It Must Be Love

 Photographer: David Vance.

"It Must Be Love" is a song written and originally recorded in 1971 by Labi Siffre. However, the best known version was recorded by ska/pop band Madness in 1981.

The song was featured in the 1989 movie, The Tall Guy starring Jeff Goldblum, Rowan Atkinson and Emma Thompson. Suggs also appeared in the movie whilst singing this song. The single was reissued to tie in with the film but was not a hit on that occasion.

A version with altered lyrics was used to advertise Midland Bank in 1994, and Madness' version was also used to advertise LoveFilm in 2009. Siffre's original version also appeared in a 2007 UK television advertisement for Vodafone.

Labi Siffre (born 25 June 1945) is a British poet, songwriter, musician and singer most widely known as the writer and singer of "(Something Inside) So Strong", "It Must Be Love" and "I Got The", the sampled rhythm track which provides the basis for a number of well-known hip hop tracks such as Eminem’s breakthrough hit single, "My Name Is".

Born the fourth of five children, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital Hammersmith, London to a British (Barbadian / Belgian) mother and a Nigerian father, Siffre was brought up in Bayswater and Hampstead and educated at a Catholic independent day school, St Benedict's School, in Ealing, west London.

Jazz and Blues records provided his musical education: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus among many. Jimmy Reed and Wes Montgomery loomed large as guitar influences; Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed and Mel Tormé as vocal influences.

Openly gay, Siffre met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in July 1964. Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they became legally recognized partners when the Act entered into force in December 2005.

Madness are a British pop/ska band from Camden Town, London, that formed in 1976.[2] The band continue to perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members, although their line-up has varied slightly over the years. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late-1970s 2 Tone ska revival.

Madness achieved most of their success in the early to mid 1980s. Both Madness and UB40 spent 214 weeks on the UK singles charts over the course of the decade, holding the record for most weeks spent by a group in the 1980s UK singles charts. However, Madness achieved this in a shorter time period (1980–1986).

It Must Be Love Lyrics

Artist (Band):Madness

I never thought I'd miss you

Half as much as I do

And I never thought I'd feel this way

The way I feel

About you

As soon as I wake up

Every night, every day

I know that it's you I need

To take the blues away

It must be love, love, love,

It must be love, love, love,

Nothing more, nothing less

Love is the best

How can it be that we can

Say so much without words?

Bless you and bless me

Bless the bees

And the birds

I've got to be near you

Every night, every day

I couldn't be happy

Any other way

It must be love, love, love,

It must be love, love, love,

Nothing more, nothing less

Love is the best

As soon as I wake up

Every night, every day

I know that it's you I need

To take the blues away

It must be love, love, love,

It must be love, love, love' It must be love, love, love...