Book of Love
credit: Noah Fecks
Listening to Book of Love’s 1986 self-titled debut album today, one can’t help but feel transported to the first half of the 1980s when dance music dominated New York City nightlife at such popular clubs as Danceteria, Hurrah, Pyramid Club and Palladium. The music by the quartet of Susan Ottaviano, Ted Ottaviano, Lauren Roselli and Jade Lee was the perfect soundtrack for those times, serving as a bridge between electronic pop and freestyle music.
“What was so neat about those post-punk dance clubs, like Danceteria and Hurrah, is that there was really no formula for what dance music was,” says Ted. “Every song had a different tempo to it, different beats per minute. You had to invent the proper dance that you were going to do for that song on the spur of the moment, as opposed to being in maybe a house club where you know that you’re going to be 127 beats per minute the entire evening or something like that. I found that kind of fascinating.”
First released by Sire Records in April 1986, Book of Love contained such club anthems as “Boy,” “I Touch Roses” and “You Make Me Feel So Good,” and has remained in good standing among electronic pop fans over the decades. On June 26, the self-titled album will be reissued on vinyl to mark its 40th anniversary. It also coincides with the group’s upcoming tour featuring all four founding members. “It’s quite the milestone,” says Susan, who is not related to Ted, about the special occasion. “So like Ted said, it’s very exciting to revisit it.”
Cover of the vinyl reissue of Book of Love’s 1986 self-titled debut album.
credi: Rhino
Book of Love started both organically and unconventionally. Susan and Ted grew up in Connecticut and went to high school together. Then Susan went to the Philadelphia College of Art and met Jade Lee, while Ted studied at New York City’s School of Visual Arts and befriended Lauren Roselli. The band, whose diverse musical influences included the Ramones, David Bowie and OMD, formed in 1983 after Susan and Jade moved to New York City.
“We didn’t know it at the time, but there were so many bands that came out of art school,” Susan explains. “It was definitely a breeding ground for the post-punk music that we became a part of eventually. Ted and I were playing music and doing all sorts of different kinds of incarnations of what we later became Book of Love when we were in college, including going to see shows in New York City like at Hurrah. We saw a lot of the bands that we loved and were influenced by to do our own group.”
Ted explains that Book of Love’s affinity for synthpop was because the members played keyboards and wanted to be in a group together.
“We were going to have to figure out how to make music with these electronic instruments,” he says. “But the thing that I think is different about Book of Love is that we wrote our music with a real producer’s ear. We would basically layer our music and hear it as a recording from the time that we first started.
“So electronic music really almost fit that type of mentality. We could go in and almost like make these little sound fields for ourselves that sounded like they were on the actual record. When you listen to the demo of “Boy,” actually, the instrumentation is almost the same as the final version, except the production is just put through the roof on the final version.”
“Ted imagined what it would be like to have a recorded song,” Susan adds, “even though he had never been in a recording studio. So when we finally were in a recording studio, it was pretty amazing.
Through Roselli, the demo of “Boy” ended up in the hands of deejay Ivan Ivan. “Ivan was having some success with this dance track called “Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” [by Dominatrix],” Ted says. “He was having talks with Sire Records and [its founder] Seymour Stein. And kind of it was kismet. All these things kind of all happened quickly at the same time in the summer of ’84. And by October ’84, we were in the studio recording “Boy.””
Before Book of Love released their first record, they were asked to join Depeche Mode’s U.S. tour dates in support of the British synthpop band’s Some Great Reward album in 1985. “That was through Seymour Stein as well,” Susan says, “because “Boy” was on the dance charts, and “Boy” was a huge song, even though we didn’t have an album out. And Depeche Mode were on Sire. So we ended up getting that tour very early in our live career as well. We didn’t have that much live experience when we went on that tour. But we sure did learn.”
“It was great,” Ted says. “We were just like trying to keep our head above water. “When I look back at it now, we really learned how to be a band through those experiences. I feel so indebted to Depeche Mode. I mean, it really was like a major part of our career that launched us.”
