Love Hangover

"Love Hangover"
Single by Diana Ross
from the album Diana Ross
B-side	"Kiss Me Now"
Released	March 16, 1976
Recorded	1975
Genre	Disco[1][2] pop[1]
Length	7:48 3:46 (single edit)
Label	Motown M 1392
Songwriter(s)	Marilyn McLeod, Pamela Sawyer
Producer(s)	Hal Davis
Diana Ross singles chronology
"I Thought It Took a Little Time (But Today I Fell in Love)" (1976) "Love Hangover" (1976) "One Love in My Lifetime" (1976)
Official audio
"Love Hangover" (album edit) on YouTube

"Love Hangover" is a song by the Motown singer Diana Ross, recorded in 1975 and released as a single on March 16, 1976. It rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot-Selling Soul Singles. It also hit number one on the Record World disco charts.

Producer Hal Davis instructed the song's engineer Russ Terrana to install a strobe light so that Ross could be in the "disco" mindset.^[3] As the song changed from ballad to uptempo, Ross became more comfortable with the material; she hummed, sang bit parts, laughed, danced around and even imitated Billie Holiday.^[4]

The song was first released on the album Diana Ross in February 1976. Motown initially promoted the album by releasing the single "I Thought It Took a Little Time". Singing group the 5th Dimension released "Love Hangover" as a single. Motown then issued Ross's version as a 7-inch single. Both versions entered the chart the same day. By the time Ross's version of the song reached number one, Ross had reinvented herself as a disco diva and the 5th Dimension's version had peaked at number 80. It won Ross a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. It appeared on the soundtrack of the following year's Diane Keaton movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar.

"Love Hangover" reached number one on May 29, 1976. That week, Casey Kasem reported on American Top 40 that Ross had broken the record for the most number-one hits by a female vocalist. With her fourth number one, she passed Connie Francis, Helen Reddy, Roberta Flack, and Cher, each of whom had three.

Ross performed the song on the April 4, 1980 episode of The Muppet Show during its season four run.

The song was remixed several times. A version remixed by Eric Kupper, known as "Love Hangover 2020", hit number one on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart in March 2020.

Remixes

Motown released versions of Ross's version in 1988 (remixed by the British team PWL) and 1993 (remixed by Frankie Knuckles for the album Diana Extended: The Remixes and by Joey Negro for a single).

Almighty Records released a remixed version in 2007 (remixed by the UK team Almighty).

New remixes were released in 2020 by Eric Kupper, peaking at number one on March 28 on the Billboard Dance Club chart.^[5]

Track listing

1993 UK 12" promo

Side A

1. "Love Hangover" (Tribal Hangover) – 9:26
2. "Love Hangover" (Classic Club – EP version) – 8:20
3. "Love Hangover" (Tribal Reprise) – 5:25
4. "Your Love" – 3:58

Side B

1. "Upside Down" ('93 Remix – EP version) – 8:00
2. "Upside Down" (Dub 2 – Morales) – 7:37
3. "Someday We'll Be Together" ('93 Remix – EP version) – 8:40
4. "Someday We'll Be Together" (Final Sound Factory) – 6:54

Cover versions

• The before mentioned simultaneously in 1976 issued 5th Dimension cover would be that group's last Hot 100 hit.
• Players Association covered the track in 1977.
• Stanley Turrentine on The Man with the Sad Face in 1976.^[6]
• In 1982 British new wave band The Associates released a double side 45 single "18 Carat Love Affair" / "Love Hangover"^[7] which peaked at No. 21 on the UK chart in 1982.
• Background vocals from the original alternate take were sampled by Hardrive in the 1993 House song "No Cure".
• British soul singer Pauline Henry (former lead vocalist of the Chimes) recorded a contemporary version of the track in 1995 (released as a single).
• Italian dance act Black Box sampled the song on their 1996 disco-house single, "I Got The Vibration/Positive Vibration", which reached no. 21 in the UK and no. 18 in the Italian charts.
• The song was sampled in Monica's 1998 hit "The First Night", which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Mariah Carey performed the song also on the concert tribute to Diana Ross (2000). Carey also performed a mix of "Love Hangover" the lead single from her 1999 seventh studio album, Rainbow, "Heartbreaker" on her Angels Advocate Tour between 2009 and 2010, on All The Hits Tour, a co-headlining tour with American singer Lionel Richie in 2017, and second Las Vegas residency, The Butterfly Returns in 2018.
• Singer Jody Watley recorded a downtempo version for her 2006 album, The Makeover.
• Erykah Badu performed the song in 2007 as part of the BET Tribute To Diana Ross as she was awarded the BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Australian singer-songwriter Tina Arena recorded a version in 2007 for her album, Songs of Love & Loss.
• In 2007, Stephanie Edwards sang it on the sixth season of American Idol.
• The song would become part of the hip-hop lexicon via sampling by Will Smith, Heavy D, Master P, Monica, Janet Jackson, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, French artist MC Solaar, and Emily King, who made use of it for her 2007 debut album East Side Story in the song "Walk in My Shoes".
• Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose sang the chorus of "Love Hangover" during an instrumental interlude in the song "If the World" on the Asian leg of the Chinese Democracy World Tour 2009/2010.
• In 2023, the song was performed on Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour by her background vocalists, Pure Honey, during a band intermission. At the September 4, 2023, show in Los Angeles, Diana Ross joined the Pure Honey singers onstage for their performance and led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Beyoncé.

Charts

See also

• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1976 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B singles of 1976 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance singles of 1976 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance singles of 2020 (U.S.)

References

External links

• List of cover versions of "Love Hangover" at SecondHandSongs.com
• Diana Ross - Love Hangover on YouTube