We Got Love (Real Thing)

"We Got Love" is a song[1] written by Lynsey de Paul and Terry Britten that was first recorded by British soul group, The Real Thing.[2][3][4] It was produced by the American R&B and pop record producer, Nick Martinelli, and released on the RCA label, both as a 7-inch single,[5] and a 12-inch extended play version,[6] in October 1984.[7] The lyrics of the song are about love being more important than riches and wealth,[8] and fame being meaningless. It received positive reviews from the mainstream music press,[9][10] with James Hamilton writing "Latest to benefit from a visit to Nick Martinelli in Philadelphia, the guys sound quite soulfully credible hoarsely harmonising in unison to a nagging 103bpm beat (the tempo makes it) with nice scat break" on his weekly disco page for Record Mirror.[11] It was already play listed on at least 10 of the UK's most prominent radio stations by late October,[12] as well as being played on Italian radio.[13][14]

The song entered the top 200 of the UK Singles Chart as compiled by Gallup[15] on 13 October 1984 and spent six weeks on the chart peaking at number 118.[16] The song also was a dance floor hit,[17] with a three week stretch on the Record Mirror Disco Chart where it peaked at No. 58,[18][19][20] and number 34 on the DJ Nightclub chart.[21]

"We Got Love" was also included as a track on some compilation albums, including the 1985 various artist funk/soul album Black Magic.[22] It was also included on the Indonesian album No.1 Prambors Of The Year, released on the Team Record label as a music cassette.[23][24]

The first release of the song on CD was in two different mixes ("We Got Love (dub mix))" and "We Got Love (12 inch extended version)) since both were included on the seven CD The Anthology 1972-1997, on Cherry Red Records in 2021.[25][26][27]

The song's co-writer, de Paul, released her recording of the song on her 1994 album Just a Little Time,[28][29][30] and it is available on the album Pop Masters: Sugar Me 2005 on Spotify.[31] In an interview, de Paul mentioned that the song had also been recorded by another British soul group, Imagination, but this needs verification.