Where Has Love Gone (song)

Background

Released as the lead single from the Dreams That Money Can't Buy album, the single only peaked at #73 in the UK for a total of two weeks. Around the time of the release, Johnson's relations with MCA had declined after Johnson had discovered that no promotion budget has been set for his new album.

The song contains backing vocals from both Don Snow and Stevie Lange.

Release

The single was released on 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, CD and cassette in 1990 across the UK and Germany. The single was released entirely through MCA Records.

The 7" vinyl and cassette versions of the single featured the a-side along with the b-side "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)". The 12" vinyl replaced the a-side with the Julian Mendelsohn remix "Where Has Love Gone (The Search For Love Mix)". A remixed 12" vinyl was also released in the UK only, featuring two remixes by G.T.O., which was "Where Has Love Gone? (G.T.O. Mix)" and "Where Has Love Gone? (Dreaming Mix)". This release featured altered artwork, whilst still maintaining the basis of the main artwork's design. The CD version featured the album/7" vinyl version of the a-side, the b-side and the "Where Has Love Gone (The Search For Love Mix)".

The single's b-side "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)" had originally appeared on the 1989 remix album Hollelujah.

Promotion

A music video was created for the single, which featured shots of Johnson performing the song, amongst other clips of various characters and scenes, mainly focusing on different scenes in a playground-like area, with the scene focusing on one or two children each time.

The video was aired on MTV.

The song was also performed along with the 1989 hit song "Americanos" at the Diamond Record Awards in 1991, where Johnson received a Diamond Record award for "Americanos". For his performance, Johnson wore the same outfit as from the "Where Has Love Gone" music video. The Diamond Record award was for the sale of ten million units of the single through legal distribution sources.

Track listing

1. "Where Has Love Gone?" - 4:20
2. "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)" - 5:54

1. "Where Has Love Gone (The Search For Love Mix)" - 7:21
2. "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)" - 5:56

1. "Where Has Love Gone? (G.T.O. Mix)" - 6:35
2. "Where Has Love Gone? (Dreaming Mix)" - 4:21

1. "Where Has Love Gone? (G.T.O. Mix)" - 6:34
2. "Where Has Love Gone? (Dreaming Mix)" - 4:20

1. "Where Has Love Gone?" - 4:20
2. "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)" - 5:56
3. "Where Has Love Gone (The Search For Love Mix)" - 7:29

1. "Where Has Love Gone?" - 4:20
2. "Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)" - 5:54

Critical reception

Jon O'Brien of Allmusic spoke of the song in a review of the Dreams That Money Can't Buy album, stating "Packed full of cultural and literary references, Johnson may be under the impression he's creating a piece of pop art, but in reality, the album's ten tracks are more Rolf Harris than Andy Warhol. Not exactly helped by Andy Richards and Dan Hartman's game show theme-style production, all synthetic brass, spacy bleeps, and tinny beats, the likes of "Where Has Love Gone?" and "Do It for Love" sound like Erasure B-sides."

Upon release, one UK magazine reviewed the 12" vinyl remix version of the song, writing "Listening to the 12-inch of this one means that your ears have to wade through 10 minutes of what sounds like someone hitting a pillow with a mallet, before Mr Johnson honours us with his vocal presence. Ironically, his first words are "Quality's gone out of style", I couldn't agree more and as for the whereabouts of love, well there wasn’t much lavished on this."

Terry Staunton of Record Collector magazine reviewed the 2011 re-issue of the Dreams That Money Can't Buy album and stated "Johnson had split from MCA by the time the record hit the shops, citing a lack of financial or promotional support, and the album proved to be a lacklustre swansong. Both "Across the Universe" and "Where Has Love Gone?" come across as half-formed synth dance workouts, their elevation to single status baffling. Johnson is said to have wanted "Penny Arcade" as a 45, and its staccato energy (shades of ABC) is infinitely more suited to daytime radio play."

Remixes and B-sides

Where Has Love Gone?

Remixes

Perfume (Aromatherapy Mix)

Other