All This Love (DeBarge song)

Infobox Single
Name = All This Love
Artist = DeBarge
from Album = All This Love
Format = 7" single
Released = 1983
Recorded = 1982
Genre = Soul
Label = Gordy
Length = 5:52
Writer = El DeBarge
Producer = El DeBarge
Iris Gordy
Last single = "I Like It"
(1982)
This single = "All This Love"
(1983)
Next single = "Time Will Reveal"
(1983)

"All This Love" is a 1983 hit single written and composed by El DeBarge and released as a single by the family musical group DeBarge on the Gordy label. This single would help DeBarge rise to R&B stardom.

Overview

History

In 1982, having released one album that didn't go anywhere, DeBarge went into recording their follow-up with their own songs, chiefly handled by El DeBarge, who was also the main lead singer and focal point of the group, including the song, "All This Love", in which DeBarge sung in a high tenor and had written it in a year earlier in hopes then-label mate and longtime idol Marvin Gaye would record it. Gaye had served as El's inspiration for the song, hinted in the group's harmonizing in the final part of the song, which was similar to Gaye's "I Want You" vocal style period. By the following year, Gaye had left the label and DeBarge ended up recording it themselves. Producing this song with Berry Gordy's niece Iris, the single was issued as the third release from "All This Love".

Reception

Much like their first hit, "I Like It", "All This Love" was immediately embraced by the R&B community while the group gained a pop fan base due to its soft rock connotations. The single reached number 5 on the Billboard R&B chart, number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary chart, helping its parent album of the same name reach gold status by the summer of 1983. The record would be sampled by rapper AZ on the song "Problems" and covered by R&B legend Patti LaBelle for her 1994 album, "Gems". LaBelle's version, released as a single, peaked at #42 on the Billboard R&B chart. DeBarge and LaBelle later sung the song together in a duet live in concert.

Credits

*Lead vocals and keyboards by El DeBarge
*Background vocals by DeBarge
*Produced by El DeBarge and Iris Gordy