Please Send Me Someone to Love

"Please Send Me Someone to Love"
Specialty Records

"Please Send Me Someone to Love" is a blues ballad, written and recorded by Percy Mayfield in 1950, on Art Rupe's Specialty Records label. It was on the R&B chart for 27 weeks and reached the number one position; it was Mayfield's most successful song.^[1]

It has been called a "multilayered universal lament".^[2] Mayfield sang it in a soft ballad style. Its appeal lay in the sensitivity of its lyrics in juxaposing an awareness of a world in conflict, with a personal expression of the need for love.^[3] Sung in Mayfield's gentle, suave vocal style, the lyrics were a combination of a romantic love ballad and a social message against discrimination.^[4]

References

1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 385. 
2. ↑ "West coast artists - Percy Mayfield". Retrieved 2006-11-06. 
3. ↑ Gillett, Charlie (1996). The Rise of Rock and Roll ((2nd Ed.) ed.). New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press. p. 146. ISBN 0-306-80683-5. 
4. ↑ Shaw, Arnold (1978). Honkers and Shouters. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 193. ISBN 0-02-061740-2.