"Real Love" is a song written by

David Malloy David Ernest Malloy is an American country music and pop songwriter, record producer and A&R executive with 41 number one hits. He had received multiple Grammy nominations, as writer and/or producer, and has worked with many artists and proj ...

, Richard "Spady" Brannon and Randy McCormick, and recorded as a duet by American entertainers

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album ...

and

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...

that topped the U.S. country singles charts in August 1985. It was released in April 1985 the second single and title track from Parton's '' Real Love'' album. Released after the top-ten success of "Don't Call It Love", the song became Parton and Rogers' second country chart-topper as a duet act. However, "Real Love" did not fare as well on the pop singles charts as 1983's " Islands in the Stream" had done, stalling at number 91 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 13 on the

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart. Unlike "Islands in the Stream," "Real Love" was not composed by the Bee Gees who had composed and produced Rogers' 1983 chart topping album ''

Eyes That See in the Dark ''Eyes That See in the Dark'' is the 15th studio album by Kenny Rogers, first released by RCA Nashville in August 1983. Background ''Eyes That See in the Dark'' marks Barry Gibb's third production project of the 1980s outside of the Bee Gees. Gi ...

'' which also included another four of Rogers' hit singles from 1983 and 1984, namely "Buried Treasure", "This Woman", "Midsummer Nights" and "Evening Star". Parton and Rogers embarked on a nine-city U.S. concert tour in February 1985, from which an HBO concert special, "Real Love" was filmed; a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for the "Real Love" single was produced using footage from the HBO special. Parton also recorded a solo version in November 1984, which was later included on the 1995 album ''I Will Always Love You: The Essential Dolly Parton One''.

Chart positions

References

External links

Real Love lyrics at Dolly Parton On-Line
1985 singles Dolly Parton songs Kenny Rogers songs Male–female vocal duets Songs written by David Malloy Song recordings produced by David Malloy RCA Records Nashville singles Songs written by Randy McCormick 1985 songs {{1985-country-song-stub