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Love Is Strange

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"Love Is Strange"
Song
B-side"I'm Going Home" (Billy Valentine)

"Love Is Strange" was a 1957 Top 40 hit for Mickey & Sylvia, originally released on Groove Records, a division of RCA. It reached #11 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, becoming their only Top 20 hit. The song features a sinuous guitar riff and provocative verbal byplay between Mickey and Sylvia as well as a Latin American beat and a strong melodic hook. The lyrics consist of just eight lines, each of which uses the same basic tune, with some variances in the harmony. The role of the lead guitar, the bright recording technique, and the lush melody had an influence that can be clearly heard in many more modern rock songs, notably "Day Tripper" and other guitar-driven Beatles songs. Dave "Baby" Cortez, used the same break riff of "Love is Strange", on his 1962 hit "Rinky Dink", and got sued for copying down that melodic riff, and had to pay thousands of dollars in damages to both Mickey and Sylvia. The 1963 song "Killer Joe" by one-hit wonders the Rocky Fellers, bears more than a passing similarity to the chorus of "Love is Strange," though it never sparked a lawsuit.

In addition to its musical quality, the song is remarkable as an instance of convergence. Although only a one-hit wonder, the recording was touched by, or touched, a large number of important people and musical trends, even down to a dispute over authorship.

Mickey was Mickey Baker, guitarist on dozens of rock and roll hits and many recordings, considered the "go to" session guitar player of the 1950s and early 1960s. Sylvia was Sylvia Vanderpool, formerly billed as Little Sylvia Vanderpool, who became in the 1980s the impresario behind Sugar Hill Records and a major force in the emergence of rap music. The song was written by Bo Diddley, (but credited to his wife at the time, Ethel Smith), and Jody Williams, who had developed the distinctive lead guitar riff. Williams had recorded the riff earlier on a song called "Billy's Blues" for Billy Stewart. Eventually the song, much more than just a riff, ended up being credited to Smith, Baker and Vanderpool. Buddy Holly recorded a version of the song and also adopted the riff and melody for his own "Words of Love". Jazz musician Everett Barksdale plays rhythm guitar on the recording. The song also marked the first recording of drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, who went on to become one of the most recorded drummers of all time.

Other versions

Lonnie Donegan recorded a version which appeared on the B-side of his 1957 hit single, "Cumberland Gap". The Everly Brothers released a rendition in 1965 as a single and on their Beat & Soul album. In 1967, the duo Peaches & Herb had Top 20 success with their own cover version of the song. Sonny and Cher also covered the song in 1964. Paul McCartney sang it with Wings in 1971 on the album Wild Life. In 1975, Buck Owens and Susan Raye had a Top 20 country hit with the song. Everything but the Girl covered the song on their album Acoustic, and scored a #13 hit in the U.K. with it. Also in 1998, German synth-pop band Wolfsheim did a cover of the song for their EP "Once in a Lifetime".

The song was also covered in 1990 by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. The recording, the title cut of Rogers' Love Is Strange album, was released as a single, and reached the U.S. country singles top forty.

American country music artist K. T. Oslin covered the song on her 1990 album, Love in a Small Town.

Buddy Holly recorded a solo demo version of the song weeks before his death, which was subsequently overdubbed and released on the album Giant featuring his single "Love Is Strange". Buddy died in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959 but this album was only released 10 years later in 1969. Bootleg recordings of Holly's original demo have circulated for years.

The song was also covered by French singer, Francoise Deldick, under the title "Hum Hum".

Use in film and television

  • The song was featured in the landmark 1972 adult film Deep Throat.
  • The song was also used in a famous scene in the 1973 film Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. In the scene it is featured in, the two main characters are seen dancing to the song, which is playing on their portable radio.
  • In the 1987 cult classic, Dirty Dancing, this song is lip-synced and danced to by the main characters played by Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in one of the most famous scenes. It is reported that Swayze and Grey were simply messing around before the real scene was shot and were practising Mickey and Sylvia's lyrics, but it was so well-done that director Emile Ardolino kept it as the real scene.
  • The song is also featured in the 1993 British series Lipstick on Your Collar. Two of the series' main characters, who dance and lipsynch to the song in the last episode, are named Mickey (Ewan McGregor) and Sylvia (Louise Germaine).
  • The song is featured also in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie Casino. Robert de Niro, as Sam "Ace" Rosthein" meets Sharon Stone, as Ginger, as the song starts to be heard.
  • A reference to the scene from Badlands was included in the 1999 Kevin Smith film Dogma (it is known that this was a reference to this particular scene because later in Dogma, one character calls another "Red", a nickname in Badlands) in which the song is playing on a radio in a diner.
  • Smith uses the song again in Episode 3 of Clerks: The Animated Series (2000)
  • In 2001, Paul McCartney's documentary Wingspan includes "Love Is Strange" when he talks about "Tighten Up", and his and Linda's love for reggae music and Jamaica.
  • The song was featured in the HBO series The Wire Series 1 Episode 2 (2002)
  • The song was using on the closing credits of the Belgian arthouse shortfilm FluoFrenzy
  • The song also makes an appearance on an October 1989 episode of the sitcom Designing Women, titled "The Rowdy Girls"; in one of the subplots, the character of Anthony lip-synchs the song in a duet with Suzanne Sugarbaker (performing in blackface make-up).
  • It was featured on the official soundtrack of the 1990 film Mermaids starring Cher.
  • The song (and parody of the scene from Dirty Dancing) was used in an episode of How I Met Your Mother called "First Time in New York".
  • A cover of the song by Leona Naess is featured in the 2004 film Saving Face.
  • Mickey's famous line "How ya call your loverboy?" is referenced in the New York Dolls song "Trash" and the Lou Reed song "Beginning of a Great Adventure".
  • The song was also mentioned by Pet Shop Boys in their song "I Want To Wake Up", from their 1987 album, Actually. Neil Tennant sings, "I stood at the kitchen sink/My radio played songs like 'Tainted Love' and 'Love Is Strange'/As I listened and the words hit my ears/I cried sudden tears." Tennant later confirmed the literal referencing in an interview: "When I wrote it I'd literally just heard "Love Is Strange" and "Tainted Love" on the radio. - originally it said 'Songs like 'Tainted Love' and 'Love Is Strange' and 'Yesterday', but 'Yesterday' got taken out." Although it's not clear which version of "Love Is Strange" he would have heard on British radio in the mid-1980s, Tennant is known to be friends with both Paul McCartney and Everything But The Girls's Tracey Thorn, who later covered Kings Cross from the same Pet Shop Boys album.
  • The song was mentioned in Elvis Presley's song, "Raised on Rock".

References

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