Released January 6, 1987 Genre Pop, Freestyle | Recorded 1986 Label MCA | |
Length 5:07 (album)
3:58 (single)
7:31 (extended) Writer(s) André Cymone, Jody Watley | ||
"Looking for a New Love" is a song by American dance-pop singer Jody Watley. It was released in January 1987 as the first single from her eponymous debut album. The song became one of the biggest pop and R&B singles of 1987.
Contents
History
The single hit number two for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1987 and spent four weeks at number-one on the Billboard R&B chart. The single was kept out of the top spot of the Hot 100 by Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and U2's "With or Without You", and would itself keep Club Nouveau's Hot 100 number-one single "Lean on Me" out of the top spot of the R&B chart. It ranked number 16 on Billboard's year-end chart for 1987.
The song also reached number-one on the RPM Singles Chart in Canada.
In 1988 the song was nominated for two Soul Train Music Awards for Best R&B/Soul or Rap Music Video, and Best R&B/Soul Single, Female. She was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
While listening to a tape of instrumental tracks given to her by producer André Cymone, Watley reflected on a recent sour romantic breakup. Fusing her own feelings of "I'll show you" with the feel of the track, Watley came up with the basic premise of "Looking for a New Love." The released record is the eight-track demo of the song; that way the emotional urgency of Watley's vocal was still intact. One of the song's key phrases became a popular saying: "Hasta la vista, baby." It wound up on innumerable answering machines and was used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day (see Hasta la vista, baby).
2005 re-issue
In 2005, Jody Watley re-recorded and released "Looking for a New Love" on Water Music Records in conjunction with her own Avitone label, Curvve Recordings, and Peace Bisquit. The re-issue was remixed in various styles: house, electro, breakbeat. The newly imagined "Looking for a New Love" peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, making her the first artist ever to take the same song to No. 1 in two decades.