#1211: Deep Kiss by Mitsou

Peak Month: October 1992
10 weeks on Vancouver’s CKLG chart
Peak Position #19
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Deep Kiss”

In 1970 Mitsou Annie Marie Gélinas was born in Loretteville, Quebec. (The city amalgamated into Quebec City in 2002). She became a child star on French-Canadian television. Canadianbands.com states that she first began acting at age five. She began appearing in the soap opera Terre humaine, which first aired in 1978. The soap opera concerned the lives of the Jacquemins, a large farming family in rural Quebec. In addition to acting, Mitsou also started to explore singing as a vocation in the early 80s. In 1988 she signed a record deal with Isba Records. Her debut single, “Bye Bye Mon Cowboy” was an unusual French-language crossover into the English Top 40 radio market across Canada. The song spent five weeks on the CKLG Top 40 in the summer of 1989, after peaking at #2 in Montreal in 1988.

A subsequent single release titled “Mademoiselle Anne” was a commercial failure. However, her next single release, “Dis-Moi, Dis-Moi” was another cross-Canada Top 40 hit.

Her next single release from her 1992 EP Heading West was “Deep Kiss”.

“Deep Kiss” was cowritten by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, together with Louise Goffin. Goffin is the daughter of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and was born in 1960. At the age of 14 Louise Goffin provided backing vocals on Carole King’s hit single “Nightingale”. In 1977 she opened a concert at the Troubadour for Jackson Browne. In 1997 she accompanied Tears For Fears on tour, playing guitar. In 2011 she produced a Grammy nominated album recorded by her mother Carole King titled A Holiday Carole. Steinberg was born in 1950 and raised in Fresno and later Palm Springs, California. In 1980 he wrote “How Do I Make You”, a #10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for Linda Ronstadt. When working on a Pat Benatar album in 1981, Steinberg met Tom Kelly. Both had written tracks for Benatar’s album Precious Time. Tom Kelly was born in Indiana in 1952. Kelly learned to play guitar and was in Dan Folgelberg’s backup band in the mid-70s. He was a session musician in Los Angeles in the mid-70s and joined Toto on a world tour in 1979 as a backing vocalist. Kelly subsequently sang backing vocals on a number of hits by Toto including “Rosanna”, “Africa”, and “I Won’t Hold You Back”.

Steinberg and Kelly notably cowrote Top Ten hits “Like A Virgin” for Madonna in 1984; “True Colors” for Cindi Lauper in 1986 and “I Drove All Night” in 1989; “Alone” for Heart in 1987; “So Emotional” for Whitney Houston and “Tell It To My Heart” for Taylor Dayne – both in 1987; “In Your Room” in 1988 and “Eternal Flame” in 1989 each for the Bangles; “I Touch Myself” for the Divinlys in 1990; And “I’ll Stand By You” for the Pretenders in 1994.

In 1997 Steinberg wrote “Falling Into You”, an international hit for Celine Dion. And in 2006 he cowrote “Too Little Too Late” for Jojo, a Top Ten hit internationally in over ten nations. And in 2012 he wrote “Give Your Heart A Break” for Demi Lovato, a Top 20 hit in the USA.

Mitsou’s “Deep Kiss” is about the impact of a lover’s sexual intimacy. The ‘deep kiss’ goes right to the heart of the lover, and every part of their body. “Deep Kiss” peaked at #19 in Vancouver (BC), and #23 in Milwaukee.

A subsequent album by Mitsou, Tempted, was an English-language album with the lead track written by Ru Paul. In 1994 she released her album titled Ya Ya. Aside from her cover of the 1961 Lee Dorsey Top Ten hit from that year, the other tracks were in French. A 1995 Christmas album titled Noel was another French-language effort with Quebecois holiday favourites.  Also in 1995, Mitsou covered a 1970 hit by Marc Hamilton titled “Comme j’ai toujours envie d’aimer”. Subsequently, she won the 1995 MuchMusic Video Award for Best French Video.

Mitsou had released eight albums/EPs and twenty singles between 1988 and 2011. In 2009 Mitsou became the face of Montreal-based Lise Watier Cosmétiques in their new advertising campaign. That year she also was the featured host of the Radio-Canada cooking show Kampaï! À votre santé. In 2010 at the age of forty, her longtime partner, Iohann Martin, threw a surprise wedding for her.

July 24, 2021
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Mitsou bio,” Canadianbands.com.
Tralee Pearce, “Mitsou,” Globe and Mail, November 15, 2003.
Michelle Coude-Lord, “Mariage Suprise Pour Ses Quarante Ans: Mitsou a Dit Oui,” August 27, 2010.
“Mitsou Gélinas is New Face of Lise Watier Cosmétiques,” Lise Watier Cosmétiques, Montreal, February 25, 2009.
Ben Walsh, “Louise Goffin interview: ‘I’m not blasé and I’m not jaded about famous people’,” Independent, UK, June 30, 2016.
Vernell Hackett, “Billy Steinberg: Steinberg Advises: L.A. Not Easy Town For Writers,” Americansongwriter.com, 1989.
Dale Kawashima, “Special Interview: Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly Elected Into the Songwriters Hall of Fame,” Songwriteruniverse.com, June 5, 2011.
“Vancouver’s Official Top 40,” CKLG 730 AM, Vancouver, BC, October 26, 1992. 

For more song reviews visit the Countdown.