Songfacts®:

• Tonio K wrote "Love Is" with longtime collaborator John Keller and composer Michael Caruso. The song looks at what love can do, examining the downside as well: it can break your heart.
  
  John Keller told Songfacts how it came about. "The inspiration for the music to 'Love Is' came quickly," he said. "I went to the piano and without any conscious thought, my hands fell on the opening chords. When the chords to the chorus came, I knew I had something special. The music was written in 15 minutes. The opening chord to the chorus is B-flat. I played the chord with a D in the bass, instead of the root note, B-flat. This made all the difference. It led to the chorus sequence of chords. There is an ache to the music I like. I especially like the music to the bridge.
  
  The only lyric I had initially was the opening line to the chorus, 'Love breaks your heart.' I took the song to Tonio K and he felt the chorus opening line was a cliché. Though I agreed, I told him I felt that the line had the right emotion for the music, and asked him to go with it. He followed the line with something I never would've imagined: 'Love takes no less than everything.'
  
  Tonio captured a spirituality to the song, particularly in the first verse. 'They say it's a river that circles the earth, a beam of light shining to the edge of the universe...' The lyric speaks to the universality and paradox of love."
• The song was recorded by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight for the soundtrack of the TV show Beverly Hills 90210. Not only did it feature in two episodes of the television drama series, it was also included in the spin-off show Melrose Place. As a result of this exposure, the song went to #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and to #3 on the Hot 100.
  
  "In 1992, 'Love Is' was initially brought to the attention of Giant Records' Jeff Aldrich, who was gathering material for the Beverly Hills 90210 TV soundtrack album," John Keller explained. "My publisher, Jolene Cherry, pitched the song to Curtis Stigers. Clive Davis, who was representing Stigers, was more interested in placing Stigers' material, claiming 'Love Is' wasn't a hit. Davis continued sending Stigers' songs, but fortunately for me, Aldrich, Cherry and Giant Records president, Irving Azoff, stood firmly behind the song.
  
  The album had to be completed soon, and Aldrich and Cherry quickly moved on to chose another artist. It was decided that Vanessa Williams would be a good alternative, and she was chosen to sing the song. In retrospect, Williams turned out to be a much better choice than Stigers, as she had recently released a string of hit songs. Tom Vickers believed the song could do well as a duet and recommended Brian McKnight as Williams' duet partner.
  
  Finally the song was recorded in August of 1992.
  
  Months prior to the song's release, Aldrich introduced me to record promoter Charlie Minor, who predicted the song would be a Top 5 hit.
  
  Tonio K and I were asked by our Warner Bros. publisher to contribute $3500 each (to be paid by Warner Music, but added to our publishing advances) for the purchase of a full-page promotional ad in the first issue of Billboard magazine January 1993.
  
  In January 1993, 'Love Is' entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #93 with a bullet. The song stalled for at #59, but regained its bullet the next week. It steadily rose from that point on, peaking at #3 at the end of April, kept out of the #1 spot by Janet Jackson's 'That's The Way Love Goes.'
  
  'Love Is' did go to #1 on Billboard and Radio And Records' Adult Contemporary charts. It was the fifth most played song on ASCAP in 1993.
  
  The producer of the record, Gerry Brown, regrettably chose to remove an important chord change from the chorus of the song. I hope one day to remedy this unfortunate choice."
• Speaking to Songfacts in a 2013 interview, Tonio K recalled that his original choice for vocalist on the song was the famously gruff-voiced Tom Waits. "The first person I thought of when Keller played me that track and after I had written it, the first person whose voice I wanted to hear singing that was Waits, which is ridiculous," he said. "Obviously it would have been great. It's not like I knew him well enough to call him up and say, 'Hey, you want to sing a demo for us?' So that never even came through on that set. But he is the first guy I thought of when the song was completed. I thought, Well, this song is so beautiful, what it needs is Tom Waits to put an edge on it."
• Tonio K married, then divorced, a women named Linda on two separate occasions. "Love Is" was written after his first divorce, and when it became a hit, his first wife asked for royalties. "She called up and said, 'Hey, wait a minute, how come I'm not getting anything from 'Love Is'?" Tonio told Songfacts. "I went, 'Because we weren't married when I wrote 'Love Is,' we were divorced.' 'But you would never have written that song if I hadn't made you so miserable.' [Laughing] 'Well, you're probably right.'"
• In 1984, Vanessa Williams became the first Black woman to win Miss America, but relinquished her crown when naked pictures from her younger days surfaced. She was able to establish herself as a singer and move past the controversy. By the time she recorded "Love Is," she had released two albums and had a #1 hit with "Save The Best For Last." She went on to become a successful actress as well.
  
  Brian McKnight was far less established. He released his first album in 1992, but was little known until "Love Is" took off.