"Turn Your Love Around" is a
pop/
R&B single by
George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...
. The song was written by Grammy winners
Bill Champlin
William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. H ...
of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
of
Toto and producer and guitarist
Jay Graydon
Jay Joseph Graydon (born October 8, 1949, Burbank, California) is an American songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, keyboardist, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards (in the R&B category) wi ...
to help fill out Benson's 1981 greatest hits album, ''
The George Benson Collection''. The song won a
Best R&B Song Grammy Award at the
25th Grammy Awards
The 25th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 1983, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.
Album of the Year went to Toto for ''Toto IV'', and Song of the Year went to ...
in 1983 for Champlin, Graydon, and Lukather as its co-writers.
Background
The inspiration for the song came to Graydon in the bathroom. He explained to Songfacts, "'Turn Your Love Around' was a gift, and it's the gift that keeps giving. I was in the bathroom when I came up with the melody, and I was sitting down, if you get my drift. Well, I got off the can as fast as I could and got to a
cassette machine so I wouldn't forget it. George Benson was coming in town Tuesday, so I had four days to come up with a song for ''The George Benson Collection''. And I was gettin' nothing. And then bang! I just came up with this melody for the chorus when I was in the bathroom."
The song was one of the first pop hits to use a
Linn LM-1
The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...
drum machine, programmed by the session drummer
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...
.
Personnel
*
George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...
– lead vocals
*
Jay Graydon
Jay Joseph Graydon (born October 8, 1949, Burbank, California) is an American songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, keyboardist, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards (in the R&B category) wi ...
– guitar, synthesizer, arrangements
* Jai Winding – acoustic piano,
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...
*
Steve Lukather
Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...
- piano melody
*
David Foster
David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...
– synthesizer
*
David Paich
David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American musician, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist and singer of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the ba ...
– synthesizer bass
*
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...
–
Linn LM-1
The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...
drum programming
* Gary Herbig – saxophone, flutes
*
Bill Reichenbach Jr.
William Frank Reichenbach Jr. (born November 30, 1949) is an American jazz trombonist and composer. He is the son of Bill Reichenbach, who was the drummer for Charlie Byrd from 1962 to 1973. He is best known as a session musician for television, ...
– trombone
*
Chuck Findley
Charles B. Findley (born December 13, 1947 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is an American trumpet player known for his diverse work as a session musician. He also plays other brass instruments such as flugelhorn and trombone. His technical abilities ...
– trumpet
*
Jerry Hey
Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...
– trumpet, horn arrangements
*
Bill Champlin
William Bradford Champlin (born May 21, 1947) is an American singer, musician, arranger, producer, and songwriter. He formed the band Sons of Champlin in 1965, which still performs today, and was a member of the band Chicago from 1981–2009. H ...
– backing vocals
* Venette Cloud – backing vocals
*
Carmen Twillie – backing vocals
Chart performance
Weekly singles charts
Year-end charts
"Turn Your Love Around" reached number one on the soul singles charts and number five on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles charts in early 1982, as well as the top ten on the jazz chart. It is ranked as the 27th biggest hit of 1982. In
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the song spent two weeks at number 10.
Cover versions
*A version of "Turn Your Love Around" by
Tony Di Bart
Antonio Carmine Di Bartolomeo (born 24 August 1964, Slough
Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central ...
was released in 1996.
Samples
*This song was sampled on the album version of
Lil' Kim's "
Not Tonight"
*
Spice 1
Robert Lee Greene, Jr. (born July 2, 1970), better known by his stage name Spice 1 (an acronym for "Sex, Pistols, Indo, Cash and Entertainment"), is an American rapper from Hayward, California. He began releasing albums in 1992.
Career Jive Re ...
's "
The Thug In Me" and on the Japanese 1 million hit song "Da.Yo.Ne." by
East End X Yuri East End × Yuri (pronounced “East End Plus Yuri”) was a short-lived collaboration between Japanese hip hop group East End and singer Yuri Ichii, ex-member of J-pop girl group Tokyo Performance Doll.
Members
East End members are:
*Gaku (MC) ( ...
in 1994.
References
External links
*
*"Turn Your Love Around"
Song Review
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
on
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
website
1981 singles
1982 singles
George Benson songs
Songs written by Jay Graydon
Songs written by Steve Lukather
1981 songs
Warner Records singles
Songs written by Bill Champlin
{{1980s-pop-song-stub