Suzi Lane -

Suzi Lane is an American soul singer from Las Vegas who scored a 1979 dance hit with “Harmony” from her lone album, Ooh, La, La.

Background

Lane was born Suzilienne McDonald in 1957 in Las Vegas. She earned her first recorded credit on the 1978 debut album by The Raes, a Welsh–Canadian husband–wife duo. Elektra signed Lane as a solo artist and linked her with Giorgio Moroder, the Italian producer famed for his work with Donna Summer. Moroder summoned Lane to Germany, where he’d just wrapped sessions on the 1979 Virgin/Elektra release No. 1 in Heaven by Sparks.

Ooh, La, La

Suzi Lane released her singular album, Ooh, La, La, in 1979 on Elektra.

Moroder surrounds her voice with extended dance forms and sequenced synthesizer lines, rendered by keyboardist Harold Faltermeyer across the rhythm tracks of bassist Les Hurdle and drummer-percussionist Keith Forsey.

“Ooh, La, La” opens with pulsing synth lines, layered drum accents, handclaps, and recurring horn figures. “Givin’ It Up” runs sinewy leads and breathy vocals across an uptempo bassline. “No One Home in the City” drives clipped, jagged chords within a sliding hi-hat beat. “Harmony” answers with a heavier synth bed and gospel-shaped group vamps. “Morning, Noon and Night” drives a firmer beat into a horn-and-string swell near the middle section. “Free Me” glides with vocal buoyancy down a chromatic bassline.

A1. “Ooh, La, La” (7:38) — Chris Bennett, Giorgio Moroder, Harold Faltermeyer
A2. “Givin’ It Up” (3:33) — Chris, Faltermeyer
A3. “No One Home in the City” (5:27) — Bennett, Faltermeyer

B1. “Harmony” (6:59) — Geoff Bastow, Moroder, Pete Bellotte
B2. “Morning, Noon and Night” (4:52) — Moroder, Bellotte
B3. “Free Me” (4:30) — Moroder, Bellotte

Sessions occurred at Musicland Studios in Munich, where Moroder worked in sequence with Bad Girls, the second studio double-album by Donna Summer. Harold Faltermeyer and Jürgen Koppers co-engineered Ooh, La, La back-to-back with the eighth Sylvers album (Disco Fever) and Giorgio’s E=MC². Bellotte worked concurrently with Melba Moore on her 1979 Epic release Burn.

Ooh, La, La displays a sultry-eyed Suzi Lane against a flat red field with crossed arms and glamor-length acrylic red nails. The sleeve was designed by stylist Mary Francis and director Johnny Lee of the DZN design firm, whose lone-subject imagery also graces 1979 sleeves for Dee Dee Bridgewater, Glen Moore, Jay Ferguson, Robben Ford, and Tom Verlaine.

Elektra lifted “Harmony” as an August 1979 single (b/w “Ooh, La, La”), which reached No. 1 on the US dance chart during a 14-week run.

Postlude

Suzi Lane sang backing vocals on 1979/80 albums by Jackie Moore, Keith Barrow, and the THP Orchestra. She attended a yacht party where she was photographed with bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger,

In the spring of 1980, amid plans for a second album, Lane suffered a car accident in which broken windshield glass injured her face. During the three-year recovery period, she lived in seclusion at her Las Vegas home. In 1983, she visited New York City, where her two sisters worked in the modeling industry. Spotted by photographers for Essence magazine, Lane signed with the Ford Modeling Agency and appeared in campaigns for Hanes and Lane Bryant.

Discography: