LOVE
LOVE is a jazz song with a text by the music producer Milt Gabler and a melody by the German composer and orchestra conductor Bert Kaempfert .
After an instrumental version had already appeared on Bert Kaempfert's album Blue Midnight in 1964 , the American singer and musician Nat King Cole was the first to record the song with the lyrics by Milt Gabler. Cole's music album of the same name was released in 1965 (a few days before he had to be hospitalized for lung cancer ) and reached number 4 on the US Billboard charts . Nat King Cole also recorded the piece in French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Italian.
Versions
In addition to the recording by Nat "King" Cole and the instrumental version by Bert Kaempfert, the following cover versions exist :
- Natalie Cole , Nat Cole's daughter, on the album Unforgettable (1991)
- Dionne Warwick on the album "The Windows of the World" as soul song (1967)
- Sacha Distel on the album When I Fall In Love
- Joss Stone , who made the song a mix of Pop and R'n'B (2007)
- Michael Bublé for the film Why Did I Get Married? as a classic swing with big band (Bublé released his version as a bonus track on his album Call Me Irresponsible 2007)
- Jools Holland and Rico Rodriguez on the album The Informer (2008)
- A inclusion in the TV commercial for the Honda Accord (2008)
- Bria Skonberg on her album Fresh (2009)
- The BossHoss & Nena on the album Liberty of Action and in the soundtrack to the film Rubbeldiekatz (2011)
- Michael Feinstein as theme song for the series Why Women Kill (2019)
composition
text
The beginning of the text describes an acrostic : a letter and an "element" of love is named, which begins with one of the four letters from "love". This is how the word "Love" comes about.
- L is for the way you look at me
- O is for the only one I see
- V is very, very extraordinary
- E is even more than anyone that you adore can love
The text continues with the following words:
- Love is all that I can give to you
- Love is more than just a game for two
- Two in love can make it
- Take my heart and please don't break it
- Love was made for me and you
The German text in Nat King Cole's version is as follows:
- L means love me and the world is mine
- I means I always want to be with you
- E means to think forever
- B means giving flowers
- The last thing left is because the whole word is love
- Love has been around for many years
- Under L in my dictionary
- But for a few days
- I don't need to look it up anymore
- Because I only love you alone!
Harmony and melody
The song is based on a fairly simple harmony sequence that includes the tonic , dominant , subdominant and double dominant functions .
The first phrase of the melody ("L is for the way you look at me", starting tone g ) is first set one level lower ("O is for the only one I see", starting tone f sharp ), then two levels higher ("Two in love can make it “, beginning tone h ). The melody for the phrase “Love was made for me and you” starts again with g , but ends differently than before, as the melody leads back to g .
arrangement
In the first part of the song, Cole's singing is accompanied by a rhythm section with piano , drums , double bass and guitar , and strings are added in the second verse (“Love is all that I can give to you…”). A trumpet solo , supported by big band blowers, follows, then Cole starts again, now in A major.