Songfacts®:

• This song deals with spirituality and religion. It was Frankie Goes To Hollywood's third single, and proved they were not afraid to tackle controversial subjects; "Relax" was about sex and "Two Tribes" was about politics.
• Anne Dudley, from the UK studio group Art Of Noise arranged the strings. In 1997 she won an Oscar for her work on the 1997 film The Full Monty.
• The song was released in December and the video had a nativity theme. The video was directed by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who were members of the band 10cc.
  
  Filmed in the desert outside Jerusalem over one week, their "Bethlehem" was an abandoned Palestinian refugee camp. "'The Power of Love' was like the planets aligning," Godley recalled to The Guardian in 2022. "It's coming up to Christmas, the song's about love, what's the most appropriate thing we could do? We didn't set out to take the piss. We wanted it to be as genuine as possible, to hit some emotional marks in the song. I think the film amplifies that in a very appropriate way."
• When this made #1, this equaled the feat of fellow Liverpool band Gerry & The Pacemakers, whose first three singles also topped the UK chart. When their fourth single, "Welcome To The Pleasuredome," peaked at #2, this meant that they were still tied with Gerry & The Pacemakers for the best ever start to a UK chart career as the latter's 4th release, "I'm The One," also reached #2. Frankie Goes To Hollywood finally topped the Pacemakers when their fifth release "Rage Hard" reached #4, compared with Gerry's #6 hit "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying." The Spice Girls blew them away in 1997 when their first 6 releases all topped the UK charts. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above
• A cover version by Gabrielle Aplin topped the UK singles chart in December 2012. Her rendition was recorded to soundtrack a John Lewis advert.
• Dalton Harris, the winner of the 2018 series of the UK version of The X Factor, recorded this as his winner's song. His version, performed as a duet with 2012 X Factor winner James Arthur, was released as a single immediately after he was crowned champion of the TV talent show. It peaked at #4 on the UK singles chart.