The band says that the themes and lyrics of Book of Love reflected their lives and experiences in New York City during that period in the 1980s. One of those songs was “Boy,” written by Ted, which continues to resonate with LGBTQ+ audiences. The song was inspired by a then-new space called Boy Bar.
“What connected everybody is that we were all a bunch of weirdos, and we were all artists and creative types,” Ted says. “And then this hip new gay bar called Boy Bar wouldn’t allow women in. It was quite a controversy in the East Village. So I just wrote this simple song about a girl who wishes she could be included, and she was not allowed to go to this gay bar. It just triggered people for some reason. We’re still trying to figure out exactly what triggered.”
“I think what you’re saying about not belonging and to feel other and feel like an outsider,” Susan says. “And then it’s also empowering because you know at the end, the girl triumphs. So I think that it is sort of triumphant in that way.”
“Boy” went Top 10 on the Billboard dance chart (it would later top that same chart in 2001 as a remix), followed by “I Touch Roses.” “I personally love that one,” says Ted. “I was just really kind of like a cheerleader for that track. I still am to a degree. It got off to a slow start. But in the long haul of it, it ended up becoming one of our most important songs. And it has outdistanced “Boy” in a lot of ways since then. So I’m really proud of that one as well.”
In hindsight, the catchy and buoyant “You Make Feel So Good,” another single from the album, should have been a Top 40 hit on the mainstream chart. “We had a regional hit with that song,” Susan recalls, “in a regional area in the southwest. It was on CHR [contemporary hit radio], right, Ted?
“It went to number one on their Top 40 stations,” he answers. “I’m right now working on getting tracks together for the live show. And this week, I’ve been working on “You Make Me Feel So Good.” I did think a couple of times, ‘This song should have been bigger than it was. It’s so catchy.’”
The album’s title song is an original work and not a cover of the 1957 Monotones hit that gave the band its name; it has since become the band’s theme song. “It actually has a ‘60s throwback kind of feel to it. If you come see Book of Love, you’re not leaving without singing along with ’pages from my book of love.’”
Although Book of Love is more known on the dance charts, their music has been frequently used in television and movies over the years, including Miami Vice, The Silence of the Lambs, and most recently Companion.
“We’ve been on Ted Lasso and Industry,” Susan says of the band’s music on TV shows. “We’ve liked the way that they’ve been used in the pieces. So it’s exciting. Someone was saying the other day that we’re in a lot of horror movies. I never thought of that.”
A key part of Book of Love’s longevity amid the group’s hiatuses and reunions has been their LGBTQ+ following; the release of the vinyl reissue of the debut album is fittingly timed to Pride Month.
“It’s really major,” Ted says. “The thing is that I personally grew up feeling like an outsider. Music is what really gave me my solace. So I had my bands that really meant a lot to me, that kind of got me through those years. And being a gay man, like I still worship at the altar. To know that we’ve had that effect on some gay people as well with our music just means the world to me.”
“When you’re an artist first coming out, you’re trying to get your music across,” Susan says. “But now I feel like the most important thing is the effect that our music has had on our fans. I’m really proud of that. And we were talking the other day just about the fact that “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls” [from 1988’s Lullaby album] was one of the first songs that addressed the issue of AIDS. And we were the first major label artist to do that, even though we were not really encouraged to. I feel proud of those things.”
Meanwhile, Book of Love is gearing up for shows to mark the 40th anniversary of the debut abum. “We got a lot of work to do to get out there, but we’re excited about it,” Susan says. ”It’s going to feature all four members, which we haven’t done. They’ve done a few shows here and there, but the whole tour is going to have all four of us. So it’s going to be interesting and exciting.”
Asked if the band might consider releasing a new record that would be the follow-up to their last studio album, 1993’s Lovebubble, Ted says: “There’s more than thoughts. I’m not going to say too much. But let’s just say we’ve been feeling very inspired over the last couple of years. We may have a nice surprise for our fans coming up in the next year.”