"Are You Ready for Love" is a song recorded by English musician

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

in 1977 and first released in the UK in 1979 as the first single from the EP '' The Thom Bell Sessions''. It was written by Leroy Bell, Thom Bell and Casey James, and was originally produced in Philadelphia by

Thom Bell Thomas Randolph Bell (January 27th, 1943 – December 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, pianist, and composer known as one of the creators of Philadelphia soul in the 1970s. He found success as a producer ...

(who had already produced a series of hits for the Spinners,

the Delfonics The Delfonics were an American R&B/soul vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Delfonics were most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their most notable hits include "La-La (Means I Love You)", "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This ...

and

the Stylistics The Stylistics are an American, Philadelphia soul group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers Russell Thompkins Jr., Herb Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith and James Dunn. All of ...

). While the song "Mama Can't Buy You Love" from the EP charted in 1979, this song and the other track on the three-track 12-inch vinyl disc, "Three Way Love Affair", were only minor footnotes at the time. In 1989, MCA released a 6-track CD, ''

The Complete Thom Bell Sessions ''The Thom Bell Sessions'' (internationally titled as ''The Thom Bell Sessions '77'') is an Extended play, EP recorded by Elton John in the second half of 1977, but was not released by MCA Records until June 1979. The project was a departure fo ...

'', which contained a different mix of "Are You Ready for Love" in place of the one that appeared on the original 1979 EP. (The original ''Thom Bell Sessions'' EP mix did, however, surface – along with the EP's other two original tracks – as a B-side to a UK CD-single of " The Last Song" in 1992, issued as Rocket/Phonogram EJSCB-30).

2003 version

In 2003, "Are You Ready for Love" was remixed by

Ashley Beedle Ashley Beedle (born November 25, 1962, in Hemel Hempstead, England) is a British house music DJ and producer. He was a member of the groups Black Science Orchestra and X-Press 2 in addition to releasing material under his own name. Career Bee ...

and released as a 12-inch vinyl single on 25 August 2003. It gave John the sixth No. 1 hit of his career when it topped the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in the first week of its 2003 re-release, following his performance of the song in a television advertisement promoting the new 2003–04

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

season for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. The 2003 single's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

is "Three Way Love Affair" (from the original EP) and also the full-length 1979 version of "Are You Ready for Love". On some CD versions, the CD also contains a

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

version of a video for the song, with recording studio footage from 1977 with John recording his vocals. Various hit R&B vocalists of the late 1970s, including

Bell and James Bell and James were an United States, American soul music, soul musical ensemble, group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania formed by LeRoy Bell (drums, guitar) and Casey James (guitar, bass guitar, bass, keyboard instrument, keyboards). Career Both ...

MFSB MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bel ...

and the Spinners with lead singer John Edwards, contributed backing and accompanying lead vocals, most prominent on the Thom Bell Sessions mixes of the song. In 1979, the Spinners also recorded a version of the song which charted at number 25 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. The music video, produced in a 1970s retro style, was directed by Kate Dawkins.

Track listings

UK, US, and Australian CD single # "Are You Ready for Love" ('79 radio edit) # "Are You Ready for Love" (full length 1979 version) # "Three Way Love Affair" # "Are You Ready for Love" (CD-ROM video) UK 12-inch single 1 :A. "Are You Ready for Love" (full length '79 version) :B. "Are You Ready for Love" (Freeform Reform remix) UK 12-inch single 2 :A. "Are You Ready for Love" ('79 original) :B. "Are You Ready for Love" (Ashley Beedle Love and Protection mono edit) UK cassette single # "Are You Ready for Love" ('79 radio edit) # "Are You Ready for Love" (full length 1979 version) # "Three Way Love Affair" European CD single # "Are You Ready for Love" ('79 radio edit) # "Are You Ready for Love" (full length 1979 version) US 12-inch single :A1. "Are You Ready for Love" (

Linus Loves Linus Loves is the alias of Scottish dance music remixer/ producer Duncan Reid and, until 2005, a duo consisting of himself and Kevin McKay. Reid and McKay co-founded Breastfed Recordings together in 2002 with Myles MacInnes, known as Mylo. Mc ...

Strobelight mix) :A2. "Are You Ready for Love" (79 full length) :B1. "Are You Ready for Love" (

Mylo Myles MacInnes (born 10 May 1978), better known by his stage name Mylo, is a Scottish electronic musician and record producer. His 2004 album ''Destroy Rock & Roll'' peaked at number 26 in the UK Albums Chart. He is best known for his 2005 sing ...

's Road Map to Peace remix) :B2. "Are You Ready for Love" (Ashley Beedle Love and Protection mono re-edit)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

In 2003, the Spinners reissued "Are You Ready for Love", featuring them on backing vocals. In 1977, the Spinners had recorded two versions of the track. One had all of the Spinners, the other with only lead singer John Edwards on vocals. Finally in 1979, the John Edwards version was released making it to number 42 on the UK Singles Chart.

In popular culture

"Are You Ready for Love" was featured on the European version of ''

Donkey Konga 2 is a GameCube rhythm video game series starring the ape Donkey Kong, developed by Namco and published by Nintendo. The series' games are intended to be played with a special controller called the DK Bongos that resemble two small bongo dru ...

''.

References

{{Authority control 1977 songs 1979 singles 2003 singles Elton John songs The Spinners (American group) songs Number-one singles in Scotland UK Singles Chart number-one singles UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles Songs written by Thom Bell Songs written by LeRoy Bell The Rocket Record Company singles Mercury Records singles Ultra Records singles Song recordings produced by Thom Bell