I Specialize in Love

Last updated
"I Specialize in Love"
12" Single "I Specialize In Love" Sharon Brown.jpg
Single by Sharon Brown
ReleasedMarch 1982
Recorded1981
Genre
Length4:29 (7" version)
7:15 (12" version)
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Eddie O'Loughlin
Sharon Brown singles chronology
"I Specialize in Love"
(1982)		"Love Don't Hurt People"
(1982)

"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]

Contents

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]

Exposé version

"I Specialize in Love"
Single by Exposé
from the album Exposé
ReleasedNovember 17, 1995
Length3:53 (album version)
Label Arista
Songwriter(s) Lotti Golden, Richard Scher
Producer(s) DNA
Exposé singles chronology
"In Walked Love"
(1993)		"I Specialize in Love"
(1995)		"I'll Say Good-bye for the Two of Us"
(1995)

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]

Track listing

Sharon Brown version

12" promo
  1. A - "I Specialize In Love" (7:16)
  2. B - "I Specialize In Love" (instrumental) (6:00)

Exposé version

12" promo
  1. A1 - "I Specialize in Love" Spike Club Mix I (7:16)
  2. A2 - "I Specialize in Love" Spike Dub (6:45)
  3. B1 - "I Specialize in Love" Spike Club Mix II (8:02)
  4. B2 - "I Specialize in Love" Spike Classic Mix (6:13)

Charts

Sharon Brown version
Chart (1982)Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 2
UK Singles Chart [7] 38
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles [8] 51
Netherlands [9] 21
Exposé version
Chart (1995)Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play 6
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales 20

References

  1. ↑ "The Building Blocks of Boogie: The Origins of a Retrospective Genre". Electro Funk Roots. 3 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003, (Record Research Inc.), page 46.
  3. ↑ "Singers Whose Surname Is Brown That Have Had Hits In The UK Chart". Music-musicians.knoji.com. 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  4. ↑ Dance Trax (with Brian Chin) (Billboard) Vol. 94 (42). Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Oct 23, 1982. p. 34
  5. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003, (Record Research Inc.), p. 94.
  6. ↑ Exposé 12" Sales Chart info [ dead link ] Billboard.com. Retrieved 26 May 2009.
  7. ↑ "I Specialize in Love (1982) - full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company . 17 April 1982. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  8. ↑ "Sharon Brown – HOT R&B/HIP-HOP SONGS". Billboard. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Sharon Brown Chart History - Dutch Charts". Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
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