| "Pure Love" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Ronnie Milsap | ||||
| from the album Pure Love | ||||
| B-side | Love The Second Time Around | |||
| Released | March 1974 (U.S.) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | January 1974 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 2:19 | |||
| Label | RCA Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Eddie Rabbitt | |||
| Producer | Tom Collins and Jack D. Johnson | |||
| Ronnie Milsap singles chronology | ||||
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"Pure Love" is a song made famous by country music singer Ronnie Milsap. Originally released in 1974, the song became Milsap's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the late spring of the year. Although Milsap had two previous top 15 hits—"I Hate You" and "That Girl Who Waits on Tables," both 1973—"Pure Love" is largely credited as being his career-breaking hit.
The song also marked the first country chart-topping single by its writer, Eddie Rabbitt, who had tasted previous success with 1970's "Kentucky Rain" by Elvis Presley. In the song, Rabbitt compares "pure love" to such things as milk, honey and the Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal, before pointing out that the love shared between the protagonist and his/her object of affection is "99 44/100 percent pure" (borrowing from the old Ivory soap advertising slogan).
Rabbitt would later record the song as the b-side to his 1975 single "Forgive and Forget."[1]
| Chart (1974) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 2 |
| Preceded by "No Charge" by Melba Montgomery |
Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single June 1, 1974 |
Succeeded by "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton |