
Important note:
All the French Kiss versions below are the first and original mixes and remixes circa 1989.
It is amazing how French Kiss stood the test of time. Exactly 21 years ago, around October/November, or let’s just say Fall of 1989, Lil’ Louis came out with this gem. To my ears, French Kiss was really the first serious progressive/house track (through its rolling, hypnotic bassline) to come out at that time, thus making most other house tracks in the dance and mainstream charts to sound like kindergarten music. French Kiss took the world by storm with its no-nonsense attitude. Its incredible breakdown in the middle, as the track slowed down gradually to a complete pause (accompanied by a sustained high-note and a female’s erotic moans, groans and heavy breathing) …. with few seconds of no beats …. and then the beat started to pulse at the lowest BPM, increasing its speed slowly and gradually back to the track’s original fast-paced tempo. All of that was ground-breaking musically and technologically (as it was really a-first-of-its-kind to be programmed/midi-sequenced at that time when it was hard to do so with midi gear).
- For those of you interested, the sound of that bassline was a preset called “Solid Bass” from a Yamaha DX-100 synth (pictured above).
- If you use Native Instruments FM8 software synth, then you can download and unzip the following sys-ex patches of the Yamaha DX-100/27/21. These synths had identical engines, although each one was different in size. However, they also shared the same exact factory patch/program presets.
- Download a-z.zip —–and—– DX21.zip
- Upload the patches to FM8.
- Look for “Solid Bass” or “Solid Bass 2” patches for that French Kiss bassline sound.
When I first heard the track at Medusa’s club in Chicago, I stopped doing what I was doing ….. stood still in the middle of the dancefloor where the sweetspot was in the stereo-field …… and just listened. The DJ played the entire 10-minute track. The only words that came out of my mouth were, “HOLY SHIT!” I said those words three time …. once in the beginning of the track, once in middle/breakdown and then once three-quarters towards the end.
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Original Mix)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Original Mix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Original Mix) (mp3)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Hitting Virgin Territory Instrumental Mix) (mp3)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Innocent Until Proven Guilty Vocal Remix) (mp3)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Backup Your Conversation)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Backup Your Conversation)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Backup Your Conversation) (mp3)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Passion Radio Mix)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Passion Radio Mix)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Passion Radio Mix) (mp3)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Album Version)…
Artist: Lil’ Louis
Title: French Kiss (Album Version)
Year: 1989
Label: FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording)
Lil’ Louis- “French Kiss” (Album Version) (mp3)




While the norm for most tracks go anywhere between 3:30 to 6:00 minutes in length, I prefer 15:00 minutes or longer, like the four seasons. Give me 4 long tracks to fill the hour, and I’ll be one very happy Iraqi. I love tracks that take me on long journeys through various movements. One of my all-time favorite synth-pop groups is PROPAGANDA from germany … who sound like twisted ABBA + Industrial + TechnoPop + Darkness. My favorite Proganda track is P:Machinery. I’ve taken two 12-inch vinyl versions of that track and conjoined them together as one … the way I want to listen to P:Machinery by:
Propaganda
Although he produced only a handful of tracks of renown and disappeared into obscurity almost as quickly as he had emerged from it, Manny ( Man ) Parrish is nonetheless one of the most important and influential figures in American electronic dance music. Helping to lay the foundation of electro, hip-hop, freestyle, and techno, as well as the dozens of subgenres to splinter off from those, Parrish introduced the aesthetic of European electronic pop to the American club scene by combining the plugged-in disco-funk of Giorgio Moroder and the man-machine music of Kraftwerk with the beefed-up rhythms and cut’n'mix approach of nascent hip-hop. As a result, tracks like “Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” and “Boogie Down Bronx” were period-defining works that provided the basic genetic material for everyone from Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys to Autechre and Andrea Parker — and they remain undisputed classics of early hip-hop and electro to this day.
Man Parrish
What made Trevor Horn’s productions stand out was his unique and genius production techniques and the heavy use of state-of-the-art pro-audio gear, which made him become the torch-bearer for the kind of technology-led pop music which was hip and incredibly disciplined. Trevor Horn’s 12-inch remixes were uniquely long (anywhere from 8 to 13 minutes in duration) and told stories which took the listeners through long instrumental journeys at the begenning of tracks until the climax is reached (around the 5/6 or 7 minute mark). After the climax, the original or alternate full vocal version of the track takes over from that point on to the end, lasting additional 3.5 to 5 minutes in length.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Trevor Horn is the guy who produced and performed “
The Buggles
Classic. Awesome that you were there when tracks like this hit for the first time…
This track was years ahead of its time, totally awsome as you say… I remember banging the girls to the beat in Benidorn
The pre Ibiza years
You’re missing the best mix of all on that list — “The Songbird Sings Long Vocal Mix” from the US 12″.