L-O-V-E (Love)

Album: Al Green Is Love (1975)
Charted: 24 13
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by Al Green, producer Willie Mitchell and guitarist Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, this song was Green's fifth #1 hit on the US R&B chart.
  • Green's former songwriting collaborator and drummer Al Jackson Jr., the founding member of the instrumental Soul group Booker T. and the MG's, was mysteriously murdered in 1975 by alleged intruders (none of his belongings were missing and his estranged wife, who shot him earlier in the year, knew the trigger man).
  • Producer Willie Mitchell remembers how the song came together: "Me and Al had written the song and Teenie came by. He said, 'Man I like this song,' so I said, 'Well take it home and write me... eight bars [for the middle],' so when he brought it back, we inserted that into 'L-O-V-E' and that was it."

Comments: 1

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1975 {April 5th} Al Green performed "L-O-V-E (Love)" on the Saturday-afternoon syndicated television program, 'Soul Train'...
    At the time the song was at #2 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart, the following week it would peak at #1 {for 2 weeks} and it spent fourteen weeks on the chart...
    And it reached #13 on Billboard's Top 100 chart...
    Between 1967 and 2008 the Arkansas native had thirty-six records on the Hot R&B Singles chart, sixteen made the Top 10 with six reaching #1*...
    Besides the above "L-O-V-E (Love)", his five other #1 records were, "Let's Stay Together" {for 9 weeks 1972}, "I'm Still In Love With You" {for 2 weeks in 1972}, "You Ought To Be With Me" {for 1 week in 1972}, "Livin' For You" {for 1 week in 1973}, and "Full of Fire" {for 1 week in 1975}...
    The Reverend Albert Leornes Greene will celebrate his 73rd birthday in eight days on April 13th, 2019...
    R.I.P Don Cornelius {1936 - 2012}...
    *Mr. Green just missed having four more #1 records when his "Love What You Done For Me" {1972}, "Call Me (Come Back Home)" {1973}, "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" {1973}, and "Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)" {1974} all peaked at #2 on the Hot R&B Singles chart...
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