1983 · Behind the Songs
“A mid-tempo Gamble and Sigler gem that hip-hop would later borrow.”
By 1983 Patti LaBelle had finally broken through as a solo R&B star with “If Only You Knew.” Its follow-up, “Love, Need and Want You,” kept the same team and the same restraint. Written and produced by Bunny Sigler and Kenny Gamble — half of the legendary Gamble and Huff partnership — it was recorded in 1982 at Sigma Sound in Philadelphia with the studio’s own musicians, and released in January 1983 as the second single from I’m in Love Again.
The record is a study in holding back. LaBelle sings it in her mid-range, a warmer and more conversational register than the straight soprano of her earlier records, over a mid-tempo Philly soul groove. It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard R&B chart — a solid hit, but not the kind that overshadows everything around it. The album version runs five minutes; the single edit trims it to 3:40.
What makes the song’s story unusual is its second life. The track became a quiet favorite of hip-hop and R&B producers: Nelly and Kelly Rowland built their Grammy-winning 2002 hit “Dilemma” around an interpolation of it — with LaBelle herself appearing in the video as Rowland’s mother — while Outkast sampled it on “GhettoMusick” from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, with LaBelle performing in both the re-recorded version and the video. Lloyd’s 2010 single “Lay It Down” drew on it too, and LaBelle added vocals to its remix; Jaguar Wright later covered the song outright.
Few songs from the Philadelphia International orbit traveled that far into the next century. “Love, Need and Want You” never needed to shout — it just waited for new generations to find it.