Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
Single by Edison Lighthouse
B-side	"Every Lonely Day"
Released	January 1970 (UK) 21 February 1970 (US)
Recorded	England, November 1969
Genre	Pop rock
Length	2:51
Label	Bell Records
Writer(s)	Tony Macaulay / Barry Mason and Sylvan Whittingham
Producer(s)	Tony Macaulay
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Edison Lighthouse singles chronology
"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (1970) "It's Up to You Petula" (1971)

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is a popular song by "one-hit wonder" Edison Lighthouse. The single hit the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart on the week ending on 31 January 1970, where it remained for a total of five weeks.^[1] It also became the first number one single of the 1970s (not counting Rolf Harris' "Two Little Boys" which was a holdover from 1969).

Song profile

"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Tony Macaulay, Barry Mason and Sylvan Whittingham. Essentially, they were a studio group with prolific session singer Tony Burrows providing the vocals. When the song became a hit, a group needed to be assembled rapidly to feature the song on Top of the Pops, a popular TV show. Sylvan Whittingham found a group called 'Greenfields' and brought them to Tony's auditions a week before their appearance on Top of the Pops. Once chosen and rehearsed, they appeared on the show as 'Edison Lighthouse' to mime to the fastest climbing number 1 hit record in history. Burrows sang the song on the programme during his third appearance on the same show with three different groups.

"Love Grows" reached number 5 on US pop chart, number 3 in Canada, and number 1 on the UK Singles Chart for five weeks in January and February 1970. It reached number 3 in South Africa in February 1970.^[2]

In an interview in 2003, Rob Grill of The Grass Roots said that the song had been offered to them, but they turned it down.

Chart performance

Cover versions

• Jerry Vale covered the song on his 1970 album Let It Be.
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad covered the song in 1970 as "Där du går lämnar kärleken spår" (Where you go, love leaves traces).^[13]
• Uschi Glas covered the song in 1970 in German as "Wenn dein Herz brennt".
• In 1984, Hong Kong singer Samuel Hui covered the song in Cantonese as "Tsui Hei Foon Lei" (最喜歡你, which means "like you the most").
• British indie pop band The Siddeleys covered the song on the 1990 compilation Alvin Lives (In Leeds) - Anti Poll Tax Trax.
• In 1995, Swedish dansband "Distance" (later "Frida & dansbandet") covered the song with lyrics in the Swedish language, as "När du ler" ("When you smile").^[13]
• In 2002, the Not Lame Recordings CD Right to Chews—a collection of modern bands performing cover versions of bubblegum pop songs—included Beagle's version of the song.
• In 2007, Little Man Tate did a cover of this song at their concerts at the Boardwalk, Sheffield and at the Bolton Soundhouse.
• Freedy Johnston covered the song on his 2001 album Right Between the Promises.
• Les Fradkin covered the song on his 2004 album Perfect World.
• In 2012 Dennis Diken with Bell Sound recorded a version for a fundraising album titled Super Hits of the Seventies for radio station WFMU.

In the media

• The song is featured in the closing scenes of the film Shallow Hal (in which the female lead played by Gwyneth Paltrow is named Rosemary).
• It serves as the musical theme of the film Little Manhattan (wherein the female love interest is also named Rosemary), performed by Freedy Johnston.
• It was featured in a fifth season episode of The Sopranos ("All Happy Families...") during a hit on a friend of Little Carmine Lupertazzi.
• It is referred to in the narration of Reservoir Dogs, as part of the fictional "K-BILLY's Super Sounds of the '70s" radio show, but the song itself is not played.
• It is parodied in the game Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine, at the title theme for Act 3: Shallow Al.
• It acts as the closing theme to The Kennedys.

References