"Love" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Keyshia Cole Keyshia Myeshia Cole (née Johnson; born October 15, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, television personality and actress. Dubbed by critics as the " Princess of Hip-Hop Soul", she is known for her soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics. Bor ...

, written alongside producer Greg Curtis for her debut studio album '' The Way It Is'' (2005). The song was released on January 6, 2006 as the album's fourth and final single and emerged as the most successful single from the album. It peaked at number 19 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number three on the

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart, becoming her breakthrough record and preceding a string of modestly successful singles, also receiving

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

certification by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Background

"Love" was written by Cole along with producer Greg Curtis. When she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in pursuit of a record deal, "Love" was the track that she thought stood the best chance of getting her signed to a label. When she met with A&M Records President

Ron Fair Ronald Fair is an American record producer, record executive, musical arranger, recording engineer and conductor. A traditional record producer since 1970, Fair has been credited with orchestral production work on several commercially success ...

, she performed the song, and Fair signed Cole on the spot. The track tells the story of a girl who is always trying to do her best for her boyfriend, even though she believes that she is never good enough. The lyrics read: "I used to think that I wasn't fine enough and I used to think I wasn't wild enough but I won't waste my time tryin' to figure out why you are playin' games what's this all about?" The song describes the boyfriend's infidelity and Cole's struggle to believe it because she is madly in love with him. And when they start kissing...

Chart performance

"Love" debuted on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 82 and rose to number 49 in its second week, becoming the chart's "Greatest Gainer." It slowly moved up the charts with minor setbacks, and eventually reached position 19, becoming Cole's most successful solo charting single up to then until her 2007 song "

Let It Go "Let It Go" is a song from Disney's 2013 computer-animated feature film '' Frozen'', whose music and lyrics were composed by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. The song was performed in its original show ...

" reached position seven. "Love" also peaked at number three on the

chart. ''Billboard'' ranked 18th on its 2006 R&B/Hip-Hop Songs year-end chart. "Love" was eventually certified

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA).

Music video

An accompanying

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for "Love" was directed by

Benny Boom Benny Douglas (born July 22, 1971), professionally known as Benny Boom, is an American director who has worked in music, television, and film. His most commercially successful film was the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic '' All Eyez on Me''. Career Do ...

. R&B singer

Tyrese Tyrese Darnell Gibson (born December 30, 1978) is an American R&B singer and actor from Los Angeles, California. He signed with RCA Records in 1998, and released his debut single "Nobody Else" in August of that year. It peaked within the top ...

appears as Cole's boyfriend in the video which was largely shot in various

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

locations. The clip starts as two policemen pull over Cole and Tyrese after she allegedly ran a red light though she denies the accusation. Tyrese appears to be living a double life. Although Cole suspects that he is a criminal, she never confronts him since he gives the impression of being a loving boyfriend. As Cole is watching television, a video of her boyfriend and some other men robbing a bank appears on the screen. After she arrives home from a day of lavish shopping, Cole is confronted by the authorities who ask her if she knows the whereabouts of her boyfriend. Her boyfriend then picks her up, she gets into the driver's seat of the car, and we are taken back to the scene shown at the beginning of the video. In this take, however, the policeman recognizes that it is Cole and calmly calls the whole thing off by asking for her

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Intern ...

. Cole confronts her boyfriend about his criminality and decides to stay with him when he pledges to give up his life of crime to be with her. Frequently aired on

BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

's countdown show, ''

106 and Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rat ...

,'' the video made the countdown for 65 days before it was retired on April 19, 2006.

Track listings

Notes * signifies an additional producer

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''The Way It Is''. *J.D. Andrew – engineer *Ariel Choraz – assistant engineer *

– writer * Greg Curtis – engineer, producer, writer *D. Elliott – additional producer *

– additional producer, engineer *Tal Herzberg – additional producer, engineer *

Dave Pensado Dave Pensado is a Grammy Award-winning mix engineer. His career began in Atlanta in the 1970s and 1980s doing live and studio sound engineering. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1990. He mixes between 200 and 250 songs a year at Larrabee Studio ...

– engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Love (Keyshia Cole Song) 2005 songs 2006 singles 2000s ballads Keyshia Cole songs Songs written by Keyshia Cole Music videos directed by Benny Boom Contemporary R&B ballads Soul ballads A&M Records singles Interscope Records singles