“It Must Be Love” Will Give You All The Feels

When Don William added Garth Fundis as co-producer for his album “Expressions” it was a major change for his career. Actually, Fundis had been there for William’s first two albums. He worked as the staff engineer for Jack Clement Studios. He was responsible for Crystal Gayle’s runaway hit “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”

He transitioned and went indie so he did not engineer William’s third album “Volume III”, but, Williams hired him to engineer every subsequent album after that.

Being part of the album, “Expressions,” provided a wonderful appearance for Fundis as a producer. “Tulsa Time” hit number one, “Lay Down Beside Me” went to number three, and the third single “It Must Be Love” returned Williams to the top spot of Billboard’s Country Singles chart on September 29, 1979.

It was Don’s ninth of seventeen #1 hits.

The Song

“It Must Be Love” was written by Bob McDill. He was ranked by Billboard Magazine, as the second all-time most prolific songwriter in country music history. 152 of his songs appeared on Billboard’s country charts, slightly more than Howard’s 147, but Howards ranked higher in overall because some of his songs were on the chart for a longer period of time.

McDill was inducted into The Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1985.

Reception

Twenty-one years after Williams’ cut of “It Must Be Love” reached #1, Alan Jackson recorded the song for his “Under The Influence” project. This album of covers was released in 2000. Six singles were released from this album, but only two songs went to the Top Ten and one of those became a #1 hit: “It Must Be Love,” marking one of the rare times in country music history that a song has reached the top spot twice.

“It Must Be Love” perfectly describes that complete feeling of total bliss when you realize you’re in love with someone and something inside you tells you that he or she is the one and you can’t see anything wrong in the world. It’s just perfect.