Released August 1961 (1961) Recorded 1961 Length 2:08 | Format 7" single Genre Pop | |
B-side "All Through The Night" | ||
"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.
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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. 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."
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". 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."
"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.
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. 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).
Background
"Luk a šíp" (English: Bow and Shaft) is a cover version of the Paris Sisters song, recorded by Slovak female singer Marika Gombitová. Her version, with featuring alternate lyrics, was released on Diskotéka OPUSu 1 compilation by OPUS in 1978.