Love Is All Around was a top 10 (it reached #7) hit for The Troggs in 1968. It was released in October of 1967. It’s hard to believe that this amazing ballad is done by the same group who recorded the “rock/party” anthem “Wild Thing” the year before. A great vocal, great lyrics, a string quartet, and the “tick tock” percussion part are just a few things that make this song stand out to me.
According to Reg Presley (whose real name is Reginald Ball – he changed his name as a publicity stunt in 1966) he wrote this song in about 10 minutes. He had been watching TV and was inspired by The Joy Strings Salvation Army Band. He told the story in a 2011 interview with Mojo Magazine:
“I got back from America, I smelt the Sunday lunch cooking (inhales deeply), phaaaaw – after about 25 years on burgers – I kissed my wife, my little daughter, four years old. We went into the lounge and those Salvation Girls, The Joystrings, were on television, banging their tambourines and singing something, ‘Love, love,’ love.’ I went over to turn it off, knelt down and hearing that ‘Love, love’ I got a bass line, (sings) ‘doom, doomdoom, doomdoom, doomdoom, doom,’ and I got: ‘I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. My wife, my kid… And so the feeling grows.'”
R.E.M. covered the song in 1991, but the group Wet, Wet, Wet had bigger success with it after recording it for the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. When they were approached to record a song for the soundtrack, they got to chose from this one, Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, or Barry Manilow’s I Can’t Smile Without You. They chose Love Is All Around because they felt like they could make it “their own”.
Both versions are great.
Love Is All Around
“Love Is All Around”
Well love is all around me, and so the feeling grows
It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go
So if you really love me, come on and let it show
You know I love you, I always will
My mind’s made up by the way that I feel
There’s no beginning, there’ll be no end
‘Cause on my love you can depend
I see your face before me as I lay on my bed
I kinda get to thinking, of all the things you said
You gave your promise to me, and I gave mine to you
I need someone beside me in everything I do
You know I love you, I always will
My mind’s made up by the way that I feel
There’s no beginning, there’ll be no end
‘Cause on my love you can depend
It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go
So if you really love me, come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Come on and let it show
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
Love the song and the Troggs…one of the funniest things I have heard is the Troggs Tapes…them in the studio fighting with each other…its on Youtube.
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Will have to look for that!! I love that studio stuff. Capitol Records included some on their “Collector’s Series” with outtakes and such from Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Al Martino.
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