Love Machine (The Miracles song)

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"Love Machine"
Song
B-side"Love Machine (Part 2)"

"Love Machine" is a 1975 single recorded by Motown group The Miracles, taken from their album City of Angels. This song was a #1 Pop smash on the Billboard Hot 100, and the biggest-selling hit single of The Miracles' career. This single was one of two Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 hits recorded by The Miracles with Billy Griffin as lead vocalist; the other is 1973's "Do It Baby". Griffin had replaced Miracles founder Smokey Robinson as lead singer in 1972. The song features a growling vocal by Miracle Bobby Rogers, with group baritone Ronnie White repeating "Yeah Baby" throughout the song.

Background

Engineered and mixed by Kevin Beamish, "Love Machine" was produced by Freddie Perren, a former member of The Corporation brain trust in charge of the early Jackson 5 hits. It was written by Billy Griffin and his Miracles group-mate, original Miracle Pete Moore, with whom he wrote the rest of the City of Angels tracks as well.[1] The song's lyrics, delivered over a disco beat, compare a lover to an electronic device such as a computer or a robot. The seven-minute song was split into two parts for its release as a single, with "Part 1" receiving most notoriety.

"Love Machine" was a multi-million selling Platinum single,[2] and a number-one smash hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the best-selling single of The Miracles' career, having sold over 4.5 million copies.[3][4][5][6] The single went to #5 on the Hot Soul Singles chart,[7] and went to #20 on Record World's National Disco file Top 20 chart. It was also a Top 10 hit in the UK, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart.

Chart positions

Chart (1975-1976) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Record World" National Disco File 20
U.K. Singles 3
U.S. Billboard Hot Black Singles 5

By 1979, the song saw its first cover version, performed by Thelma Houston. Houston's version became a popular song with club DJs at the time in the United States, although it did not chart. In Asia, and especially in Japan, "Love Machine" became Houston's most successful single, topping the Japanese charts. The success prompted her album Ride to the Rainbow to be reissued as Love Machine for the Japanese release.

Wham! performed a cover version of "Love Machine" on their 1983 album, Fantastic.

"Love Machine", to which Griffin and co-writer Miracle Pete Moore retained publishing rights through their publishing company Grimora Music (instead of Motown's music publishing company, Jobete), is the most-used song in Motown history and has generated more than $15 million in revenues.[8]

Use in film and TV

  • Pedro De Pacas sang the song in the 1978 film starring Cheech & Chong, Up in Smoke
  • Jesse Cochran and friends sang the song in the 1988 episode of Full House, "The Seven-Month Itch" (Part 2)
  • The first 30 seconds of the song was featured in a couple of Denny's restaurant television commercials in the 1980s, depicting a mother hen and her chicks dancing to this tune for their Grand Slam Breakfasts.
  • The 1995 Disney film Heavyweights
  • The 1997 crime film Donnie Brasco
  • The 1998 disco film "54"
  • The 2002 film The New Guy.
  • Around 2004, The Hotel Chain Travelodge started to use the song with the brand's mascot bear dancing.
  • The movie trailer for the 2000 animated film Chicken Run
  • The TV spot for the 2001 Pixar film Monsters, Inc.
  • A new version of the song also appears in the 2013 Disney film, Planes.
  • The 1999 episode of Ally McBeal, Love's Illusions.
  • The 2001 episode of Futurama, "I Dated a Robot".
  • "Love Machine" was the name of a sentient computer virus in the 2009 film Summer Wars
  • In the Disney film Planes, a Mexican airplane called El Chupacabra gets attention by singing his cover of this song as a serenade to the Canadian Rochelle in the Chinese apartment.
  • Roger Fox sung this song in the shower in a comic strip for FoxTrot, with Jason Fox likewise pranking him by, while making a new message for the automated message taker for their phone system, bringing up the automated system to the shower just as he was singing it without Roger's knowledge, under the pretense of Roger "giving a message of his own", with the prank going unnoticed by Roger for several weeks before he confronted Jason on it, who cited that Roger was the one who bought the model that reached up to the bathroom in the first place.

See also

References

  1. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rFsQSHyalU
  2. ^ http://www.gbelv.com/pete_moore_awards.html
  3. ^ http://wcbsfm.cbslocal.com/2012/12/06/throwback-thursday-the-10-best-songs-from-1976/
  4. ^ http://www.cleveland.com/rockhall/index.ssf/2012/04/the_miracles_in_the_60s_we_lov.html
  5. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=RG_LAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT354&lpg=PT354&dq=love+machine+4.5+million+copies&source=bl&ots=W4iZPsPVEe&sig=apYz8HSG5uiIPu3QJoGQy1LPxyk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_hv_gppHLAhVE7CYKHRm8CGQQ6AEIMTAE#v=onepage&q=love%20machine%204.5%20million%20copies&f=false
  6. ^ http://www.cleveland.com/rockhall/index.ssf/2012/04/the_miracles_in_the_60s_we_lov.html
  7. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record. p. 404.
  8. ^ http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-02-06/sports/0502050166_1_smokey-robinson-orioles-fans-griffin

External links

Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
March 6, 1976 (one week) 		Succeeded by
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