For Your Precious Love Explained

For Your Precious Love
Type:	single
Artist:	Jerry Butler and The Impressions
B-Side:	Sweet Was the Wine
Recorded:	1958
Studio:	Universal Recording Corp. (Chicago)
Genre:	Rhythm and blues
Label:	Falcon 1013

"For Your Precious Love" is a song written by Arthur Brooks, Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler,^[1] and performed by Jerry Butler and The Impressions in 1958. The song was ranked #335 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010.^[2]

Chart performance

It was released as a single on Vee-Jay Records and peaked at number 3 on the Most Played R&B chart, and number 11 on the Billboard Top 100 charts.^[3] In addition, a new version by Butler himself peaked at number 99 on the Hot 100 chart in March 1966.

Other versions

The song has been covered numerous times with many versions reaching the US charts as well:

• Garnet Mimms (1963, Hot 100 #26)
• Otis Redding covered the song for his album The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads in 1965.
• Oscar Toney, Jr. (1967, Hot 100 #23)
• Jackie Wilson and Count Basie (1968, Hot 100 #49)
• Linda Jones as "Your Precious Love" (1972, Hot 100 #74)
• Aaron Neville covered the song for his album Orchid in the Stone in 1986.
• The Rolling Stones covered it during their sessions for 1989's Steel Wheels album. It was never released, but can be heard on YouTube.
• A 1968 version in South Africa by the Durban based group, The Flames, reached the top spot on the local charts^[4] and has been considered a classic in the country ever since.
• Roy Meriwether covered this instrumentally, on the album “Soul Knight” (1968, Capitol Records)
• David Allan Coe on his 1984 album, “Just Divorced”.

Popular culture

• The Otis Redding recording appears at the beginning of the 2006 French thriller Tell No One by Guillaume Canet and on the film's soundtrack album.
• The same recording can also be heard in the 2009 movie Mr. Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael.
• Linda Jones version (1972) can be found among soundtracks in Ali movie of 2001 by Michael Mann.

This recording can be heard in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale directed by Robert De Niro who also stars in the movie. While the main character Cologero played by talks about his childhood and the neighborhood mobsters it can be heard in the background.

References

1. https://www.ascap.com/ace-title-search/index.aspx ASCAP Title Search
2. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . Rolling Stone . April 7, 2011 . October 1, 2015.
3. Book: Whitburn, Joel . Joel Whitburn

   . Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Joel Whitburn . 2004 . Record Research . 272.

4. Web site: Top 20 Hit Singles of 1968. South Africa's Rock Lists Website. 10 June 2013.