Talk:Lookin' for Love

Elaboration?

Could the person who wrote this most interesting article possibly elaborate on some points?

What does the statement that Johnny Lee: “discovered the song in a motel room in 1979…" mean? He found the sheet music that one of the writers had inadvertently left there and Mr. Lee found a telephone number and contacted him or her? Does it mean it had already been recorded and he heard it on a juke box? If the latter, who originally recorded it?

What does: “This iconic ‘love song’ was written by two school teachers, and was actually written about a classroom of second grade children.” mean? What correlation is there between a love song (particularly in light of the lyrics of this love song!) and seven-year-olds? Did Lee radically change the lyrics? By the way, why are there three names (as opposed to two) listed in the article as the writers and why isn’t Lee’s name one of them if he wrote at least some of the music as the article seems to indicate?

What does: “Record executive Irving Azoff offered Lee the chance to record 'Lookin' For Love,' a song that 20-plus artists had rejected.” mean? Does this indicate that Lee brought the finished song to Azoff and the latter finally agreed to let Lee sing it personally as his twenty-something choice? Over twenty singers rejected a gold record that became number one on the country charts with tremendous crossover success? There seems like there must be more to the story than that. If not, then there must not be any such thing as an expert when it comes to music! Thay were all that wrong?

This is a potentially great article about a great country song with a seemingly fascinating back story. However, there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions and possible inconsistencies within it that need clarifying. I wish I could help as I always loved this song. I hope someone else will. Thanks.HistoryBuff14 (talk) 23:07, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

HistoryBuff14 -- Thanks for your comments. As you know, Wikipedia articles require reliable sources to back up statements made within any and all articles. While your questions are certainly legitimate and can lead to any number of conclusions, some of them statements which may have led to your questions are written the way they are based on available reliable sources found by the authors (note I said "authors" because more than one contributor has made edits to this article). It does not mean that reliable sources that would answer your questions about the songwriters' motivation in writing the song, why various other recording artists rejected the song, etc., are unavailable. But if they are not available, the article can still stand on the sourced statements. It also means we cannot speculate as to why the songwriters wrote the song for second graders, etc., because that could be original research. If you -- or any other author -- have answers to your questions that can be backed by reliable sources, by all means add them and source them. But if not, then the world will not come to an end; it just means that some things simply have no explanation. Thanks again for your interest in this article, and remember that Wikipedia invites all positive contributions and constructive criticism of its articles. [[Briguy52748 (talk) 23:34, 25 October 2010 (UTC)]]

--Well, thanks for at least acknowledging my query even if you apparently can’t at this time add any more insights. I shall try to do so myself when I have a few minutes. I found a contact email address for Bob Morrison, one of the songwriters indicated in the article, and I assume on the label. (Actually, Mr. Morrison, although apparently not a household name, has had a successful country music songwriting career and is a very interesting man. He has a degree in—of all things—nuclear engineering! (Talk about a radical career change!) I’m surprised he doesn’t have a Wikipedia article in his own right. He’s certainly more accomplished and interesting than are the subjects of a great many lame Wiki articles.)

I have no idea if Mr. Morrison will answer my query. Until and if he does, my guess is that the two female names listed as writers are the schoolteachers referred to in the article and that they wrote the lyrics, while Mr. Morrison wrote the music; or perhaps the two women wrote both (either separately or together) and Mr. Morrison made substantial changes, thus meriting him the credit. It seems a safe bet that Mr. Lee had nothing material to do with either writing the lyrics or the music or else his name would be credited as a writer. Thus, the article and the source it is based upon is just plain wrong.

My guess is that whatever contribution Mr. Morrison did make was on an ex-post-facto basis after Mr. Lee “discovered” it, whatever that might mean. My guess is that a mutual acquaintance of Mr. Lee’s and the two schoolteachers brought the song to his attention while Mr. Lee had been in town. Mr. Lee (perhaps in hopes of recording it) brought it either to Mr. Morrison (who had a connection to the eventual producer) or to the producer who had a connection to Mr. Morrison and whom he asked to either write the music or overhaul it in some manner.

As to what the song could possibly have to do with such young children, I suspect the song was written for them and not about them as the article (and presumably the source) states. This makes me think that the schoolteachers wrote both the lyrics and the music and hoped to entertain the kids with the catchy, mellow melody and Mr. Morrison later made substantive changes.

Finally, if the article is correct that over twenty singers refused to sing the song, then I am at a loss to even speculate how that could be. Why would an established recording producer have so much trouble in finding a singer for any song he wanted to record? As I said, I think there must be more to the story than that. If it’s true, then that means that Mr. Lee came close to having been left out of the picture altogether despite his presumably “discovering” the piece and recognizing its potential. I’m sure glad that in the end he wasn’t!

This is, of course, all just fun speculation and to note my musings for the record to see how right I am in these speculations if I can eventually get a definitive answer from Mr. Morrison or elsewhere. Thanks again for the response, and I shall report back if I am successful in finding the answers I seek.HistoryBuff14 (talk) 17:48, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

—WOW! Right after I made this post a year and a half or so ago now, I became preoccupied and never did follow up with the email to Bob Morrison. I forgot all about it until just recently. Nevertheless, both he and Wanda Mallette, one of his co-writers of “Lookin’ for Love,” apparently discovered the article on their own and made contributions to factually correct it. I think that was exceedingly kind of them to take the time, and it is much appreciated. I see that at least some of my speculations were close to the truth.

I’d like to take the time now to also thank them, as well as Patti Ryan their co-writer, for giving us this gem of a country music song. I have listened to and appreciated it for years now, along with a great many others, I'm sure!HistoryBuff14 (talk) 22:32, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

First Person Style

I'm new to Wikipedia editing and am not sure how to flag things, but a first person account like this is not encyclopedic. Grundoon17 (talk) 16:54, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Grass Roots rip-off/influence

The 1971 Grass Roots song "Sooner or Later" has a bridge that went "Looking for love; In all the wrong places; Looking for love; In all the wrong faces". This was 9 years before the Johnny Lee song was released. I'm guessing this was a case of "borrowing inspiration", but that's simply a guess.PhilOSophocle (talk) 01:13, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

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