Songfacts®:

• How can you pay back what's priceless? In this song, Tanya Tucker is joined by Paul Davis and Paul Overstreet, with each taking a verse. Davis starts off by singing about a husband who asks his wife what he can give her in exchange for standing by his side through the hardest years of his life. Tucker then sings about a son who asks his mother how he can repay her for all she taught him. Finally, Overstreet plays the part of a man asking his Lord what he can provide in thanks for the gift of life.
  
  In every case, the answer is the same: I won't take less than your love. For each singer, their verse had a very personal meaning: Davis was devoted to his wife, Tucker to her family, and Overstreet to God.
• Overstreet wrote this song with Don Schlitz, a fellow Nashville scribe who wrote the Kenny Rogers hit "The Gambler." Overstreet and Schlitz wrote a number of hits for Randy Travis, including "Forever And Ever, Amen." Schlitz played the song for Tucker's producer Jerry Crutchfield, who decided it needed three voices. They thought about George Jones and other big names, but decided the song would work best if Tucker sang with some lesser-known singers, so they went with Overstreet and Davis.
  
  Paul Davis had some hits as a pop singer in the early '80s ("Cool Night," "'65 Love Affair"), and had made his way to Nashville where his focus was on songwriting. Overstreet had just left a band called S-K-O, which he formed with two other established songwriters, Fred Knobloch and Thom Schuyler. "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" was a bridge to his solo career; he released his album Sowin' Love two years later.
• Tucker was one of the biggest country stars of the early and mid-'70s, but by the '80s had lost her luster and developed a drug addiction. She made a big comeback with her 1986 album Girls Like Me, which included the #1 country hit "Just Another Love." "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" was released on her next album, Love Me Like You Used To, and gave her another #1 Country hit.