My Little Red Book
by Love

Album: Love (1966)
Charted: 52
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this song, a guy loses his girlfriend and is determined to replace her by finding another girl from his little red book of phone numbers. He knows, however, that he will never find another like her.
  • Hal David and Burt Bacharach wrote this for the movie What's New, Pussycat? in 1966. The film version of the song was performed by Manfred Mann.
  • Burt Bacharach reportedly hated Love's version of the song because it was not performed in the proper rhythm and time signature. However, it was a popular song during the Summer of Love (1967), and is considered a psychedelic Pop classic. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Mary - Rodeo, CA, for above 2
  • Burt Bacharach (from Record Collector magazine): "Love had a hit with it. Wrong changes and all, and I never loved that. There were a couple of chords that were wrong and it would have been better with the right chords. It's called people reading music, people reading a lead sheet then you know what the right chord is (laughs). But I liked their energy on the song and I liked that it was a hit."
  • This was also recorded by Manfred Mann in 1965, reaching #124 in the US. In the same Record Collector interview, Bacharach commented on their interpretation: "Manfred Mann had the right changes but it was a bad record. I made the record with them. It's just a very nervous sounding record. They were uncomfortable with that song. Manfred had a tough time playing it. It took forever to make that record. But different language, different harmonic language."

Comments: 4

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 23rd 1966, Love performed "My Little Red Book" on the ABC-TV program 'Where the Action Is'...
    At the time the song was at #52, and that was its peak position on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart...
    {See next two posts below}.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn May 28th 1966, Love appeared at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California...
    At the time the quintet's "My Little Red Book" was at #68 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; twenty-two days later on June 19th, 1966 it would peak at #52 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 11 weeks...
    The house band at the Whisky A Go Go at the time was a local LA band named the Doors.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 18th 1966, Love performed "My Little Red " on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
    Two months earlier on April 24th it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #99; eventually it peaked at #52 and spent 11 weeks on the Top 100...
    The Los Angeles quintet had two other records make the Top 100; "7 and 7 Is" (peaked at #33 in 1966) and "Alone Again Or" (#99 in 1970)...
    R.I.P. lead singer Arthur Taylor Lee (1945 - 2006).
  • Louie from Lawrence, KsIn the late 60's a great Minneapolis rock band, The Liter, did a cover of this one. Very heavy and very cool. Song is found on their album, "Emerge".
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Timothy B. Schmit

Timothy B. SchmitSongwriter Interviews

The longtime Eagle talks about soaring back to his solo career, and what he learned about songwriting in the group.

80s Video Director Jay Dubin

80s Video Director Jay DubinSong Writing

Billy Joel and Hall & Oates hated making videos, so they chose a director with similar contempt for the medium. That was Jay Dubin, and he has a lot to say on the subject.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.