Love's Theme
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece recorded by Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and released in 1973. It is one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in the United States, in early 1974. The piece was included on the albums Under the Influence of Love Unlimited (by the vocal group Love Unlimited) and Rhapsody in White.
The recording is considered to be an influence to the disco sound, which would explode in popularity the following year. The song was also popular on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S., where the song spent two weeks at #1.
In the mid 1970s all the way to the late 1980s, ABC Sports used "Love's Theme" as the opening theme music for its live golf coverage. WPIX used it as the closing music for its then-Action News franchise from 1975 to 1977. It was used as the theme song for the syndicated television series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous early in its run. It was featured on The Weather Channel's 'Local On The 8's' segments in 2002 and 2007. It was used as the opening theme to the soap opera "Celebridade" (2003) in Brazil. The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep used it throughout the 70s and into the 80s as the opening tune to its popular Sunday morning radio show, "Relax". The Seven Network in Australia used "Love's Theme" as the opener for its music program "Sounds" from the mid 1970s until the show was cancelled in 1987. Enoch Light recorded a disco instrumental version of the song on his 1977 album, Disco Disque. The song is also part of Meco's medley "Hooked On Instrumentals Part I" (from the album Hooked On Instrumentals).
In addition, "Love's Theme" has been recorded with lyrics (penned by White's publisher, Aaron Schroeder), with vocal versions by such artists as Love Unlimited (on their 1974 album In Heat), Julio Iglesias, and Andy Williams. In May of 1993, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released their single, "Dream of Me (Based on Love's Theme)" (from their album Liberator, released the same year) on which they sang their own lyrics over a sample of this Barry White's composition. This single reached #24 on the UK Singles Chart, and writing credits were given to Barry White.
This song was later covered by an American smooth jazz trumpeter Rick Braun.
