Hundreds upon thousands of songs have been about love. But how many make you actively fall in love with the song itself, like the lyrics are vying for our hearts? Thatโs the kind of power that only โYour Love is Kingโ by Sade can boast to have, and for this song, every re-listen is the honeymoon phase.
Sade struck gold with this hit jam from their debut album, 1984โs Diamond Life. The Britain-based band made a solid first impression on listeners on both sides of the pond, with โYour Love is Kingโ remaining Sadeโs highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart to this very day. Stateside, it reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With so many people in love with this track, itโs no wonder music credits still consider it one of the best love songs out there.
โYour Love is Kingโ by Sade had all the ingredients to be a huge success and squandered none of it
Sade had just formed in London in 1982, two years before theyโd introduce the world to โYour Love is King.โ It was formed between members Stuart Mathewman, Paul Anthony Cooke, and Paul Spencer Denman, and named after the lead singer, Sade Adu, who proved herself a titan in the industry.
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It probably shouldnโt be surprising Sade would do so well at such an early point entering the music scene. To this very day, Adu is regarded as one of the most successful female British artists of all time. Her reach proved so great that she is cited as a significant influence in contemporary music.
Adu wrote the song with bandmate Matthewman, whose career has seen him serve as a musician, songwriter, and record producer alike. He became a household name as the bandโs guitarist and saxophonist.
The track remains crowned in so many hearts
Sade was a jack of all trades for some very unique genresโfrom your popular and influential soul and smooth jazz to the more particular brands like quiet storm and sophisti-pop. The former is essentially a type of R&B thatโs performed in a particularly romantic style with heavy jazz influences.
As for the latter, it’s a pop music genre spawned from the new wave era in Britain thatโs all about marrying the best of pop with jazz and soul, all tied up in a neat ribbon of luxurious presentation. In other words, all that makes โYour Love is Kingโ so downright seductive, the very essence of falling dizzyingly and intoxicatingly in love, turned into sound.
Performing so well with their debut album was a slight double-edged sword for Sade, as nothing reached quite that unprecedented success as Diamond Life, but much of their following work still generated highly respectable numbers, with a particularly fervent shoutout to Promise, which was certified quadruple platinum in the U.S. and double platinum in the U.K. Album number five, 2000โs Lovers Rock won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. 2010โs Soldiers in Love also topped the charts on both sides of the pond. So, yes, nothing else was quite โYour Love is King,โ Sade more than earned a place on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time,โ where they ranked at number 50. Honestly, it could even be higher up for how well theyโre still making us dance.