Love Is Like a Heat Wave (1963)

"Heat Wave" (also known as "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave") is a 1963 song written by Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was first made popular by the Motown vocal group Martha and the Vandellas, who issued it as a single on July 10, 1963, on the Motown subsidiary Gordy Records. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot R&B chart (where it stayed for four weeks) and number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It was covered 12 years later by vocalist Linda Ronstadt on her Platinum-selling 1975 album Prisoner in Disguise. Ronstadt's version of the song was released as a single in September 1975, reaching number 5 in on the Hot 100, number 4 on the Cash Box chart, and 6 in Record World. In 2010, a version by Phil Collins spent a single week at number 28 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Martha and the Vandellas original version

Background, composition and reception

"Heat Wave" was one of many songs written and produced by Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was the second hit collaboration between them and Martha and the Vandellas after "Come and Get These Memories". The lyrics of "Heat Wave" feature the song's narrator singing about a man who has her heart "burning with desire" and "going insane", and asking, "is this the way love's supposed to be?" Cash Box described it as a "danceable rock-a-twister" that could return the group to the Top 20. The song is often referred to as "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave", but the title on the label of the original 1963 single was simply "Heat Wave".

Produced and composed with a gospel backbeat, jazz overtones and, doo-wop call and responsive vocals, "Heat Wave" was one of the first songs to exemplify the style of music later termed as the "Motown Sound". The single was a breakthrough hit, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and at number 1 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. It also garnered the group's only Grammy Award nomination for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording for 1964, making the Vandellas the first Motown group ever to receive a Grammy Award nomination.

Some versions of the song have a radio edit that cuts out the repetition of the ending of the instrumental portion of the song, which is in one key, featuring the repeated saxophone and piano portion. In a version issued on the compilation Gold, the instrumental is extended as well as the ending portion, which includes Martha Reeves singing more ad-libs while the backing vocalists continue to sing the word "burning" repeatedly.

The success of "Heat Wave" helped popularize both Martha and the Vandellas and Holland-Dozier-Holland, while cementing Motown's prominence.

Influence and use in other media

The Martha and the Vandellas version was featured in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band, in a scene in which several of the characters perform an impromptu line dance to the recording. It also appeared in Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie and was also featured in the 1979's More American Graffiti and is included on the film's soundtrack album. In the film Sister Act (1992), Whoopi Goldberg sings the song (arranged by Marc Shaiman) as part of her Vegas nightclub act saluting 1960s girl groups.

In 1987, the song was covered for an L&P advertisement by a New Zealand supergroup (later renamed "80 in the Shade") featuring Margaret Ulrich, Annie Crummer and others.

In a 2007 DVD titled The Lovin' Spoonful with John Sebastian – Do You Believe in Magic, John Sebastian illustrates how he sped up the three-chord intro from "Heat Wave" to come up with the intro to "Do You Believe in Magic".

The song was ranked number 50 among the greatest singles ever made in Dave Marsh's 1989 book The Heart of Rock & Soul. Billboard 's editorial staff named it number 12 on their list of 100 greatest girl group songs of all time. In 2021, it was listed at number 257 on Rolling Stone's top 500 best songs of all time.

Credits and personnel

• Lead vocals – Martha Reeves
• Backing vocals – Rosalind Ashford and Annette Beard
• Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier
• Written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland

Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers:

• Richard "Pistol" Allen – drums
• James Jamerson – double bass
• Joe Hunter – piano
• Robert White – guitar
• Eddie Willis – guitar
• Mike Terry – baritone saxophone

Linda Ronstadt version

Background and reception

Linda Ronstadt remade "Heat Wave" for her album Prisoner in Disguise which was recorded at The Sound Factory in Hollywood between February and June 1975 and released that October. Ronstadt's sideman Andrew Gold told Rolling Stone: "[her] band had been trying to get Linda to add it to her [live] set for quite awhile [sic]...one night at a Long Island club called My Father's Place we received six encores and we'd run of tunes. One of us yelled out 'Heat Wave in D' and we did it. [The band was] awfully sloppy but the crowd really liked it. So we kept the song in our set."