Released: 17th November 1997
Writers: Alan Gorrie
Peak position: #10
Chart run: 10-15-19-23-21-22-22-42-55
With her second album campaign in full swing, Louise’s success continued into the festive season with a well-timed cover version of a disco classic.
Things started well for Louise’s second album, Woman In Me, which seamlessly picked up where her debut left off. Lead single – Arms Around The World – reached #4 and became her highest-peaking hit at the time. The album itself subsequently entered at #5 (still, to date, a career best), and while it dipped out of the top 40 after five weeks, Let’s Go Round Again was on hand as the second single to sustain momentum and proved to be an inspired choice. The track was originally released in 1980 by the Scottish funk group Average White Band (AWB), peaking at #12 in the UK and #53 in America. Emerging towards the end of the disco-soul era, the track has endured as a low-key classic, but not so iconic and synonymous with the time that it would be deemed untouchable. Though not necessarily an obvious song for Louise to cover, a remix of Let’s Go Round Again had, conveniently, been released in 1994 by AWB. It only reached #56 in the UK but provided a more recent update of the source material from which a cover could take inspiration.
The underlying production on the version of Let’s Go Round Again that appears on Woman In Me stays reasonably faithful to the song’s disco roots. It’s awash with stirring brass stabs and shimmering keyboard riffs to create an authentically retro-sounding throwback. However, a radio remix was created for the single release, which retains those elements while introducing additional ones that give the track a distinctly ‘90s edge that better fits Louise’s contemporary identity. The extended instrumental intro is swapped for a thumping beat that swells in volume – while she teasingly murmurs: “Uh, yeah, and I need it…” – and opens straight into the chorus. Meanwhile, the verses are now punctuated with whispered ad-libs: “Baby I’m back (yeah), and right away I had to come to you, to see if the love that we knew before, had passed the test of time (uh, huh, huh)” that make Let’s Go Round Again the right level of bombastic without distracting from the quality of the original composition.
Yet, beneath the bubblegum pop flourishes, Louise’s performance has a wholesome warmth. This might be a cover, but she sings with earnest sincerity: “Now baby I know (yeah), that you think I will be different now, inside of me nothing has changed, so I’m asking you again…” that makes every word believable. The culmination of the second verse in particular: “Please, no one else that could have brought me back, no one else could ever shake me free, of the memory I kept within my heart”,is heartfelt and immensely likeable. Although no backing vocalists are formally credited on Let’s Go Round Again, they are present throughout most of the track, adding depth – and some soaring ad-libs – alongside Louise’s voice.
The arrangement of the vocals makes the chorus: “Let’s go round again, maybe we’ll turn back the hands of time, let’s go round again, one more time (woah woah woah woah)…” more audibly prominent and rightly so. It’s terrifically written with deceptive simplicity yet never becomes repetitive due to the addition of ad-libs, riffs and harmonies that play off the melody, as was the case in the original. Indeed, almost everything about Louise’s version of Let’s Go Round Again feels derived, in some way, from AWB’s. Even the addition of a drum breakdown before the final chorus – accompanied by groans of: “Yeah, uh-huh, yeah” – could be (loosely) regarded as a ‘90s update of the original’s extended instrumental break, whose funky electric guitar riffs would be totally out of place here. The fact that the song could be reinterpreted for a (predominantly) new audience in an entirely different context merely emphasises the underlying quality of Let’s Go Round Again and why it’s endured as a disco classic.
Considering the origins of the track and the time of year Louise’s version was being released, the accompanying music video could easily have opted for something frivolously disco-themed to push the festive party angle. Instead, the concept has her – dressed in red leather and wearing black finger gloves – as a secret agent joined by a team of dancers breaking into a warehouse. It’s equally ostentatious and stylish as they saunter around staircases and perform choreography in foggy, darkened rooms where laser beams flash across the floor. While a security guard is distracted by Louise appearing on several monitors in the control room, two dancers retrieve a compact disc. He gives chase as they escape…and appears to easily retrieve what’s just been taken.
Let’s Go Round Again makes sense as far as following visual espionage conventions, and that’s probably enough to compensate for the vague plot because the video serves its purpose very well. While Louise has since admitted to not being a fan of some of the outfits she wore in the ‘90s – including the red leather here – she looks every inch like a high-profile pop star. While the Naked campaign had somewhat inevitably taken a bit of time to work out how best to market Louise, Woman In Me had a much more apparent ambition, and Let’s Go Round Again is a perfect example.
Commercially, Let’s Go Round Again is something of an oddity in Louise’s back catalogue. The song reached #10, which – though a success – puts it among her lower-peaking singles (only In Walked Love had fared worse at the time, although All That Matters and Beautiful Inside later missed the top ten). Yet, the song was widely promoted throughout the festive period, and because it was released at such a busy time of the year, Let’s Go Round Again is actually her biggest seller (185,000 copies), ahead of Naked (167,000), Arms Around The World (159,000) and 2 Faced (153,000), all of which might – credibly – be assumed to have earned that accolade. Furthermore, the track successfully saw Woman In Me return to the top 20, helping the album towards a platinum certification and total sales of 264,000 copies.
Even if Let’s Go Round Again isn’t necessarily the most immediately obvious of Louise’s singles to be her best-seller, it’s certainly not an objectionable achievement. As cover versions go, the track was well-received, and the radio remix ensures that it sits coherently among the best of her ‘90s material.
