"I Love How You Love Me"
Single by The Paris Sisters
B-side"All Through the Night"
ReleasedAugust 1961 (1961)
Recorded1961
GenrePop
Length2:08
LabelGregmark
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Phil Spector
The Paris Sisters singles chronology
"Be My Boy"
(1961) 		"I Love How You Love Me"
(1961) 		"He Knows I Love Him Too Much"
(1962)

"I Love How You Love Me" is a song written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber. It was a 1961 Top Five hit for the pop girl group The Paris Sisters, which inaugurated a string of elaborately produced classic hits by Phil Spector. Bobby Vinton had a Top Ten hit in 1968 with a cover version. The song has been recorded by many other artists over the years.

The Paris Sisters version

Background

The Paris Sisters recorded "I Love How You Love Me" at Gold Star Studios in the autumn of 1961 with Phil Spector as their producer. The group vocalized repeatedly to a piano accompaniment until Spector was satisfied with the balance between the voices, after which a string arrangement which Spector worked on over several days with Hank Levine was added.[1] The song featured a spoken recitation by lead singer Priscilla Paris, speaking the first half of the repeated first verse in an unsung manner over the instrumental break.

According to Lester Sill, with whom Spector was then staying, Spector would bring the tapes for "I Love How You Love Me" from Gold Star Studios every evening to review in his room: "he would wake me up at three or four in the morning, listening to [the song] over and over again at a very low level." Sill says Spector "must have remixed the strings on that song thirty times; then listened to it for another four or five days before he was sure it was right. Then finally when the record was pressed he listened to the pressing for another two or three days before he gave it an approval."[1]

Spector's interest in the song was occasioned by its structural similarity to "To Know Him Is to Love Him", the No. 1 hit that Spector's group, the Teddy Bears, had scored in 1958. Annette Kleinbard who had been the Teddy Bears' vocalist, would weep upon hearing The Paris Sisters' "I Love How You Love Me" on her car radio: "Before [Priscilla Paris] sung five words I knew it was Phil's record...it was just the most beautiful record, but I loved it and I hated it at the same time; it felt like Phil had taken my voice and passed it on to someone else".[1] However Priscilla Paris would opine: "My sound was not like Annette's - she had a very thin type of little girl voice. I have a heavy roque - that's a French word meaning very heavy, husky - voice. I think Phil fell into something he wanted to do, added extra ingredients, and ended up with something different."[2]

"I Love How You Love Me" was originally intended for Tony Orlando, to be arranged in the same upbeat style as Orlando's precedent hits "Bless You" and "Halfway to Paradise".1 The song was written by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber (aka Kolberg) who were staff writers at Don Kirshner's Aldon Music near the Brill Building. Kolber had written the lyrics on a restaurant napkin within five minutes. When Phil Spector discovered the song on a visit to Kirshner's Aldon offices he persuaded Kirshner that the song would have more potential if rendered by a female act. Spector then recorded "I Love How You Love Me" with The Paris Sisters.

Entering the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1961, "I Love How You Love Me" reached No. 5 that November.[3]

Billboard named the song #100 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.[4]

The song was used in episode 5 of the 2017 Twin Peaks continuation.

Bobby Vinton version

"I Love How You Love Me"
Single by Bobby Vinton
from the album I Love How You Love Me
B-side"Little Barefoot Boy"
ReleasedOctober 4, 1968
RecordedAugust 29, 1968
GenrePop
LabelEpic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Billy Sherrill
Bobby Vinton singles chronology
"Halfway to Paradise"
(1968) 		"I Love How You Love Me"
(1968) 		"To Know You Is to Love You"
(1969)

Background

Bobby Vinton made a comeback in the late 1960s when producer Billy Sherrill had him remake songs which had been hits a few years previous. Vinton took his cover of "I Love How You Love Me" to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.[5] The hit re-vitalized Vinton's recording career and was certified Gold by the RIAA. Due to the success of the single, Epic Records released the album I Love How You Love Me that was also a best seller into 1969. Vinton followed up with a version of "To Know Him Is to Love Him" with a track entitled, "To Know You Is to Love You" (coincidentally Vinton's precedent single to "I Love How You Love Me" had been a remake of "Halfway to Paradise" the Tony Orlando hit to which "I Love How You Love Me" had been written as the intended followup).

Marika Gombitová version

"Luk a šíp"
Song by Marika Gombitová
from the album Diskotéka OPUSu 1
LanguageSlovak
Released1978 (1978)
GenrePop music
Length2:40
LabelOPUS
Composer(s)Barry Mann
Larry Kolber
Lyricist(s)Kamil Peteraj (Gombitová version)
Audio sample
"Luk a šíp"

Background

"Luk a šíp" (English: Bow and Shaft) is a cover version of the Paris Sisters song, recorded by Slovak female singer Marika Gombitová.[6] Her version, featuring alternate lyrics, was released on Diskotéka OPUSu 1 compilation by OPUS in 1978.[7]

Personnel

Other versions

References and notes

Notes
  • 1 When Larry Kolber heard the Paris Sisters recording he likened it to a "funeral dirge".[1]
General
  • Graclík, Miroslav; Nekvapil, Václav (2008). Marika Gombitová: neautorizovaný životní příběh legendy československé pop music [Marika Gombitová: An Unauthorized Life Story of the Legend of Czechoslovak Pop Music] (in Czech). Prague, Czech Republic: XYZ. p. 446. ISBN 978-80-7388-115-3. OCLC 294939865. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
  • Lehotský, Oskar (April 23, 2008a). Slovak Popular Music in the Years 1977–1989 – Marika Gombitová (PDF) (in Slovak). Bratislava, Slovakia: Comenius University, Faculty of Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
  • Lehotský, Oskar (April 23, 2008b). Slovak Popular Music in the Years 1977–1989 – Modus (PDF) (in Slovak). Bratislava, Slovakia: Comenius University, Faculty of Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-19. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
Specific
  1. ^ a b c d Brown, Mick (2007). Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: the rise and fall of Phil Spector (1st US ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-1-4000-4219-7.
  2. ^ Greig, Charlotte. "The Paris Sisters". Spectropop. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 480.
  4. ^ "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time: Critics' Picks". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  5. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 250.
  6. ^ Lehotský 2008a, p. 21.
  7. ^ For Marika Gombitová's discography, see Lehotský 2008a, pp. 54–56..
  8. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 125. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  9. ^ Roberts (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. p. 189.
  10. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. p. 477.
  11. ^ "Nino Tempo". Spectropop.com. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  12. ^ Currin, Brian. "South African Rock Lists Website - SA Charts 1969 - 1989 Acts (B)". Rock.co.za. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  13. ^ "Kramer: The Brill Building > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  14. ^ Coplon, Jeff/Cher (1998). The First Time (1st ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 86. ISBN 0-684-80900-1.

External links

Bobby Vinton
Glen Campbell
Lynn Anderson singles
Marika Gombitová
Authority control databases
Categories