"Love Me for a Reason" is a song by Johnny Bristol covered by The Osmonds, and released in 1974. Twenty years later, Boyzone covered the song. Both versions were successful, reaching the top ten of the charts in many countries.
Original song and covers
The original version by Johnny Bristol, from his 1974 album Hang On In There Baby, was released as a single on MGM in 1974, but "Love Me for a Reason" quickly became associated with another MGM act, The Osmonds. It was their last top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching #10; it peaked at #2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. In the UK Singles Chart it fared even better, spending three weeks at the top in August 1974.[1] There was a lovers rock version of the song issued on Trojan records in 1976, credited to the Fabulous Five Inc (aka Fab Five Inc), that scored well in Jamaica and in the United Kingdom.
The song was revived by Boyzone in 1994, becoming their breakthrough single in the UK, reaching #2 on the UK singles chart in December that year. It was the 20th biggest selling boy band single of the 90's in the UK. The song was the 19th best selling single of 1994 in the UK. The song has received a Gold sales status certification for sales of over 400,000 copies in the UK.
^According to Chart Archive, The Boyzone version entered the UK Singles Chart on December 10, 1994 at position 10, reaching position 3 in the Christmas charts December 24 and its highest position 2 on January 7, 1995,[20] although a BBC article dated 2008 says erroneously that it was the Christmas number two in 1994.[33]