Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Single by Edison Lighthouse
B-side	"Every Lonely Day"
Released	January 1970 (UK) 21 February 1970 (US)
Recorded	England, November 1969
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:51
Label	Bell Records
Writer(s)	Tony Macaulay / Barry Mason

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is a popular song by "one-hit wonder" Edison Lighthouse. The single hit the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart on the week ending on 31 January 1970, where it remained for a total of five weeks.^[1]

Song profile

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason. Essentially, they were a studio group with prolific session singer Tony Burrows providing the vocals. When the song became a hit, a group needed to be assembled rapidly to feature the song on Top of the Pops, a popular TV show. Mason and Maccaulay found a group called Greenfields and brought them to the auditions a week before their appearance on Top of the Pops. Once chosen and rehearsed, they appeared on the show as 'Edison Lighthouse' to mime to the fastest climbing number 1 hit record in history. Burrows sang the song on the programme during his third appearance on the same show with three different groups. It reached number 5 on US pop chart, number 3 in Canada, and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart for five weeks in January and February 1970. It reached number 3 in South Africa in February 1970.^[2]

In an interview in 2003, Rob Grill of The Grass Roots said that the song had been offered to them, but they turned it down.

Chart performance

Cover versions

• Anni-Frid Lyngstad covered the song in 1970 as "Där du går lämnar kärleken spår" (Where you go, love leaves traces).^[12]
• Uschi Glas covered the song in 1970 in German as "Wenn dein Herz brennt".
• In 1984, Hong Kong singer Samuel Hui covered the song in Cantonese as "Tsui Hei Foon Lei" (最喜歡你, which means "like you the most").
• British indie pop band The Siddeleys covered the song on the 1990 compilation Alvin Lives (In Leeds) - Anti Poll Tax Trax.
• In 1995, Swedish dansband "Distance" (later "Frida & dansbandet") covered the song with lyrics in the Swedish language, as "När du ler" ("When you smile").^[12]
• In 2002, the Not Lame Recordings CD Right to Chews—a collection of modern bands performing cover versions of bubblegum pop songs—included Beagle's version of the song.
• In 2007, Little Man Tate did a cover of this song at their concerts at the Boardwalk, Sheffield and at the Bolton Soundhouse.
• Singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston covered the song on his album Right Between the Promises.
• Guitarist, Mellotron player and singer-songwriter Les Fradkin covered the song on his album Perfect World.
• In 2012 Dennis Diken with Bell Sound recorded a version for a fundraising album titled Super Hits of the Seventies for radio station WFMU.

In the media

• The song is featured in the closing scenes of the film Shallow Hal. The female lead played by Gwyneth Paltrow was named Rosemary.
• It serves as the musical theme of the film Little Manhattan (wherein the female love interest is also named Rosemary), performed by Freedy Johnston.
• It was featured in a fifth season episode of The Sopranos ("All Happy Families...") during a hit on a friend of Little Carmine Lupertazzi.
• It is referred to in the narration of Reservoir Dogs, as part of the fictional "K-BILLY's Super Sounds of the '70s" radio show, but the song itself is not played.
• It is parodied in the game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine, at the title theme for Act 3: Shallow Al.

References