For the Love of You

"For the Love of You" (sometimes titled For the Love of You, Part 1 & 2) is a song recorded by The Isley Brothers, who released the song as the second single off their landmark 1975 album, The Heat Is On. The record was unique in that it showcased the two sides of the act, with the album's first single "Fight the Power" reflecting a fast-paced funk vibe while showcasing a ballad side on the latter. The song later became a crossover hit for the brothers and one of their most enduring records by their legion of fans.

History

Recording

By 1975, most of the songwriting within the Isley Brothers had changed. Prior to their arrivals in 1973, original members Ron, Kelly and Rudy had written a majority of their recordings after reviving their T-Neck Records label in 1969. After the release of 3 + 3, their 1973 release, most of the brothers' compositions were devised by multi-instrumentalists Ernie Isley and Chris Jasper with minimal composition help by bassist Marvin Isley.

According to engineers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, the way the brother band conducted business was workmanlike in comparison with the more laid back Stevie Wonder, with whom Cecil and Margouleff worked on several of Wonder's so-called "classic albums" during the 1970s period. Cecil described the band's eldest brother O'Kelly as a taskmaster and was always directing his younger brothers and Jasper. Younger brother and prominent lead vocalist Ron was described as shy while Ernie Isley was described as a genius.

Recording of the song took place at Burbank's Kendun Recorders studio. The song had been composed by Ernie Isley and Chris Jasper based off a poem written for Jasper's sister Elaine by her husband and Jasper's brother-in-law Rudy Isley. Jasper wrote the music while Ernie Isley composed the lyrics. Initially during the song's first take, Cecil and Margouleff had accidentally erased the vocals. Although upset by the initial failure of them erasing what he felt was a perfect take of the song, Ron Isley recorded his take again and by the song's finish had told the engineers that he was going home.

Release

"For the Love of You" was released in September 1975, after the success of its predecessor, "Fight the Power", had started to dwindle, leading to a drop of the charts. "For the Love" nearly repeated the success of its predecessor reaching #22 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the brothers the rarity of having two top 40 singles off one album as opposed to one every album, marking it as the first time that had happened since the 1972 album, Brother, Brother, Brother, where two top 40 singles emerged from that album ("Work to Do" and "Pop That Thang"). The song peaked at #10 on Billboard's R&B chart.

The song's success was contributed to the album's sequencing in which the harder, funk and rock-oriented first three tracks were placed on side one, while the more melodic, sensual soul ballads were placed on side two. As a result of the success of "For the Love of You", R&B radio began playing the album's other two ballads regularly - the O'Kelly Isley-led ballad "Sensuality" and the Ronald swan song, "Make Me Say It Again, Girl". Since then, all three of the songs from the album's second side continued to get play on quiet storm radio playlists.

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 sampled the song for "HoneyDips in Gotham".
• Seagram sampled the song for the song "Birth" from his album Reality Check.
• The D.O.C. sampled "For The Love of You" for the song "From Ruthless 2 Death Row" from his album Helter Skelter.
• Slick Rick sampled the song for " Sittin in My Car" 12" Remix Single.
• Ed Lover & Doctor Dré sampled the song on "For the Love of You" from their 1994 album Back Up Off Me!.
• Thug Life sampled the song for "Bury Me a G" from the 1994 album Thug Life: Volume 1.
• 504 Boyz sampled the song on "I Gotta Have That There" off their 2002 album Ballers.
• Murs sampled the song in "Me and This Jawn" off of his Murs for President album in 2008
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony sampled the song in their "Tha Crossroads" remix
• Skee-Lo sampled the song for "This Is How It Sounds" on his 1995 album I Wish.
• Smooth sampled the song for her hit single "Mind Blowin'" from her 1995 self-titled album.
• Max Minelli sampled the song for "It's My Life" on his and Kevin Gates collaboration mixtape The Leak.

Cover versions

• Hugh Masekela included the song in his 1976 album Colonial Man.
• Freddy Cole, jazz singer and pianist, (also brother of Nat) covered the tune on his 2013 album This-And-That.
• Jazz guitarist Earl Klugh released a cover version on his 1986 album Life Stories.
• 1987, Whitney Houston covered the song on her second studio album, Whitney. The song features as the B-Side on the third single "So Emotional", released on November 12, 1987.
• 1995, Jason Weaver covered the song on his album Love Ambition.
• The song has covered by 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 covered the song as "Living for the Love of You" for the 2001 album Magic.
• Hugh Masekela covered the song on his 1976 Casablanca album Colonial Man
• 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.
• Omar Chandler recorded a cover on R&B CD called Pieces Of My Heart CD (1995)

Credits

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

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics