Lil' Louis

Lil' Louis

Lil' Louis is the stage name of Chicago house music producer and DJ Louis Burns. He works in house, acid house and Chicago house, and he releases music under the names Lil Louis & the World and Lil Louis & the Party.

Career and chart success

He scores a number of hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, including three number ones. His best-known track is “French Kiss”, which features vocals by Shawn Christopher and spends two weeks at number one on the dance chart in 1989. The song becomes a classic house record for its long breakdown, in which the music gradually slows to a complete stop before leaving only Christopher’s moaning.

“French Kiss” also crosses over to pop radio, reaching number 50 on the Hot 100, and it becomes a major success in Europe, where it reaches number 2 in the UK and also charts highly in Germany. In 2000, Josh Wink releases “How’s Your Evening So Far?” as Wink vs. Lil Louis, heavily sampling “French Kiss”; that track reaches number 3 on the dance chart. The song is also sampled by Lil’ Kim on “Custom Made (Give It to You)”, from The Notorious KIM.