The Love I Lost by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Album: Greatest Hits (1973)

Charted: 21 7

License This Song

Songfacts®:

This was originally a slow, painful ballad. It was sped up as an experiment, and a major hit ensued. Co-writer Kenny Gamble recalled to Mojo magazine March 2012: "It was a ballad when we wrote it. We got in the studio and said, This is dragging, it's too slow. We told Karl (Chambers, drummer) to put that 'tsh-up, tsh-up,' that sock cymbal in there and that was the beginning of that whole Philly disco sound."
Karl Chambers was used solely on the sock cymbal. Philadelphia-based drummer Earl Young played the full kit. He is best known as the founder and leader of The Trammps, who had a hit record with "Disco Inferno."
American R&B/pop singer Sybil had a #3 hit in the UK with her 1993 cover of this song. It was billed as West End featuring Sybil.

Comments: 3

Tonysdzepp from San DiegoEarl Young clearly wrote the book on Disco drumming. To this day there's nothing sexier than 16th note open high hats
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 26, 1974, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes performed "The Love I Lost" on the Dick Clark ABC-TV Saturday-afternoon program, 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was at position #75 on Billboard's Top 100, and that was also it's eighteenth and last week on the chart, seven weeks earlier it had peaked at #7 {for 1 week}...
And on November 18th, 1973 it reached #1 {for 2 weeks} on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart...
Between 1960 and 1984 the Philadelphia soul group had twenty-three records on the Hot R&B Singles chart, ten made the Top 10 with four reaching #1...
Besides "The Lost I Lost", their other three #1 records were "If You Don't Know Me By Now" for 2 weeks in 1972, "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon"* for 1 week in 1975, and "Wake Up Everybody" for 2 weeks in 1975...
Harold Melvin passed away at the young age of 57 on March 24th, 1997...
May he R.I.P.
* "Hope That We Can Be Together Soon" was a duet with Sharon Paige.
Dave from Cardiff, WalesIn 1993, dance act West End reached number 3 in the UK charts with a cover of this song, featuring soul singer Sybil (who was herself quite big in the late 80s/early 90s) on vocals

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Then He Kissed MeThe Crystals

The '60s hit "Then He Kissed Me" was covered by The Beach Boys as "Then I Kissed Her."

Something In The AirThunderclap Newman

Pete Townshend never had a #1 UK hit with The Who or as a solo artist, but he did produce and play on a song that hit the top spot there: "Something In The Air" by Thunderclap Newman, a group he assembled.

Rocket QueenGuns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction album includes a song called "Rocket Queen," identified in the liner notes as Barbi Von Greif. Axl Rose says she "kind of kept me alive for a while."

Mary, Did You Know?Pentatonix

The lyrics for "Mary, Did You Know?" were written by Christian singer and comedian Mark Lowry, after his pastor asked him to write a Christmas musical for their church. Southern gospel musician Buddy Greene later added music to his words.