For the Love of You Pts. 1 & 2

"For the Love of You Pts. 1 & 2" is a quiet storm soul song by The Isley Brothers, released in 1975 on their T-Neck imprint. Released as the second single off their first No. 1 pop album, "The Heat Is On", the song was originally written by brother Rudolph Isley as a poem to his wife Elaine Jasper, sister of Isley Brothers member Chris Jasper. When he originally gave the song to his brothers as a rough draft, they re-wrote the entire song much to Rudolph's chagrin.

History

Recorded in two takes, one version of the song, to which longtime lead singer Ronald Isley thought he had nailed a perfect take, was accidentally erased and a frustrated and upset Ronald recorded a second version and soon left the studio and walked home. Fortunately for Rudolph and Ronald, the song became a hit single for the Isley Brothers and each brother now has no complaints over the difficulties of the song. The single reached number ten on the R&B singles chart and reached number twenty-two on the pop singles chart and helped their parent album reach multi-platinum status after its November release in '75.

The song has been covered by Whitney Houston on her 1987 album, "Whitney", by Joss Stone on her 2003 album, "The Soul Sessions", and by other singers Regina Belle and British soul group Hill St. Soul, both in 2004. The song was sampled by Tupac Shakur and his group, Thug Life, in 1994 on a song titled "Bury Me a G". The song even gave props to the group with the verse, "My pager's vibrating so I can't sleep/so I'm mobbin' to tha ho's house pumpin' Isley".

In the Philippines, Regine Velasquez made another version for her multi-platinum album "R2K", this time with a more upbeat tempo and a jazzy feel.

Jazz singer Maryann Price recorded a Latin jazz version on her LONE STAR STATE O'GRACE cd.

In 2004, the song was covered again by Boyz II Men on their self-produced "Throwback Vol. I".

The song was also covered by neo-soul artist Hil St. Soul on her album "Copasetik & Cool".

"For the Love of You" was also sampled by Masta Ace in his song entitled "The I.N.C. Ride", Kill kill in the song "Watts Up", Common in his song "Puppy Chow" and College Boyz in the song "Hollywood Paradox".

Credits

*Ronald Isley: lead vocals
*Ronald Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley: background vocals
*Ernie Isley: drums, acoustic guitars
*Marvin Isley: bass, percussion
*Chris Jasper: piano, keyboards, synthesizers
*Produced, written, arranged and composed by The Isley Brothers and Chris Jasper