Beyonce got her inspiration from another female icon in music when writing her hit “Love on Top.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Released as the fourth single off her 2011 album, 4, “Love on Top” was written by Beyonce, Terius Nash, and Shea Taylor and was co-produced by the singer and Taylor. The song was written while Beyonce was in an Etta James state of mind, tapping into the inspiration she felt while portraying James in the 2008 biopic, Cadillac Records. She turned this inspiration into a joyful song that expresses the pure feeling of love.
Meaning Behind the Song
“When I played Etta James, it was the most I’d learned about myself until the recording of this album,” Beyonce explained on her website in the weeks leading up to the release of 4.
“When I went into the studio I used the same passion, honesty, and approach with my vocals I channeled as Etta James,” she continued. “It does not sound like the vocals on my past albums. It’s a lot rawer. It comes from a deep place.”
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Beyoncé Wrote for Other Artists]
The lyrics of “Love on Top” are bursting with joy as Beyonce sings of finding the love of her life, depicted through such imagery as feeling like the sun is shining down on her whenever he’s near and how she can’t stop smiling from ear to ear.
Come on, baby, it’s you / You’re the one that gives your all / You’re the one I can always call / When I need to make everything stop / Finally, you put my love on top, she cheers in the chorus. “I realized that Etta James was so unapologetic, bold and strong that playing her was a big risk for me,” Beyonce continued of James’ impact in a 2008 interview with Billboard. “It gave me the confidence and the push to challenge myself a little more with my music.”
True to her word, Beyonce did challenge herself as a vocalist by repeating the chorus multiple times at the end of the song, her voice getting higher with each reprise. Engineer DJ Swivel recalls how he thought they were done recording the song when Beyonce requested to do another round of the chorus that would raise her voice two half steps from the original key of the song.
“We do the next half step up and she records it, sounds great as always, and then she says, ‘Do another one,'” Young explains. When they got to the sixth round, Young expressed concern that she may shatter her voice.
“Really, that’s nonsense, because she has probably the most powerful voice I’ve heard,” he reflects. “There’s no hurting that voice.” She then goes beyond her full voice into a falsetto range and professed that she could likely go three more rounds in falsetto, but Swivel convinced her that she’d nailed it. “That was one of the most innovative songs I think I’ve ever worked on.”
Music Video
The hitmaker turned to other musical inspirations like New Edition and The Jackson Five for the vibrant music video that nodded to New Edition’s video for their 1988 hit, “If It Isn’t Love,” which featured the five-member band performing a choreographed dance in front of microphones inside a studio. Dressed in a black leotard and military-style cap, Beyonce took to Canoe Studios in New York City where she and five male dancers recreated the choreographed scene. The video premiered exclusively in Australia before being released to the rest of the world.
[RELATED: Beyoncé’s Historic Grammy Night: Breaks Record for Most Grammys Won]
“I have worked very hard on this video, this song is special to me and I had an idea for the video based on some of my favorite male groups,” Beyonce shared in a statement on her website. “I remember seeing videos from New Edition, The Jackson 5, and the Temptations, bands I love for their beautiful harmonies, and precise choreography and I always wanted to make a video and be part of a boy group myself. It was so much fun. I put my heart and soul into ‘Love On Top’ and I hope you love it.”
Impact
“Love on Top” debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B / Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song grew significantly in popularity when Beyonce performed it at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and revealed that she was pregnant with her first child, Blue Ivy Carter. It ultimately charted around the world and was a hit in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Hungary, South Africa, and more. It also earned the singer a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2013.
Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
