Lauren Wood

Lauren Wood (born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American singer-songwriter, voice-over artist and producer. She is most notable for the 1989 single, "Fallen", which was used in the 1990 movie Pretty Woman, and "Please Don't Leave", a duet with singer Michael McDonald in November 1979. Wood is also known by the nickname "Chunky" and has used "Ilene Rappaport" for authoring songs.

Wood's career began in the mid-1960s when she formed a band called Rebecca and the Sunnybrook Farmers. In 1972, she provided back-up vocals on Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo. In 1973, Wood formed the band Chunky, Novi and Ernie with her cousin Novi Novog and bassist Ernie Emerita. They released two albums both co-produced by Ted Templeman and John Cale. "Underground", from the 1973 album was covered by Montrose on Paper Money (1974). Frank Zappa can be heard speaking at the beginning of "Rosalie".

In 1979, she released her first self-titled album Lauren Wood on Warner Bros. Records. Although this is a solo album, the words "Featuring Novi and Ernie" appear in the lower right corner of the cover and the photo has Wood flanked by her bandmates. Guests included Michael McDonald, Little Feat members Bill Payne and Fred Tackett, Steve Lukather, Ronnie Montrose, Jim Keltner, and Patrick Simmons. The duet "Please Don't Leave" went to No. 5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After her follow-up album, Cat Trick, Wood vanished from the music scene. However, she spent time writing and performing songs for television and movie soundtracks, including "Fallen", the song used in Pretty Woman, which has been covered by musicians such as Johnny Mathis, Larry Coryell, and Nicolette Larson. Larson would later record two more songs written by Wood for her 1988 album Shadows of Love. These two tracks were "Work on It" and "Where Did I Get These Tears".

In 1997, Wood founded her own record label, Bad Art Records. On this label, she released her third album, Lauren Wood, in 1999 and Love, Death & Customer Service in 2006. Her second self-titled album was first distributed in Japan under license from Bad Art.

Albums (with band)

• Chunky, Novi and Ernie (1973)
• Chunky, Novi and Ernie (1977)

Solo albums

• Lauren Wood (1979)
• Cat Trick (1981)
• Lauren Wood (1999)
• Love, Death & Customer Service (2006)

Singles

• "Please Don't Leave" (1980)
• "Fallen" (1989)
• "Contradictions" (2007)

• Extras (2005) ("Fallen")
• Return to Never Land (2002) ("So to Be One of Us")
• The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) (V) ("Here on the Land and Sea")
• The Tigger Movie (2000) ("The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers", "Someone Like Me Lullabee", "The Whoop-de-Dooper-Bounce", "Pooh's Lullabee", "Round My Family Tree", "How to Be a Tigger")
• Just Shoot Me! (1997–2003) ("Life Keeps Bringin' Me Back to You")
• Pretty Woman (1990) ("Fallen")
• Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986) ("Wounded in Love")

• In 1988, Johnny Mathis recorded the song for his album Once in a While.
• In 1991 and 1992, Hong Kong Singer Elizabeth Lee and Cass Phang covered "Fallen" in Cantonese.
• In 1993, guitarist Larry Coryell covered "Fallen" from his album Fallen Angel.
• In 1995, Spanish band Presuntos Implicados and American soul-jazz vocalist Randy Crawford made a duet cover, mixing verses in both languages (Spanish/English), for the album "La noche".
• In 2002, saxophonist Warren Hill covered the song on his album Love Songs.