Songfacts®:

• John Hiatt wrote this song soon after marrying his wife Nancy in 1986. It was from the heart, and reads like a set of very confessional yet pragmatic wedding vows (Hiatt had been married twice before).
  
  "I had the fire in my belly, romantically I was just head over heels, but I was scared, which you can hear in the lyrics," he told the LA Times. "I'm hedging my bets at every turn, talking tough: 'You ain't no Queen of Sheba... we're not amoebas,' so don't try and make me one. Don't try to make me a dull husband, little Missy! I'm not going there; I'm a rough and tough musician. It has that kind of attitude in the verse. In the chorus, it's sweetness and light, but I'm still trying to maintain my control over the situation."
  
  "We're gonna start on equal terms: You don't have to humble yourself to me," he added. "I was trying to tell her: 'Let's get the rules of the game straight right up front.' I was terrified basically, because I was head over heels, out of control. New love's in deep, there was no way out."
• The song is part of Hiatt's 1987 album Bring The Family, the first one he recorded sober, and one of his most personal. He battled alcoholism for all of his adult life before entering rehab in 1985. Most of his songs to that point were written in character, but family life and sobriety found him in a reflective mood for the album and for his next one, Slow Turning.
• Bonnie Raitt made this song famous when she covered it for her 1989 album Nick Of Time. She was at a nadir when the album was released, but when it earned her four Grammy Awards, she came storming back to the spotlight, bringing "Thing Called Love" with her. Raitt has always been very generous when it comes to talking up artists whose songs she covered, and she did so with Hiatt, telling anyone that would listen what a great songwriter he is. This helped raise his profile and fill a lot more seats for his shows.
• That's Ry Cooder on guitar and backing vocals. Back in 1980, Hiatt played on Cooder's album Borderline. Other musicians on the track - and the Bring The Family album - include Nick Lowe on bass and Jim Keltner on drums - pretty much a dream team of session players. They made the whole album in just four days.
  
  These guys all got together a few years later to form a group called Little Village, which released an eponymous album in 1992.