(You're My One and Only) True Love

Album: Nothing Matters Without Love (1989)
Charted: 23
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Songfacts®:

  • This freestyle dance song is all about finding true love. The passion is burning bright, and the rest of the world seems to disappear when the singer is with this special person.
  • Seduction was created by the New York City producers David Cole and Robert Clivilles. It was just a studio act at this point. In 1988 they released a single called "Seduction" with a house music beat and a spoken-word vocal by Carol Cooper. For "(You're My One and Only) True Love" they used Martha Wash as the vocalist but didn't credit her when they released the single. Wash was a member of the '80s group The Weather Girls, who had a big hit with "It's Raining Men." David Cole did some work with them and stayed in touch with Wash when she started doing session work later in the decade.

    When "(You're My One and Only) True Love" was released as a single, Wash's name wasn't on it, which wasn't uncommon for studio act singles targeted to dance clubs. The song became a surprise hit, so Cole and Clivilles assembled an actual group that didn't include Wash. The three girls that became Seduction recorded a full album that was released with the song "Seduction" renamed "Seduction's Theme," and the original version of "(You're My One and Only) True Love." Wash was credited, but as a backup singer. She wasn't part of the video either, which showed the new girls lip-synching her vocals.

    Wash didn't make a stink, but then it kept happening. She did vocals for an Italian act called Black Box that hired a French model (who didn't speak English) to be the visual. They had some huge hits with Wash's vocals but her name nowhere to be found on the credits: "Everybody Everybody," "I Don't Know Anybody Else," and "Strike It Up."

    Then Cole and Clivilles hired her for another of their acts: C+C Music Factory. She blasted out the vocals to "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," which became a #1 hit, again with Wash uncredited and replaced in the video. But around this time, the Milli Vanilli scandal was breaking and suddenly it wasn't cool to fake a singer. Wash took legal action and won some concessions, including credits as vocalist and a disclaimer on the video stating that she's the real singer.
  • Robert Clivilles and David Cole wrote this song with Freedom Williams, whom they used as a rapper in C+C Music Factory.
  • Like many late '80s dance songs, the bridge is a rap interlude. It starts with the line, "We're two great tastes that taste great together," a reference to the tagline for Reese's peanut butter cups.
  • A "rap version" was also released with the female vocals replaced by rap verses by Freedom Williams.
  • Seduction released just one album (at least until 2004 when a new version of the group put one out) but landed four more chart hits: "Two To Make It Right," "Heartbeat" (a cover of a song originally recorded by Taana Gardner), "Could This Be Love" and "Breakdown."

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