Love Hangover



"Love Hangover" was the fourth number one single for Motown singer Diana Ross. Ross recorded "Love Hangover' in 1975. It was released in March 1976, and rose to number one on theBillboard Hot 100, Hot Soul Singles and Hot Dance Club Play charts simultaneously.

The song was written by Pamela Sawyer and Marilyn McLeod as a disco number. Producer Hal Davis recorded the track in 1975 thinking it ideal for Marvin Gaye or Diana Ross. They were his two favorite vocalists to work with and thought Diana would be sexier on it, so he cut it on her. The Motown staff believed that it would be perfect for Ross to record too. Ross, like her soul contemporaries Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, initially resented the new musical movement but eventually agreed to record the song.

Hal Davis instructed the song's engineer Russ Terrana to install a strobe light so that Ross could be in the "disco" mindset.[1]  As the song changed from ballad to uptempo, Ross became more comfortable with the material; she hummed, sang bit parts, laughed, danced around and even imitated Billie Holiday. The carefree and sensual nature of Ross' vocals and the music's direction helped to sell the song.

The song was released on the Diana Ross LP in February, 1976. The lead single from the album was "I Thought It Took A Little Time." After the Diana Ross album was released, The 5th Dimension did a copycat cover of "Love Hangover" and released a shorter version of as a single. Motown then issued Ross' version on 45. Both versions entered the chart the same day. By the time Ross' version of "Love Hangover" went to number one, Ross had reinvented herself as a disco diva and The 5th Dimension's version had peaked at number 80. It won Ross a Grammynomination for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance.

Motown released versions of Ross's version in 1988 (remixed by the British team PWL) and 1993 (remixed by Frankie Knuckles for the album Diana Extended: The Remixes and by Joey Negro for a single).

Almighty Records released a remixed version in 2007 (remixed by the UK team Almighty).

In Popular Culture

 * The song was featured in the 1977 Diane Keaton film Looking for Mr. Goodbar. during a bar scene.
 * Diana Ross sang the song on the episode of The Muppet Show in which she appeared as the guest star.

Other versions
In addition to being covered by The 5th Dimension, the song was also released as a single by the Associates, a British New-wave band. It reached #21 on the UK chart in 1982. Players Association also covered the track in 1977.

British soul singer Pauline Henry (former lead vocalist of "The Chimes") recorded a contemporary version of the track in 1995 (released as a single); singer Jody Watley recorded a downtempo version for her 2006 album, The Makeover; while Australian singer-songwriter Tina Arena recorded a version in 2007 for her album Songs of Love & Loss.

The song was sampled in Monica's 1998 hit "The First Night," which hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Background vocals from the original alternate take were sampled by Hardrive in the 1993 House song "No Cure".

Mariah Carey performed the song in a concert tribute to Diana Ross (2000), and Stephanie Edwards sang it on the sixth season of American Idol. Carey performed a mix of "Love Hangover" and her #1 single "Heartbreaker" on herAngels Advocate Tour between 2009 and 2010.

The song would become part of the hip-hop lexicon via sampling by Will Smith, Master P, Monica, Janet Jackson, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, French artist MC Solaar and Emily King, who made use of it for her 2007 debut album, East Side Story, in the song Walk in My Shoes.

Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose "sang" the chorus of "Love Hangover" during an instrumental interlude in the song "If the World" on the Asian leg of the Chinese Democracy World Tour 2009/2010.