Songfacts®:

• "Thing Called Love" was written by John Hiatt, a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose critical acclaim has always outpaced his popularity. He released the original version on his 1987 album Bring The Family. Bonnie Raitt covered it for her 1989 album Nick Of Time, giving it a far wider audience. In Hiatt's original, he tells the girl she's no Queen Of Sheba and he's no Prince Charming; Raitt flips it so she's no queen and he's no prince.
• The song is about two imperfect people falling in love. It's a scary feeling, but it's largely out of their control:
  
  Don't come from me and you
  It comes from up above
  
  John Hiatt was newly married when he wrote it, and the song is addressed to his wife. He talks tough in the song to let her know what she's getting into, but makes it clear he's ready to weather any storm as they start their lives together.
• Raitt released the song as the first single from her album Nick Of Time. It didn't get much attention, which wasn't surprising: Raitt was rarely getting radio play by this point and crowds at her live shows were dwindling. But then the Grammy Awards happened and Raitt won four trophies, including Album Of The Year. Suddenly, radio stations added her to their playlists and "Thing Called Love" showed up on all those adult-oriented stations you would hear at work. The album went on to sell over 5 million copies in America, more than all of her previous albums (nine of them) combined. It also put her back in the spotlight, where she used her voice to speak out for causes she believed in, like clean energy and fighting poverty.
• Dennis Quaid stars in the music video, playing a guy in a bar who takes a shine to Raitt as she sings the song. Quaid and Raitt are friends, and at the time, Dennis was making musing with members of Raitt's band.
  
  The video did very well on VH1, which launched just a few years earlier and played videos that appealed to a more mature audience.
• Raitt shows off her slide guitar skills on this track, particularly in the solo. On Hiatt's version, Ry Cooder plays the slide.
• It was pretty much inevitable that Raitt would cover a John Hiatt song. His songs often got recorded by artists more famous than him: Jeff Healey with "Angel Eyes," Rosanne Cash with "The Way We Make A Broken Heart." And Raitt, always on the lookout for a good song, has done lots of covers, often by male singers that are under the radar. "Me And the Boys" (originally by NRBQ) and "Louise" (originally by Paul Siebel) are two examples.
• Bonnie Raitt performed this song at the Grammy Awards in 1990, where she was a big winner. The last act to perform that evening was Milli Vanilli, who won for Best New Artist, an award they returned when it was revealed they didn't sing on their album.