and Stuart Price, with co-production by Arca, heavily samples "French Kiss" by Louis, and it was later described as an homage to the producer and DJ.
01Discography
Albums
- From the Mind of Lil Louis (FFRR/PolyGram UK; Epic/SME Records US, 1989)
- Li'l Louis & the World, Journey with the Lonely (Epic/SME Records US, 1992)
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
US Dance |
AUS |
NED | BEL (FL) |
FRA | GER |
AUT | SWI | SWE | IRE | UK | |||
| 1987 | "Frequency / How I Feel" | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | singles only |
| 1988 | "The Original Video Clash / Music Takes U Away" | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | |
| "7 Days of Peace / War Games" (as Lil' Louis and the Diamond Corp.) | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | ||
| 1989 | "French Kiss" | 50 | 1 | 35 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 6 | 2 | French Kisses, The Complete Mix Collection EP |
| 1990 | "I Called U (But You Weren't There)" | , | , | , | 66 | 48 | , | , | , | , | , | 23 | 16 | From The Mind of Lil' Louis (as Lil' Louis & The World) |
| "Nyce & Slo" | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | 89 | ||
| 1992 | "Club Lonely" (featuring Joi Cardwell) | , | 1 | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | Journey with the Lonely (as Lil' Louis & The World) |
| "Saved My Life" (featuring Joi Cardwell) | , | 1 | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | 74 | ||
| 1997 | "Clap Your Hands" (as Lil' Louis & The Party) | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | 77 | Singles only |
| 2000 | "How's Your Evening So Far?" (with Josh Wink) | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | 23 | |
| 2001 | "Blackout" (Li'l Louis vs. Hydrogen Rockers) | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | , | |
| ", " denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | ||||||||||||||
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Lil Louis”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Lil Louis (139059111) (cropped).jpeg by Remy Golinelli, CC BY-SA 3.0
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