"Loving You" is a song by Irish singer Feargal Sharkey, which was released in 1985 as a non-album single. It was written by Sharkey and

Jo Callis John William "Jo" Callis (born 2 May 1951) is an English musician and songwriter who played guitar with the Edinburgh based punk rock band The Rezillos (under the name Luke Warm), and post-punk band Boots for Dancing before joining The Human ...

, and produced by

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

drummer

Roger Taylor Roger Taylor may refer to: *Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) (born 1949), drummer for Queen *Roger Taylor (Duran Duran drummer) (born 1960), drummer for Duran Duran *Roger Taylor (author), author of epic fantasy Hawklan series *Roger Taylor (college pr ...

and David Richards. "Loving You" reached No. 26 in 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 ...

and remained in the chart for eleven weeks. Taylor provided additional drums and synths on "Loving You". The single's B-side, "Is This An Explanation?", was exclusive to the single. It was written by Sharkey and Callis, and produced by Sharkey.

Background

On the inspiration behind the song, Sharkey revealed in 1985, "I thought I'd write a song about the first time I made love to someone - putting it across in a song is very difficult."

Music video

The song's music video was shot in an aircraft hangar which belonged to

Billy Smart Jr Billy Smart Jr. (born Stanley Smart, 15 October 1934 – 23 May 2005) was a British circus performer and impresario. Biography Smart, whose real name was Stanley, was the tenth child and third son of Billy Smart Sr. His father was a showman a ...

. A 35 feet tall polystyrene statue was built for the video. Sharkey told ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...

'' in 1985, "The idea for the video was initially mine then it was expanded upon by Godley & Creme. The bloke who built the statue did the masks in Star Wars. Unfortunately the hangar wasn't quite big enough for us to get some of the shots from above that we wanted."

Critical reception

On its release, Mike Gardner of ''

'' wrote, "On the surface this sounds like the overwrought idiot offspring of ' Chariots of Fire' and ' Amazing Grace' - it's got more synthesisers than the entire back catalogue of

Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

and

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depeche ...

put together - and it takes ages to get going. But for all that, it has a strangely endearing quality to it."

Formats

Chart performance

Personnel

* Feargal Sharkey - vocals, producer of "Is This An Explanation?" * Roger Taylor - producer of "Loving You", additional drums and synths on "Loving You" * Dave Richards - producer of "Loving You" * Caryn Gough - sleeve design * Richard Haughton - photography

References

{{authority control 1985 singles Feargal Sharkey songs Pop ballads 1985 songs Virgin Records singles Songs written by Jo Callis