"I Specialize in Love" | ||||
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Single by Sharon Brown | ||||
Released | March 1982 | |||
Recorded | 1981 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:29 (7" version) 7:15 (12" version) | |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Eddie O'Loughlin | |||
Sharon Brown singles chronology | ||||
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"I Specialize in Love" is a song written by Lotti Golden and Richard Scher. Mixed by Tee Scott, the song was a club hit in the early 1980s when recorded by American singer Sharon Brown, the niece of songwriter Phil Medley. Released as a single in March 1982, by Profile Records, it spent three weeks at number two on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart, [2] her only song to reach this survey. The single also charted on the UK Singles Chart, becoming an international club hit. A remixed version of the song was released in 1994, entering the UK Singles Chart for a second time. [3]
Brian Chin of Billboard called "I Specialize in Love" a "very skillful pastiche of a whole passel of recent street and fusion sounds, along with a simple rap." [4]
"I Specialize in Love" | ||||
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Single by Exposé | ||||
from the album Exposé | ||||
Released | November 17, 1995 | |||
Length | 3:53 (album version) | |||
Label | Arista | |||
Songwriter(s) | Lotti Golden, Richard Scher | |||
Producer(s) | DNA | |||
Exposé singles chronology | ||||
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Ten years later, the American girl group Exposé included a cover version of the song on its 1992 self-titled studio album. This version featured lead vocals by Ann Curless, Jeanette Jurado and Kelly Moneymaker. It was produced by DNA (musicians Nick Batt and Neal Slateford), which had scored a hit in 1990 for themselves and Suzanne Vega when the group remixed Vega's song "Tom's Diner." Although this version of "I Specialize in Love" was not formally released as a single from the album Exposé, it was issued as a promotional 12" single to dance clubs in 1995 when various remixes of the song by Darrin Friedman were included on the CD Maxi-single release of "I'll Say Good-bye for the Two of Us." This latter song was taken from the soundtrack of the 1995 film Free Willy 2 , and although both songs failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "I Specialize in Love" became a top-ten single on the Billboard Club Play chart again, peaking at #6. [5] It also reached the top twenty on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart in December of that year. [6]
Chart (1982) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 2 |
UK Singles Chart [7] | 38 |
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles [8] | 51 |
Netherlands [9] | 21 |
Chart (1995) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play | 6 |
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales | 20 |
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