There aren’t many songs that have been hits in two different decades for two different groups, are made into a movie and an off-Broadway show, and are referenced in at least two additional songs. You would think such a song would be one amazing piece of music! And while I do love the song, by no stretch of the imagination would I call it amazing.
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine tells us the sad tale of a young man who can’t seem to get a girlfriend. So he swallows his pride and visits a Gypsy fortune-teller. She reads his palm and prescribes Love Potion Number 9. He drinks it down, and, after a bit of temporal confusion, begins to sexually assault everyone he sees, ending with an officer of the law. He’s lucky he didn’t get arrested! (Remind me of why I love this song? ‘Cause put like this, it’s coming across as a little pervy.)
I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine
I told her that I was a flop with chicks
I've been this way since 1956
She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said "What you need is Love Potion Number Nine"
She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"
It smelled like turpentine, it looked like India ink
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink
I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink
I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
An alternate ending the Clovers used is: I had so much fun that I'm going back again,
I wonder what'll happen with Love Potion Number Ten?
I looked for funny stories about how this song came to be written and came up with nothing. The song-writing duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller were hard-working, professional songwriters. This was what they did, and they were very, very good at it. They were also instrumental in giving us what we think of as the R&B sound.
They composed the song in 1959 and it was recorded by the Clovers, a R&B/doo-wop group. That version went to #23 on the Billboard charts. This is the version with the cool deep voice singing, “I took a drink.”
The following year, 1960, Johnny Tillotson recorded a song called “Poetry in Motion” that contains this lyric: Poetry in motion, all that I adore/ No number nine love potion could make me love her more.
This brings us to 1964 when the song was recorded by the Searchers, a Liverpudlian group following the rise of the Beatles. They took the song to #3 on the charts. This is the version with the cool guitar solo in the middle.
in 1992, Love Potion #9 the movie came out starring Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan. It is just as forgettable as it sounds. (Although I liked Anne Bancroft as Madame Ruth.) The movie uses the Clovers’ version as well as Carole Davis over the closing credits.
Three years later, in 1995, Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs of Lieber and Stoller opened off-Broadway. “Love Potion #9” is in the second act. Two years after this, Smokey Joe’s original cast recording won a Grammy award.
More of "#9"
So, there are the two hits, a movie, an off-Broadway musical review, and one mention. Where’s the other mention? We get to move forward in time to 2013, and across the seas to Korea. T-ara, a female K-pop group, recorded a song called “Number Nine” that looks to be referencing “Love Potion”:
You put me
in so much pain
Do you remember us back
when the stars were shining?
You hateful person,
who has stolen my heart
Hey, it hurts
so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
Stop playing
games with me
It’s hard being played with
Do you remember
the days when
we made the figs
bloom into flowers?
It hurts so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
When I close my eyes and
open them, I’m still here alone
I’m in the dark in the dark
I’m dancing in the dark
I need you,
don’t leave me
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all
of my heart, where are you?
Come back to me number nine
That’s quite the song. I like the Sailor Moon (tuxedo mask) reference.
I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about Love Potion Number 9, or favorite versions, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.
I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine tells us the sad tale of a young man who can’t seem to get a girlfriend. So he swallows his pride and visits a Gypsy fortune-teller. She reads his palm and prescribes Love Potion Number 9. He drinks it down, and, after a bit of temporal confusion, begins to sexually assault everyone he sees, ending with an officer of the law. He’s lucky he didn’t get arrested! (Remind me of why I love this song? ‘Cause put like this, it’s coming across as a little pervy.)
I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine
I told her that I was a flop with chicks
I've been this way since 1956
She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said "What you need is Love Potion Number Nine"
She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"
It smelled like turpentine, it looked like India ink
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink
I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink
I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
An alternate ending the Clovers used is: I had so much fun that I'm going back again,
I wonder what'll happen with Love Potion Number Ten?
I looked for funny stories about how this song came to be written and came up with nothing. The song-writing duo of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller were hard-working, professional songwriters. This was what they did, and they were very, very good at it. They were also instrumental in giving us what we think of as the R&B sound.
They composed the song in 1959 and it was recorded by the Clovers, a R&B/doo-wop group. That version went to #23 on the Billboard charts. This is the version with the cool deep voice singing, “I took a drink.”
The following year, 1960, Johnny Tillotson recorded a song called “Poetry in Motion” that contains this lyric: Poetry in motion, all that I adore/ No number nine love potion could make me love her more.
This brings us to 1964 when the song was recorded by the Searchers, a Liverpudlian group following the rise of the Beatles. They took the song to #3 on the charts. This is the version with the cool guitar solo in the middle.
in 1992, Love Potion #9 the movie came out starring Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan. It is just as forgettable as it sounds. (Although I liked Anne Bancroft as Madame Ruth.) The movie uses the Clovers’ version as well as Carole Davis over the closing credits.
Three years later, in 1995, Smokey Joe’s Café: The Songs of Lieber and Stoller opened off-Broadway. “Love Potion #9” is in the second act. Two years after this, Smokey Joe’s original cast recording won a Grammy award.
More of "#9"
So, there are the two hits, a movie, an off-Broadway musical review, and one mention. Where’s the other mention? We get to move forward in time to 2013, and across the seas to Korea. T-ara, a female K-pop group, recorded a song called “Number Nine” that looks to be referencing “Love Potion”:
You put me
in so much pain
Do you remember us back
when the stars were shining?
You hateful person,
who has stolen my heart
Hey, it hurts
so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
Stop playing
games with me
It’s hard being played with
Do you remember
the days when
we made the figs
bloom into flowers?
It hurts so much right now
(Number nine)
Only you can make me laugh
(Number nine)
Only you can make me cry
(Number nine)
You are my tuxedo mask
The hero who protected me
But you left me, and I hate you
I need you, number nine,
number nine, number nine
Don’t leave me
Did you forget me number nine,
number nine, number nine
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all of my heart,
where are you?
Come back to me number nine
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
I’m addict I’m addict
When I close my eyes and
open them, I’m still here alone
I’m in the dark in the dark
I’m dancing in the dark
I need you,
don’t leave me
Without you,
I can’t fall asleep at night
It’s because I’m in so much pain
It’s because I’m in so much pain
You, who has taken all
of my heart, where are you?
Come back to me number nine
That’s quite the song. I like the Sailor Moon (tuxedo mask) reference.
I’ll be posting some versions of this song every day on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so visit there to hear them! If you have any stories about Love Potion Number 9, or favorite versions, let me know in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you.
I’ll be posting roughly once a week with a new song. I’m trying to make the songs seasonal, but I can make exceptions. So, if there’s a song that you’d like some background on, or questions about what it means, let me know.
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
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