Song Lyric Sunday – Love Hangover

The prompt from Jim:

Our theme this week is Delightful, Pleasant, Sweet suggested by Paula Light of Light Motifs II.

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The 70s were all about Disco in America, but Motown was slow to move into the Disco arena. Several online sources make the statement that “Love Hangover” was the first Motown Disco hit. Written by Marilyn McLeod and Pamela Sawyer, Diana Ross recorded the song in 1975 and it was released in 1976. But there is more to the story.

When I find multiple sources that are almost identical in nature, it is hard to know who the original source is for the information, so I selected the source that seemed to be the most reliable. This quote comes from an online article by Sterogum journalist and senior editor Tom Breihan:

In the J. Randy Taraborelli biography Diana, Davis says, “Nobody really liked disco here at Motown… [Ross] was used to singing more lush songs by producers like Michael Masser, and the public sort of identified her with arrangements like ‘Touch Me In The Morning.’ She liked the lyric to ‘Love Hangover,’ but people thought I was a little off for even suggesting that Diana do this song.” So Davis figured out how to make the conditions right. He recorded her at night, served her vodka, and brought red lights and strobes into the studio. And he pretty much got Ross to do whatever she wanted, whatever felt right. So when “Love Hangover” really kicks in, it hits like a drug.“

Breihan, Tom. “The Number Ones: Diana Ross’ ‘Love Hangover.’” Stereogum.com, Stereo Gum Media, 5 Sept. 2019, 9:54 am, http://www.stereogum.com/2057118/the-number-ones-diana-ross-love-hangover/columns/the-number-ones/

There is something somewhat disturbing about the methods they used – specifically the alcohol – but there is no doubt the recording produced a hit song. This was Diana Ross’ take on the recording according to this quote from Songfacts.com so maybe I read more into it than existed:

Ross’ thoughts on the recording session are noted in the 2007 biography Diana by J. Randy Taraborrelli: “It was a spontaneous thing that we captured on record and if I had to go back in and do it again, I couldn’t have. The music was me and I was the music. Things came out of my mouth that I didn’t even expect.”

The Fifth Dimension also recorded and released this as a single.  Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. left the Fifth Dimension in 1975 so their vocals are absent from this recording. I read in several places that Diana Ross’ recording was only released on single as a result of the Fifth Dimension release (which only reached #80 on the charts while Ross’ single reached #1.)

I have included both videos so you can decide which one you prefer.

Love Hangover
Lyrics from songfacts.com

If there’s a cure for this
I don’t want it
I don’t want it
If there’s a remedy
I’ll run from it
From it

Think about it all the time
Never let it out of my mind
‘Cause I love you

I’ve got the sweetest hangover
I don’t wanna get over
Sweetest hangover

Yeah, I don’t wanna get over
I don’t wanna get
I don’t wanna get over

Ooh, I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure
I don’t need no cure

Sweet lovin’
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love

Don’t call a doctor (sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet)
Don’t call her momma
Don’t call her preacher (love)

No, I don’t need it
I don’t want it

Sweet love, I love you
Sweet love, need love

If there’s a cure for this
I don’t want it
I don’t want it no, no
I don’t want it
If there’s a cure for this
I don’t need it
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet love

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Song Lyric Sunday is hosted every Sunday by Jim Adams. If you would like to join in the fun, check out his blog for the rules and to take in all the other music posted by other blogger

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SoCS – How Puzzling

Continued thanks to Linda Hill who sponsors this lovely stream of consciousness every week. Every Friday she provides a new word to spark our minds into action.

Check out Linda’s blog if you want to join in – check out the rules and the contribution of other bloggers. This week, the prompt is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “puzzle.” Use it any way you’d like!

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I love puzzles, perhaps because I love solving problems and doing research. I think it is also whyI loved my career in technology – it seemed an endless challenge of solving puzzles.

My sisters and I always did jigsaw puzzles when we were together. I tried to complete one on my own and found in to be very unsatisfying. As much as individually searching for the perfect piece is a solitary act, putting together a puzzle seems very social to me.

I love computer based escape games. I remember the first one I discovered – “The Crimson Room”. In 2004, it was the rage. I think I have downloaded almost all the escape games out of the app store. I love discovering clues and solving the puzzles. I am careful not to do the games that are too motion-intensive with high-end 3D graphics. They can upset my vertigo. I always connected with my grandson over these escape room games.

(My favorite graphics are in a game called “The Birdcage” where your task is the free birds locked in a gilded cage.)

My dad loved mechanical puzzles. You know, the puzzles where you must separate bent pieces of metal, or release an object from some mechanism.

My grandchildren often received gift cards encased in a plastic box that required they solve a puzzle to open the box and retrieve the reward.

I love intricate box puzzles, too, although one of quality is quite expensive. I have bought the boxes made from balsa wood but they do not hold up. I remember a scene in the original movie “Village of the Damned” in which the children had to open a box to retrieve a piece of chocolate, I think. (That movie was a cult family favorite.)

I also love puzzle rings – if you take them off, they fall apart and are complex to reassemble. I bought one for my grandson, but it was too small. I still have it upstairs in the original box.

I love crosswords but actually prefer the non-crossword word puzzles in the Dell crossword books. All except for Suduko. I despise Suduko or any number puzzle.

I also don’t like those little slide puzzles, where you must reorganize a square of movable tiles that only have one open space.

And I confess, I still love the ‘find the hidden object’ in the Highlights for Children magazine.

Puzzling, isn’t it?