Lovin' You

"Lovin' You" is a 1975 hit single by Minnie Riperton. The song became the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 5, 1975. Additionally, the song reached #2 in the UK, and #3 on the R&B charts in the US. The song is especially noteworthy due to the unusually high pitch that Riperton reaches during the song. It's also noteworthy for the sound of the chirping songbirds that are heard throughout the song, which Riperton phonates by use of the Whistle Register.

Setting

It was the fourth single from the album Perfect Angel (1974). The song is notable for Riperton's use of the whistle register. While it is believed that "Lovin' You" was the first song to reach number one without the help of a percussion instrument, Jim Croce did so with "Time In A Bottle" in 1973 and "Yesterday" by The Beatles accomplished this feat ten years earlier.

According to the liner notes from Riperton's compilation CD Petals, the melody for "Lovin' You" was created as a distraction for her daughter (Maya Rudolph) when she was a baby so that Minnie and her husband Richard could hang out. Maya was in the studio with her mother on the day the song was recorded and Riperton can be heard singing her daughter's name at the end of the song, but only in the unedited or album version of the song. The song fades out early in the single edit, because the disc jockeys felt that the repeated "MAYA" was being overdone and too misunderstood,...
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