Book of Love was, from 1984 to 1993, a popular synth pop and dance music band, alongside Sire Records labelmates Depeche Mode and Erasure. Led by vocalist Susan Ottaviano, the band also included Ted Ottaviano (no relation to Susan), Lauren Roselli and Jade Lee.
The band was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later based out of New York City. The band gained its first exposure as the opening act on Depeche Mode's Black Celebration tour.
Their biggest success came on the US dance charts, placing seven singles in the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart between 1985 and 1993. The group's largest exposure on pop radio was with the song "Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls." The song, from its album Lullaby, was originally the second half of a medley with the group's house-music version of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells," a 1973 instrumental that served as the eerie theme music of the classic horror film The Exorcist. Edited down to single length, "Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls" became Book of Love's only Hot 100 entry, peaking at number 90 in 1988.
In February, 2001 — sixteen years after its first dance chart entry — Book of Love had its first number-one hit on the US dance chart when "Boy," a track originally from its debut album, was remixed and re-released as the lead single from their greatest hits collection, I Touch Roses: The Best of Book of Love. Another newly remixed track, "I Touch Roses" followed shortly thereafter, and in additional support of the greatest hits collection, a small, half-dozen venue tour visited cities spanning coast to coast.
Since their active years, Book of Love's songs "Boy" and "I Touch Roses" have been rediscovered by new audiences. Both their original versions and subsequent remixes are heard in both dance clubs and on alternative radio stations.
Member Ted Ottaviano also had significant dance club hits as one half of Doubleplusgood ("The Winding Song," number two in 1996). The group's song "Sunny Day" was featured in the movie The Silence of the Lambs, in a scene in which band member Lauren Roselli also had a cameo with principal actor Jodie Foster. Roselli appeared again in the movie Philadelphia. BOL's song "Modigliani (Lost In Your Eyes)" was featured in the 1987 John Hughes film Planes, Trains & Automobiles. "Enchanted," a song from the band's Lovebubble album, appeared on the soundtrack to the 1993 film Naked in New York.
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