I Want To Know What Love Is

Album

Agent Provocateur

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Soft Rock

Composer(s)

Mick Jones

Entered Chart

Dec 8, 1984

Peak Date

Feb 2, 1985

Released

November 30, 1984

Recorded

December 1983

Catalog #

Atlantic 7-89596

B-Side

Street Thunder

Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones wrote this song. In a Songfacts interview, he said: "'I Want To Know What Love Is' started off on more of a personal level. I'd been through a lot of relationships that eventually failed, and still searching for something that could really endure. And that sort of took a life of its own as well. It became more of a universal feeling. I adjusted that during the recording of it, and ended up putting a gospel choir on it. And you know, realized suddenly that I'd written almost a spiritual song, almost a gospel song. Sometimes, you feel like you had nothing to do with it, really. You're just putting it down on paper, or coming up with a melody that will bring the meaning of the song out, bring the emotion out in the song." Jones' relationship that sparked the song was with his then future wife Ann Dexter-Jones. Ann Dexter-Jones had previously been married to Laurence Ronson, a music publisher who discovered the British group Bucks Fizz. Their oldest child is the successful producer Mark Ronson, the man behind Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album. Jones raised Ronson from the age of 7, providing a rich musical environment that led to his success. On Foreigner's 2009 album Can't Slow Down, Ronson produced a new version of Foreigner's 1977 track "Fool For You Anyway." The New Jersey Mass Choir was brought in to sing the backing vocals, becoming the first gospel choir to appear on a #1 pop hit. Mick Jones knew he wanted a choir on the song and found the New Jersey Mass Choir through a bit of serendipity: they had the same lawyer. According to Jones, the choir's first attempts to sing their part in the studio didn't have the magic, but then they gathered in a circle, said the Lord's Prayer, and nailed it on the next take. The New Jersey Mass Choir recorded their own version of the song a short time later, which they included on an album of the same name with their take on contemporary songs like "Yah Mo B There" and "Time After Time." Their rendition of "I Want to Know What Love Is" was released as a single and bubbled under at #101 on the Hot 100 in February 1985, the same month Foreigner's version was #1. Foreigner recorded for Atlantic Records, and their 1981 album 4 spent more weeks at #1 than any album released by the label. Ahmet Ertegun, who was the head of Atlantic, cried when he first heard this song. Mick Jones explains: "Part of my dream at the beginning was to be on Atlantic Records, because of the heritage: all the R&B stars of the '50s, people like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. It meant so much to me and my growing up in music. So it meant a lot to have Ahmet Ertegun, who had been a part of that magical era and a person who I respected and looked up to, come into the studio. I took him aside and I said, 'I have a song to play you, Ahmet.' I took him into the studio, and we just sat there in two chairs, and I put the song on. Halfway through I looked over and indeed, there were tears coming out of his eyes. I thought, Whoa, this is a major moment for me. I've been able to impress this man who has heard some of the best, and produced some of the best music in the world. And here he is, and I've reached him emotionally. By the end of the song we were both in tears. Wonderful moments like that, they're just very meaningful." Jennifer Holliday sang backup. She is an R&B singer who has sung for Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Barbra Streisand, among others. She starred in the play Dreamgirls. Most of Foreigner's songs were co-written by Jones and their lead singer Lou Gramm, but this was a solo composition for Jones, and a song that was not met with enthusiasm by Gramm, who felt it might push the band into adult contemporary territory and away from their rock base. Jones spoke to Billboard magazine about Lou Gramm's reservations over this song: "If you look at our whole history, each album had a couple of ballads on it. I think that Lou aired his opinion about it at the time, and that's what led to people jumping on it as a reason for our differences. But I can never really think that having a worldwide #1 song would be detrimental to a band." Report this ad The video was directed by Brian Gibson, whose next project was the film Poltergeist II: The Other Side. The clip has an interesting concept, showing folks at their quotidian jobs during the day, then coming together to form the choir to this song. Gibson later directed the films What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) and The Juror (1996). In 1998, he released a film called Still Crazy, featuring the song "The Flame Still Burns," co-written by Mick Jones and performed by the fictional band Strange Fruit. The song got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song. In 2009 Mariah Carey covered this song for her second single from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. When we asked Jones what he thought of her version, he said: "I think she's actually retained the integrity of the song. You know, the arrangement is very similar to the original. They haven't tampered with the song too much. She's captured a certain emotional thing, a feeling. And you know, it's always flattering to have people cover your songs. Well, sometimes not so flattering (laughs) depending on who it is. But I think she's put a lot of emotion into it. You can feel that she's gotten inside of the song." This is one of several very popular songs that was used on the first season of Miami Vice, appearing in the 1985 episode "Rites of Passage." Other TV series to use the song include: Big Mouth ("I Survived Jessi's Bat Mitzvah" - 2017) Orange Is the New Black ("Trust No Bitch" - 2015) New Girl ("Teachers" - 2014) Glee ("Tested" - 2014) Modern Family ("A Fair to Remember" - 2013) Parks and Recreation ("Practice Date" - 2009) Cold Case ("Shuffle, Ball Change" - 2007) Quantum Leap ("Temptation Eyes" - 1992) Movies to use the song include: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) Bad Moms (2016) The Boss (2016) Rock of Ages (2012) Happy Feet Two (2011) Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) 'Til There Was You (1997) Mr. Wrong (1996) Country star Kenny Chesney covered this for his 2016 album, Cosmic Hallelujah. It wasn't the first time a Nashville singer has recorded the tune - back in 2004 Wynonna Judd laid down a version for her album What the World Needs Now Is Love. This play briefly in the Toyota Tundra commercial "One Team," which aired during the Super Bowl in 2018. In also appears in a British ad for KFC.

I've gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when I'm older

Ooh, ooh

Now this mountain I must climb
Feels like the world upon my shoulders
Through the clouds, I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder

In my life, there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
Can't stop now, I've traveled so far to change this lonely life

I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is, I know you can show me
Oh, oh

I'm gonna take a little time
A little time to look around me
I've got nowhere left to hide
It looks like love has finally found me

In my life, there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
I can't stop now, I've traveled so far to change this lonely life

I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is, I know you can show me
I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me
(And I wanna feel) I wanna feel what love is
(And I know) I know you can show me

Let's talk about love (I wanna know what love is)
Love that you feel inside (I want you to show me)
And I'm feeling so much love (I wanna feel what love is)
No, you just cannot hide (I know you can show me)

Oh, oh
I wanna know what love is (let's talk about love)
I know you can show me
I wanna feel it too (I want to feel what love is)
I wanna feel it too
And I know, and I know, I know you can show me
(Show me that it's real, yeah) I want to know what love is

I wanna know, oh, oh (I want you to show me)
I wanna know, I wanna know, I wanna know (I wanna feel what love is)
I wanna feel (I know you can show me