B-side "Look a Here Baby" | Format 7" single Length 2:03 | |
Released May 19591961(re-release) | ||
"Dedicated to the One I Love" is a song written by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass which was a hit for the "5" Royales, the Shirelles and the Mamas & the Papas. Pauling was the guitarist of the "5" Royales, the group that recorded the original version of the song, produced by Bass, in 1957. Their version was re-released in 1961 and charted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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The Shirelles version
A cover version recorded by American girl group the Shirelles reached number 83 in 1959. This version was re-released In 1961 and reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 2 on the R&B charts. The song was subsequently included on their 1961 album Tonight's the Night.
The Mamas & The Papas version
A subsequent and more popular cover version by the Mamas & the Papas released on the Dunhill label went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. This version also reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The lead singer on the Mamas & the Papas version was Michelle Phillips. It was the first time that Phillips was given the lead over Cass Elliot. The song was also included on the group's 1967 album The Mamas & The Papas Deliver.
While the song mixes of the group's singles differ significantly from their album counterparts with some frequency (Words of Love and Creeque Alley, in particular, feature overdubbed instruments that don't appear on the album versions of the songs), Dedicated to the One I Love used the same mix for both single and album. However, there are differing versions of the song available. The original single and album releases had a running time of 2:54, and featured a double-tracked lead vocal, as well as a prominent piano track. A shorter version of the song, which the band can be seen lip-synching to on various television shows in the sixties, has a running time of only 2:12, because it omits the only occurrence of the song's verse, as well as the subsequent chorus, and instead goes straight into the instrumental bridge. In this mix the piano is less prominent and only one of Michelle Phillips' vocal tracks is audible.
In 1992, the long-running CBS nighttime soap opera Knots Landing, in which Michelle Phillips starred, named an episode "Dedicated to the One I Love", in which the Mamas & the Papas version of the song is played in the background.
The Mamas & the Papas version is played at the end of the last scene and during the credits of the 2014 movie The One I Love. In D-TV Disney, the Mamas and the Papas' version was also set to Sleeping Beauty.