Don't Make Me Wait For Love

Album: Duotones (1986)
Charted: 15
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Songfacts®:

  • In 1981, the sax player Grover Washington, Jr. had a huge hit with "Just The Two Of Us," a soft-rock favorite with a vocal by Bill Withers. Kenny G, who emulated Washington when he was learning to play, landed a deal with Arista Records, which followed the "Just The Two Of Us" formula on this track, teaming Kenny with Lenny Williams, who was lead singer of Tower Of Power in the '70s but was having a hard time breaking through as a solo artist.

    The song finds Williams ready to commit to a girl but losing patience as she won't dive in. "Don't make me wait for love this time," he pleads. It was a substantial hit, rising to #15 on the Hot 100 and also climbing to #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
  • This song was written by Narada Michael Walden, Walter Afanasieff, and Preston Glass; it was produced by Walden and Glass. These guys were experienced hitmakers - Glass and Walden crafted "Who's Zoomin' Who" for Aretha Franklin and "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" for Jermaine Stewart; Afanasieff often wrote with Mariah Carey, including on "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
  • "Don't Make Me Wait For Love" was part of Kenny G's fourth album, Duotones. He was signed to Arista Records but didn't agree with the label on his musical direction. He wanted to focus on his instrumental saxophone compositions, but Arista was quite sure those had a very limited audience. They paired him with vocalists and had him record a cover song as the album's first single: "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)," originally by Junior Walker & the All-Stars. Kenny was far more interested in a track he created on his own in his home studio: "Songbird." Arista booked him on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to perform "What Does It Take," but he went off script and played "Songbird" instead. Audience reaction convinced Arista that Kenny was right, so they promoted "Songbird" and let him go in that direction.

    Still, there was a place for Kenny G songs with vocals, so "Don't Make Me Wait For Love" was released as the next single. On his next album, Arista released the instrumental "Silhouette" first, then put out "We've Saved The Best For Last," with a vocal by Smokey Robinson.
  • Kenny G played a tenor sax on this track, which is what most people think of when they picture a saxophone. On "Songbird" and most of his other hits, he plays a soprano sax, which is straight and held horizontally.

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