Alex Henderson

La La
La La

The history of R&B is full of singers who were quite successful in a behind-the-scenes capacity even though their own albums and singles were underexposed. One such person is LaForest Cope, a.k.a. La La. The native New Yorker, who grew up in the Elmhurst section of Queens, never got very far commercially as a recording artist. But as a songwriter, she enjoyed some major victories—mostly notably, the Whitney Houston smash “You Give Good Love.” Released as the first single from Houston’s self-titled debut album of 1985, that La La ballad helped make Houston a superstar and soared to #1 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 on Billboard’s adult contemporary singles chart. And her success a songwriter led to a recording deal with Arista Records, which released La La’s self-titled debut solo album in 1987.

La La began pursuing a career in music in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when she performed alongside singer Mic Murphy (who went on to enjoy some major synth-funk hits with The System) in a group called The Jack Sass Band (which later shortened its name to Sass). In fact, La La co-wrote Sass’ 1982 single, “Much Too Much,” with Murphy. It was also in the early 1980s that La La formed an alliance with someone who proved quite valuable to her songwriting career: Kashif, who signed La La to his publishing company and co-wrote his 1983 single “Stone Love” (a #22 R&B hit) with her.

1984 was a great year for La La: her song “Show Me,” became a #4 R&B hit for Glenn Jones, and her song “Livin’ for Your Love” became a #6 R&B hit for Melba Moore. It was also in 1984 that La La recorded her first solo single, “Into the Night,” which was released by Atlantic Records and was included on the soundtrack of the hip-hop film “Beat Street.”  But when Arista (which Kashif and Houston also recorded for in the 1980s) released La La’s self-titled debut solo album three years later, many people were much better acquainted with her songwriting than they were with her singing—and those who heard this album realized that she was a big-voiced belter with a strong Chaka Khan influence.

La La takes a very hands-on approach on this album: she wrote or co-wrote most of the material and produced or co-produced four selections (“So Into Love,” “All Work, No Play,” “Deal With It” and “Any Man Will Do”). Meanwhile, “My Love Is on the Money” and “(If You) Love Me Just a Little” were produced by Full Force, the Brooklyn synth-funksters who are best remembered for their work with Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, UTFO and Samantha Fox. And although Kashif doesn’t do any producing on this album, he co-wrote “I Got a Thing for You” and “Deal With It” with La La. 

La La contains its share of energetic synth-funk/dance grooves, which include “Deal With It” and the singles “(If You) Love Me Just a Little” and “My Love Is on the Money.” Although the album didn’t contain any chartbusters, “(If You) Love Me Just a Little” was a moderate hit and made it to #22 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart—and “My Love Is on the Money” reached #48 on that chart. The album itself peaked at #57 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart.

Given the popularity of “You Give Good Love,” one expected to hear some romantic ballads and slow jams on La La’s first solo album—and sure enough, “I Don’t Wanna Go” is a ballad that, like much of Houston’s work, has both urban contemporary appeal and adult contemporary appeal. La La has its smooth medium-tempo grooves as well, including “I Got a Thing For You” and “So Into Love.” Also performed in a comfortable medium tempo is “We’ll Keep Striving,” a male/female vocal duet with fellow Queens native Bernard Wright. Wright, along with trumpeter Tom Browne, bassist Marcus Miller and drummer Lenny White’s band Twennynine, was part of Jamaica, Queens’ funk/jazz scene of the late 1970s/early 1980s—and he was quite capable of performing either vocal-oriented R&B or instrumental jazz. Wright, depending on the mood he was in, could either play his keyboards or sing; on “We’ll Keep Striving,” he does both and adds a jazzy edge to what is primarily an R&B/pop song. Produced by White and Miller and written by White, Bernard Wright and Anita Wright, “We’ll Keep Striving” is the only song from the original 1987 release that La La didn’t write or co-write.

“All Work, No Play” finds La La performing a male/female vocal duet with another singer: quiet storm favorite Glenn Jones, who was best known for romantic ballads in the 1980s and was typically compared to Luther Vandross, Freddy Jackson and Peabo Bryson. But on the uptempo “All Work, No Play,” Jones lets his synth-funk side prevail. 

The exuberant “Any Man Will Do” links the 1980s with the 1960s, drawing on both 1980s dance-pop and 1960s Motown soul. The song hints at artists like Martha Reeves & the Vandellas and the Marvelettes, yet the high-tech production is 1987 all the way.

In addition to offering all nine selections from Arista’s original 1987 release, FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded 2013 edition of La La contains no less than seven bonus tracks—which include an extended version of “We’ll Keep Striving,” two dance mixes of “(If You) Love Me Just a Little” and two versions of “I Got a Thing for You” (a dub version and an extended vocal remix).

This album turned out to be the only one that La La (whose songs were also recorded by Stephanie Mills, Giorge Pettus, Lillo Thomas and the late Carl Anderson) recorded for Arista. In 1991, she resurfaced on Motown Records with a second album: La La Means I Love You, which was also underexposed.

These days, La La is working in academia and is a professor at York College in Queens. La La’s career as a recording artist never took off the way she hoped it would, but she certainly gave it a shot. And that solo career was off to both a funky start and a romantic start with 1987’s La La.

—Alex Henderson, August 2013

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, The L.A. Weekly, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Salon.com, AlterNet, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) has also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.  



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