For the Love of You

"For the Love of You (Part 1 & 2)" is a quiet storm soul song by The Isley Brothers, released in 1975 on their T-Neck imprint. Released as the second single off their first No. 1 pop album, The Heat Is On, the song was originally written by brother Rudolph Isley as a poem to his wife Elaine Jasper, sister of Isley Brothers member Chris Jasper. When he originally gave the song to his brothers as a rough draft, they re-wrote the entire song much to Rudolph's chagrin.

History

Recorded in two takes, one version of the song, to which longtime lead singer Ronald Isley thought he had nailed a perfect take, was accidentally erased and a frustrated and upset Ronald recorded a second version and soon left the studio and walked home. Fortunately for Rudolph and Ronald, the song became a hit single for the Isley Brothers and each brother now has no complaints over the difficulties of the song. The single reached number ten on the R&B singles chart and reached number twenty-two on the pop singles chart and helped their parent album reach multi-platinum status after its November release in '75.

In Popular Media

The song appeared in the movie Menace II Society (1993).

On December 12, 1993, Martin episode "Whoop, There It Ain't" The Song appeared In the series.

The song also appeared in a scene in 2004's "Alfie", starring Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

Sampling

• "For the Love of You" was also sampled by Masta Ace in his song entitled "The I.N.C. Ride", Kill kill in the song "Watts Up", Common in his song "Puppy Chow" and College Boyz in the song "Hollywood Paradox".

• BoogieMonsters also samled the song for "HoneyDips in Gotham".

• Slick Rick sampled the song for " Sittin in My Car" 12" Remix Single.

• Ed Lover & Dr. Dre sampled the song on "For The Love Of You" from their 1994 album "Back Up Off Me".

• Tupac sampled the song for "Bury Me a G" from his 1994 album "Thug Life: Volume 1".

• 504 Boyz sampled the song on "I Gotta Have That There" off their 2002 album Ballers_(album).

• MURS sampled the song in "Me and This Jawn" off of his "Murs for President" album in 2008

• The song was sampled by Bone Thugs n Harmony in their Number #1 hit the Crossroads (remix)

Cover versions

• The song has been covered by Whitney Houston on her 1987 album, Whitney

• 1995, Jason Weaver covered the song on his album Love Ambition.

• The song has covered by United States guitarist, Norman Brown off the 1994 album, After the Storm.

• In 1997 the song was covered by smooth jazz saxophonist Candy Dulfer for her album of the same name.

• Phil Perry has been covered the song for the 2001 album, Magic.

• Joss Stone covered the song on her 2003 album, The Soul Sessions

• In 2004 the song was covered by Boyz II Men on their self-produced Throwback, Vol. I.

• In 2004, The song was also covered by neo-soul artist Hil St. Soul on her album Copasetik & Cool.

• The song was also covered in 2008 by Canadian R&B star Robane Shavon Shormane. The song was altered to be entitled "Chillin' on a Science Book."

• In the Philippines, Regine Velasquez made another version for her multi-platinum album R2K, this time with a more upbeat tempo and a jazzy feel.

• Jazz singer Maryann Price recorded a Latin jazz version on her LONE STAR STATE O'GRACE cd.

• It was also covered by singer Regina Belle.

• George Michael recorded a cover for his SOLD ON SONG BBC 2 Special, which aired on 12/18/04.

Credits

• Ronald Isley: lead vocals
• Ronald Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley: background vocals
• Ernie Isley: drums, acoustic guitars
• Marvin Isley: bass, percussion
• Chris Jasper: piano, keyboards, synthesizers
• Produced, written, arranged and composed by The Isley Brothers and Chris Jasper