LOVE IS STRANGE

Created on 05/03/2008
Latest update on 02/03/2024

Artist: Mickey & Sylvia
Author: Ethel Smith
Label: Groove
Year: 1956

N°2 R&B. Studio guitarist Mickey Baker and future Sugar Hill record label boss Sylvia Robinson.

Covers:

1957:

Luther & Little Eva

1957:

Lonnie Donegan

1957:

Maddox Brothers & Rose

1959:

Buddy Holly

1959:

Johnny Hallyday

1960:

Chubby Checker [as The Love Is Strange Calypso]

1962:

Dave Baby Cortez [as Rinky Dink and as Mosin' Along]

1962:

Booker T. & The MG's [as Rinky Dink]

1962:

Mickey et Monique [as L'amour est étrange; Mickey Baker in France]

1964:

Caesar & Cleo [alias Sonny & Cher]

1964:

Jerry Butler & Betty Everett

1965:

Everly Brothers

1967:

Peaches & Herb

1968:

Avalons [as L'amour c'est un jeu]

1971:

Paul McCartney & Wings

1988:

Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin

1990:

K.T. Oslin

1991:

Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers

1992:

Everything But The Girl

2010:

Jackson Browne & David Lindley [title track live cd]

2012:

Pitbull [sample in Back In Time; hit Fr, GER, B, US, UK & NL]

Written by Bo Diddley under his wife Ethel's name. The Chess archive finally released Bo's demo in 2007: cd I'm A Man: The Chess Masters 1955-1958 (Hip-O Select). His version of Love Is Strange lacks Jody Williams' guitar licks (from Billy Stewart's Billy's Blues - see there), copied by Mickey Baker in Mickey & Sylvia's hit version. Leonard Chess didn't like Bo's ballad ("Who do you think you are? Perry Como?"). Williams who had a crush on Sylvia, serenaded her with his Billy's Blues licks, impressing both her and Mickey Baker. But he wasn't credited and that did it, both for him and Chess: for four years the Chess brothers sued Mickey & Sylvia's Love Is Strange version unsuccessfully. As for Jody Williams, his faith in fair music business trade sank deeper than ever; Otis Rush had stolen some of his licks (see: All Your Love I Miss Loving) and now this.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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