Higher Love

Last updated

"Higher Love"
Steve Winwood - Higher Love.jpeg
Single by Steve Winwood
from the album Back in the High Life
B-side "And I Go"
ReleasedJune 1986
RecordedNovember 1985 – May 1986
Studio Unique Recording Studio, New York
Genre
Length
  • 5:51 (album version)
  • 4:14 (single version)
Label Island – IS 288
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Steve Winwood singles chronology
"Valerie"
(1982)		"Higher Love"
(1986)		"Freedom Overspill"
(1986)

"Higher Love" is a 1986 song by English singer Steve Winwood. [5] It was the first single released from his fourth solo LP, Back in the High Life (1986). It was written by Winwood and Will Jennings and produced by Russ Titelman and Winwood. The background vocals were performed by Chaka Khan, who also appeared in the music video.

Contents

"Higher Love" was Winwood's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, topping the chart for one week beginning 30 August 1986. "Higher Love" also spent four weeks atop the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and earned two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It also peaked at number 13 in the United Kingdom, Winwood's highest charting solo entry there, and reached number one in Canada for a week.

Whitney Houston covered the song in 1990 and it was included as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of her third studio album I'm Your Baby Tonight . In 2016, Winwood made a version with his daughter Lilly Winwood, performing a duet for a Hershey commercial. [6] Norwegian DJ Kygo reworked Houston's cover into a tropical house track in 2019, which was released as a single worldwide [7] and hit number one on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Songs chart, making it Houston's highest-charting posthumous release to date.

Background

Music engineer Tom Lord-Alge had suggested moving one of John 'JR' Robinson's impromptu drum fills to the beginning of "Higher Love", by assigning a timing offset to one of two tape machines such that they first played the drum fill followed by the song coming in on the beat. [8] Titelman was happy with the result and decided to open the album with this drum fill. JR used a Latin rimshot technique across the top of his classic seamless brass Ludwig Black Beauty snare, unmuffled, with its snare wires disengaged, to emulate the sound of a timbale. He said, "it's one of the best drum intros I've ever played." [9]

Producer Russ Titelman remembered the fill being played ad lib by JR while his friend Chaka Khan was preparing to sing her background vocals on "Higher Love", causing Khan to exclaim "What is that shit? It sounds like voodoo shit!" [10] Tom Lord-Alge agreed that the drum fill was played as a lark after JR completed his drum overdubs for "Higher Love". Tom said, "It was one of those happy accidents, and it happened because Chris (his brother, a sound engineer) always taught me that if the tape is rolling and there's a musician in the studio, make sure the tape machine is in record!" [8]

Music video

The music video for the song uses the shorter single version and was shot in June 1986 by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif. Kagan and Greif shot an almost identical video for Duran Duran's "Notorious" in November of that year; coincidentally, both videos were nominated for several awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards though neither won. [11] Chaka Khan appears in the video, as does Nile Rodgers, who plays guitar with the backing band.

Track listings

Personnel

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [31] Gold400,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

James Vincent McMorrow version

James Vincent McMorrow recorded a cover of the song for his charity album 'Silver Lining' which was recorded and produced by the students of Sound Training Centre in Dublin for the charity Headstrong. [32] The cover was used as the soundtrack for television advertisements in the UK by LoveFilm in 2011.

Chart performance

Chart (2011)Peak
position
Ireland (IRMA) [33] 4
Scotland (OCC) [34] 22
UK Indie (OCC) [35] 1
UK Singles (OCC) [36] 21

Kygo and Whitney Houston version

  1. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Various Artists - Roots of Rock: Soft Rock Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic . Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  2. ↑ "Top 40 Rock Singers". Ultimate Classic Rock. 13 May 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  3. ↑ Breihan, Tom (28 December 2020). "The Number Ones: Steve Winwood's "Higher Love". Stereogum . Retrieved 30 September 2023. Higher Love" still sounds, to my ears, like a sleepy blues-rock song...
  4. ↑ Sullivan, Steve (2017). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 586. ISBN   978-1-4422-5449-7.
  5. ↑ "Steve Winwood". Billboard .
  6. ↑ "Hershey's TV Commercial, 'My Dad' Song by Steve Winwood, Lilly Winwood". Ispot.tv. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  7. ↑ White, Jack (27 June 2019). "Whitney Houston's first posthumous release in seven years announced as Kygo collaboration Higher Love". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  8. 1 2 Verna, Paul (5 November 2005). "Chris and Tom Lord-Alge". Billboard. Vol. 117, no. 45. p. 38. ISSN   0006-2510.
  9. ↑ Mattingly, Rick (June 1987). "John Robinson". Modern Drummer . No. 91. pp. 16–21, 48–53.
  10. ↑ White, Timothy (22 June 1996). "'Please Don't Wake Me'". Billboard. Vol. 108, no. 25. pp. 41–54. ISSN   0006-2510.
  11. ↑ de Atley, Richard (11 September 1987). "Peter Gabriel Effort Chosen As Video Of The Year". Associated Press.
  12. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 342. ISBN   0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid-1983 and 12 June 1988.
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"Higher Love"
Kygo and Whitney Houston - Higher Love.png
Single by Kygo and Whitney Houston
from the album Golden Hour and I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston
Released28 June 2019 (2019-06-28)
Recorded
  • December 1989
    (Houston's vocals)
  • December 2018
    (Kygo's arrangement)
Genre Tropical house [37]
Length3:48
Label RCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Kygo singles chronology
"Kem kan eg ringe"
(2019)		"Higher Love"
(2019)		"Family"
(2019)
Whitney Houston singles chronology
"Memories"
(2016)		"Higher Love"
(2019)		"How Will I Know (Whitney × Clean Bandit)"
(2021)
Albums
Live albums
Compilations
Singles
Related articles
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