"What Is Love?" is the second single by musician Howard Jones. Released in 1983, from the album ''

Human's Lib ''Human's Lib'' is the debut album by the British pop musician Howard Jones. It was released in March 1984 and entered the UK Albums Chart at the no. 1 spot, spending a total of 57 weeks in the charts. The album has been certified double platin ...

'', it reached no. 2 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 ...

, becoming the singer's highest chart placing to date. In the US, it peaked at no. 33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was originally entitled "Love?" on the demo tape (listing below) which Howard Jones recorded in 1982, which itself was available at his gigs. Jones also used the question mark motif around this time on posters advertising his gigs; posters which also hung behind him on stage at his early 1980s

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed whe ...

appearances and which read simply "Howard Jones?".

Background

Howard Jones said, "I didn't want to write songs about, 'I love you, baby, you've hurt me and I'm sad.' I didn't want to write songs about co-dependency. If I was going to write about love, I wanted to say what do we mean by love? What is it, really? You can't be dependent upon another person for your happiness. So you'd better question this idea of romantic love pretty soon, otherwise you're going to be pretty miserable. So that's really what that song is."

Music video

The music video to ''What Is Love?'' was filmed in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and features Jones walking around the city and a park.

Personnel

Credits sourced from "One Two Testing" and "Electricity Club" * Howard Jones - lead and backing vocals,

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...

, SCI Prophet T-8,

Roland Juno-60 The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally control ...

and

Moog Prodigy The Moog Prodigy was a monophonic analogue synthesizer produced by Moog Music from 1979 to 1984. Of the 11,000 produced, versions released after 1981 included a control voltage/gate input on the back that allowed the VCF to be triggered and cont ...

synthesizers,

E-mu Drumulator E-mu Drumulator is a sample-based drum machine by E-mu Systems. Introduced in 1983 at a price of $995 USD, the Drumulator was the first programmable drum machine with built-in samples for under $1,000, resulting in sales of over 10,000 units over tw ...

programming *

Rupert Hine Rupert Neville Hine (21 September 1947 – 4 June 2020) was an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He produced albums for artists including Rush, Kevin Ayers, Tina Turner, Howard Jones, Saga, the Fixx, Bob Geldof, Thompson Twins ...

- backing vocals

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Track listing

;7" #"What Is Love?" (Jones/Bryant) – 3:41 #"It Just Doesn't Matter" (Jones/Bryant) – 3:36 ;12" #"What Is Love?" (Extended Version) (Jones/Bryant) – 6:33 #"It Just Doesn't Matter" (Jones/Bryant) – 4:30 #"Hunt The Self" (Live at the Marquee) (Jones/Bryant) – 5:36 ;Limited Edition 12" A limited edition pack was also released featuring the standard 12-inch single and a "Live at the Marquee" bonus 7-inch single which featured the tracks: #"What Can I Say" (Jones/Bryant) – 5:10 #"Bounce Right Back" (Jones) – 5:23 ;Demo Tape #"What Can I Say" #"Always Asking Questions" #"Human's Lib" #"Love?" (aka "What Is Love?") #"Risk"

References

External links

The Official Howard Jones Website Discography
{{Authority control 1983 songs 1983 singles 1984 singles Howard Jones (English musician) songs Song recordings produced by Rupert Hine Songs written by Howard Jones (English musician) Warner Music Group singles