“Now That We Found Love” by Heavy D & the Boyz

One of the best club anthems from an exceptional early-90s period.

Dec 13, 2024

It's the end of the week, and I want to send everyone off into the weekend with the best vibes possible. That’s why the Daily Music Picks newsletter features a weekly segment called Fun Song Fridays! Regardless of era, genre, or style, the criterion is simple: it must deliver the joy and excitement we all need in our lives.

You can access the entire Fun Song Fridays archive here. While you’re at it, add the companion playlist to your favorite streaming platform.

Hello! 😊👋

Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick is one of the best tracks to emerge from the early-90s R&B and New Jack Swing scenes. It’s got soul that goes several generations deep.

Genre: R&B, New Jack Swing, Hip House

Label: Uptown

Release Date: June 11, 1991

Vibe: 💗💗💗

Since the first time I heard it many, many years ago, I’ve loved everything about Heavy D &the Boyz’s “cover” of “Now That We Found Love.” I love the thick bass and stuttering snares in Teddy Riley’s production. I love how effortlessly cool Heavy D (born Dwight Arrington Myers in Mandeville, Jamaica) sounds on lead vocals. He’s mostly forgotten now when it comes to “best of” playlists of 90s pop and club hits, but he was one of the smoothest performers of his generation. I love the Aaron Hall feature, oozing confidence and sex appeal. I love the campy music video and, in particular, every item the wardrobe department selected for Heavy to wear. I may or may not have tried to purchase an imitation of that bright green hoodie-rain jacket hybrid he dons during the second verse.

I could go on, but this reinterpretation of a soul classic is pretty much perfect in every way. I’m not saying the original O’Jays track is anything to thumb one’s nose at—far from it. However, it is not a peak-hour anthem that could still get a night to shake its foundations. Written by the legendary duo of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, that early-70s version mellows out the percussion and leaves plenty of room for the Philly trio’s incomparable harmonizing. Here, the chorus remains more or less intact, led by Hall’s soaring performance. But the rest is a complete departure. Heavy is surfing on the groove, sculpting his bars around it versus demanding that the beat bends to his will. I couldn’t say for sure, but I imagine hearing a polished mix for the first time in the control room must’ve been a lightbulb moment. Like, okay, we’ve got a hit on our hands.

Interestingly, “Now That We Found Love” did well internationally but peaked shy of the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. To add to the chart history oddity, it cracked that threshold in countries including Australia, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Greece, and Belgium, peaking as high as No. 3 in Denmark … but never managed to reach the top spot. Blame it on Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” which kept it out of the No. 1 slot in basically every instance. I harbor no ill will toward Adams (Reckless is, as I’ve said in this newsletter, a banger in and of itself), but I’d argue that this track has aged much better than his Robin Hood ballad.

I’ll take Riley and company over early-90s weepiness any day of the week.