Lovin' You

"Lovin' You"
Single by Minnie Riperton
from the album Perfect Angel
B-side	"The Edge of a Dream"
Released	January 13, 1975
Recorded	1974
Genre	Soul
Length	3:21 (single version)
Label	Epic 32561
Writer(s)	Minnie Riperton Richard Rudolph
Producer(s)	Stevie Wonder and Richard Rudolph (as Scorbu Productions)[1]
Minnie Riperton singles chronology
"Seeing You This Way" (1974) "Lovin' You" (1975) "Inside My Love" (1975)
Perfect Angel track listing "Every Time He Comes Around" (7) "Lovin' You" (8) "Our Lives" (9) Music video "Lovin' You" on YouTube

"Lovin' You" is a 1975 hit single by Minnie Riperton. The song became the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 5, 1975. Additionally, it reached #2 in the UK, and #3 on the R&B chart in the US. It is especially noteworthy for the unusually high head voice pitches that Riperton reaches during the song. It is also noteworthy for the sound of the chirping songbirds that are heard throughout the song, which Riperton phonates by use of the whistle register.

Setting

It was the fourth single from the album Perfect Angel (1974).

"Lovin' You" was among the first several songs to top the U.S. pop chart without the help of a percussion instrument. Prior examples of percussion-less Number Ones were Jim Croce – "Time in a Bottle" (1973), The Beatles – "Yesterday" (1965), and on the UK Singles Chart, The Beatles – "Eleanor Rigby" (1966).

According to the liner notes from Riperton's compilation CD Petals, the melody for "Lovin' You" was created as a distraction for her daughter (Maya Rudolph) when she was a baby so that Minnie and her husband Richard could hang out. Maya was in the studio with her mother on the day the song was recorded and Riperton can be heard singing her daughter's name at the end of the song, but only in the unedited or album version of the song. The song fades out early in the single edit, because the disc jockeys felt that the repeated "Maya" was being overdone and too misunderstood, thinking that it was a Mayan chant.

Charts

	"Lovin' You (Minnie Riperton)" The intro and first verse (couplet) from Lovin' You (1974) by Minnie Riperton.
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Shanice version

Shanice's cover of the song was released in the summer of 1992 months after the success of her hit "I Love Your Smile". It only achieved minor success on the R&B chart peaking at #59; it also peaked at #54 on the UK chart. The music video for the song is set on a beach. In 2005, she re-recorded the song again for her 2006 album Every Woman Dreams.

Track listing

1. Single Version
2. I Love Your Smile (Driza Bone Single Remix)
3. I Love Your Smile (Driza Bone Club Remix)
4. Instrumental

Charts

Personnel

• Drums and programming by Narada Michael Walden
• Keyboards and programming by Louis Biancaniello
• Produced by Stevie Wonder under the pseudonym "El Toro Negro" ("the Black Bull") and Richard Rudolph, but credited as Scorbu Productions^[1]
• Arranged by Stevie Wonder, but credited as Wonderlove

Other cover versions

• Leona Lewis recorded a version with producer Marley J Wills, at the age of 15.
• Jack Vidgen did a cover of in 2011, for his debut album "Yes I Am".
• Reggae and Ska pioneer Alton Ellis covered the song for his LP Mr Ska Bean'a.
• Reggae singer Janet Kay covered the song.
• A live cover of "Lovin' You" was included in Japanese female singer Misia's second album Love Is the Message.
• Ken Hirai covered the song on his Ken's Bar album.
• Rahsaan Roland Kirk recorded a jazz version on the album The Return Of The 5000 Lb. Man.
• It was featured on Justin Lo's debut Cantonese album Justin in 2005.
• In 2007 the Japanese rock band Electric Eel Shock covered the song on their album Transworld Ultra Rock.
• Dianne Reeves covered the song in her album When You Know (2008).
• Che'Nelle had a cover version on her 2011 album Luv_Songs.

Television

The song has also appeared in several TV shows, such as The Game, South Park, Will & Grace, 'Puberty Blues, The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond, Generation Kill, and American Idol. Singer Chante Moore performs the song during William's and Yvonne's ill-fated wedding on an episode of Girlfriends. In the Chris Morris comedy show Blue Jam, the song is also used in a sketch featuring a man spanking a woman with a spacehopper. On an episode of The Steve Harvey Show, Romeo's father serenades his mother with his version of "Lovin' You" to woo her back (she had left him and moved in with Romeo and Steve).

This song was also sung by Jane Zhang during her participation in Super Girls. Ella Henderson performed the song during the second week of live shows in the 2012 series of The X Factor. Leah McFall performed the song during the knockout round in the second series of The Voice.

Films

Disturbia, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Monkeybone, The Nutty Professor (performed by Eddie Murphy while trying to show off to an offensive comic played by Dave Chappelle), Vegas Vacation (Wayne Newton covers the song during a Wayne Newton show at the MGM Grand), Megamind, and Seven Pounds.

Commercials

It was used in a Burger King commercial promoting Cini-Minis and a commercial for Visa featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers, where the song is supposed to be "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men.

Adaptation covers

The Orb's single "A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld", also known as "Loving You", was based around a sample of the Riperton original. A fast eurodance remix, titled "Complete Loving", was recorded by the DJ group Sound Assassins for the 1999 Dancemania compilation Speed 2.

Samplings

• Mariah Carey arranged the introduction of the song for her 2001 song "Never Too Far".
• Shifty Shellshock used long excerpts from the song for sampling in his track "Ez Cuz You're Beautiful" from his 2004 solo album Happy Love Sick.

References

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics