"Lookin' for Love" is a song written by Wanda Mallette,
Bob Morrison and Patti Ryan, and recorded by American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
singer
Johnny Lee. It was released in June 1980 as part of the soundtrack to the film ''
Urban Cowboy
''Urban Cowboy'' is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger). The film's success was credited for spur ...
'', released that year.
Marcy Levy
Marcella Levy (born June 21, 1952), known professionally as Marcy Levy and (later in her career) Marcella Detroit, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally" and released her debut al ...
was one of the female singers who provided backing vocals on the track. "Lookin' for Love" was reissued as the lead song on his October 1980 album of the same name.
Background
Lee, whose biggest hit to date had been a 1977 cover of Ricky Nelson's "
Garden Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
", had been the main nightclub act (behind Mickey Gilley himself) at Gilley's, a nightclub owned by Sherwood Cryer and country music superstar
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Leroy Gilley (March 9, 1936 – May 7, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1 ...
. Record executive Irving Azoff offered Lee the chance to record "Lookin' For Love", a song that 20-plus artists had rejected.
Critics were not kind to Lee nor the song. Country music historian Bill Malone once noted that "Lookin' for Love" – in his words, a "lilting little pop song" – became the featured song of ''Urban Cowboy'' and a huge commercial hit largely because "actor
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...
(the movie's co-star) expressed a liking for it." Critic Kurt Wolff panned the song as an example of "watered-down cowboy music."
Public reaction was much better. "Lookin' for Love" rose to No. 1 (for a three-week stay) on the ''
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 ...
''
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart, and was a No. 5
''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit as well. On the US ''
Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' Top 100, the song spent two weeks at No. 4.
The song is now recognized as a standard in country music, praised by country music fans and critics alike.
"Lookin' for Love" was certified gold in 1980 for shipments of 1,000,000 units by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Series
The song was performed by Johnny Lee in an episode of ''
CHiPs
''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...
''. It could also be heard in two episodes of ''
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
'', episodes 274 and 275.
Cover versions, parodies and tributes
Country music group
Sawyer Brown
Sawyer Brown is an American country music band. It was founded in 1981 in Apopka, Florida, by Mark Miller (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Randall (lead guitar, vocals), Joe "Curly" Smyth (drums), and ...
recorded a cover of the song on the 2000 album ''
The Hits Live''. This version peaked at No. 44 on the ''Billboard''
Hot Country Singles & Tracks
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart.
The song is also featured in the classic ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' sketch ''Buh-Weet Sings'', in which
Buckwheat
Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as '' Fago ...
from ''
Our Gang
''Our Gang'' (also known as ''The Little Rascals'' or ''Hal Roach's Rascals'') is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the ...
'' (played by
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
) sings the song as "Wookin' Pa Nub".
The ''
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' episode "
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places
"Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places" is the third episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', originally airing on October 14, 1996 in broadcast syndication. The s ...
" is titled in tribute to this song ("''par'Mach''" is defined in the episode as "the
Klingon
The Klingons ( ; Klingon: ''tlhIngan'' ) are a fictional species in the science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''.
Developed by screenwriter Gene L. Coon in 1967 for the original ''Star Trek'' (''TOS'') series, Klingons were swarthy humanoids c ...
word for love, but with more aggressive overtones").
Al Lowe
Albert William Lowe (born July 24, 1946) is an American video game designer, programmer, and musician who developed several adventure games, mostly for Sierra On-Line. He is best known for creating the ''Leisure Suit Larry'' series. He has also ...
's second ''
Leisure Suit Larry
''Leisure Suit Larry'' is an adult-themed sexual video game series created by Al Lowe. It was published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009, then by Codemasters starting in 2009. The first six ''Leisure Suit Larry'' titles, along with ''Magna Cum Lau ...
'' game, ''
'', is named after the song.
The song was referenced in ''
Operation Repo
''Operation Repo'' (formerly known as ''Operación Repo'') is an American television program that depicts the world of car repossession with a team that portrays fictionalized tales of repossessions from California's San Fernando Valley.
Re-en ...
'' in season 11 episode 7.
The Mexican group, Los Felinos, did a Spanish cover, "Buscando Amor."
The song was punned in the January 13, 2020, comic strip ''
Pearls Before Swine
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living animal shell, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pea ...
''.
Old Dominion
Old Dominion most commonly refers to:
*The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia
** Colony of Virginia
*Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia
**Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...
performed the song at the
54th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 11, 2020.
The song was used in a
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
TV commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
for
Coors Light
Coors Light is a 4.2% (US) ABV light beer brewed in Golden, Colorado; Albany, Georgia; Elkton, Virginia; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. The Canadia ...
.
The song was used in the ''
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds'' episode "Spock Amok", the fifth episode of the series' first season, on June 2, 2022. It was performed by Kings & Queens.
The song was covered by King Harvest in the album ''The Prairie Dogs - Country Classics'' for the soundtrack to ''OK Buckaroos - The Life, Music, and Good Times of Jerry Jeff Walker'' in 2010.
Sources
References
Other sources
*
AllMusic – "Johnny Lee" entry by Tom Roland
* Roland, Tom, "The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits," Billboard Books, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1991. ()
*Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944–2005," 2006.
{{authority control
1980 singles
Johnny Lee (singer) songs
Sawyer Brown songs
Song recordings produced by John Boylan (record producer)
Full Moon Records singles
Curb Records singles
Songs written by Bob Morrison (songwriter)
1980 songs