"Higher Love" is a 1986 number-one hit song by Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood

Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

. It was the first single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 released from his fourth solo LP, Back in the High Life

Back in the High Life

Back in the High Life is the fourth solo album by English rock musician Steve Winwood. It was a top ten hit on the album charts in the United States, hitting #3, and has sold over five million copies...

. It was written by Winwood and Will Jennings

Will Jennings

Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the film Titanic .-Life and education:...

, and produced by Russ Titelman

Russ Titelman

Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums...

 and Winwood. The female vocals on the song were performed by Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

, who also appeared in the promotional music video.

"Higher Love" was Winwood's first Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 number-one hit, topping the chart for one week. It was preceded by Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

's "Papa Don't Preach

Papa Don't Preach

"Papa Don't Preach" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna. The song was written by Brian Elliot with additional lyrics by Madonna, and produced by Stephen Bray and Madonna for her third studio album True Blue, released in June 1986...

" and followed by "Venus" by Bananarama

Bananarama

Bananarama are an English female pop duo who have had success on the pop and dance charts since 1982. Rather than relying on a two part harmony, the duo generally sings in unison, as do their background vocalists. Although there have been line-up changes, the group enjoyed their most popular...

. The song also spent four weeks atop the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. It peaked at number 13 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, his highest charting solo hit there. It also earned two Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

s for Record of the Year

Grammy Award for Record of the Year

The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer....

 and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance

Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...

.

Music video

The music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 was shot in June 1986 by directors Peter Kagan and Paula Greif. The same duo shot an almost identical video for Duran Duran

Duran Duran

Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

's "Notorious

Notorious (song)

"Notorious" is the 14th single by Duran Duran. It was released internationally by EMI on 20 October 1986. "Notorious" was the first single issued from the album Notorious, and the first released by Duran Duran as a 3-piece band after the departure of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor...

" in November of that year; coincidentally, both videos were nominated for several awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. Neither won.

Appearances in other media

• The song was used in the closing credits of the hit 1988 film Big Business
  Big Business (1988 film)
  Big Business is a 1988 American comedy film farce starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin . It was produced by Touchstone Pictures, with the plot loosely based on The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare....
  
  .
• It was also featured in an episode of the television drama Cold Case, "Time to Crime".
• In a 1988 episode of The Young And The Restless
  The Young and the Restless
  The Young and the Restless is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in a fictional Wisconsin town called Genoa City, which is unlike and unrelated to the real life village of the same name, Genoa City, Wisconsin...
  
  , Danny
  Danny Romalotti
  Daniel "Danny" Romalotti, Sr. is a fictional character on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless. He was played by Michael Damian from June 1981 to October 1993, and again from August 1994 to June 1998, returning briefly in December 11, 2002 and on recurring status from November 14, 2003 to...
  
   and Lauren sang the song to prep for a concert.
• Later the song was covered by Whitney Houston
  Whitney Houston
  Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
  
   for her I'm Your Baby Tonight
  I'm Your Baby Tonight
  I'm Your Baby Tonight is the third studio album by American pop/R&B singer Whitney Houston; released by Arista Records on November 6, 1990. Following the run of this album, Houston continued to achieve widespread commercial success throughout the 1990s, venturing heavily into films—while...
  
  album, but it was eventually dropped from the tracklist and only appears on the Japanese edition as a bonus track. The song was performed as the closing piece during her Feels So Right Tour
  Feels So Right Tour
  The Feels So Right Tour was the tour in Japan only by singer Whitney Houston. The tour started on January 1, 1990 and ended on January 24, 1990 before the release of her third album I'm Your Baby Tonight.-History:...
  
  .
• Nick Jonas
  Nick Jonas
  Nicholas Jerry "Nick" Jonas is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor best known as one of the Jonas Brothers, a pop-rock band he formed with his brothers Joe and Kevin. The Jonas Brothers originally started as an attempted solo singing career for Nick, but the record producer liked the...
  
   covered this song for his solo album, Nicholas Jonas.
• The song was used in an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
  
  titled "Sweet Dee Has A Heart Attack" which aired 30 October 2008.
• Luke Benward covered this music for his EP Let Your Love Out
• This song was used in the 1987 film Stakeout.
• Indie duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. began covering this song live in 2011.

12": Island / 12 IS 288 United Kingdom

1. "Higher Love" (Remix) - 7:45
2. "Higher Love" (Instrumental) - 6:05
3. "And I Go" 4:12

• Tracks 1 and 2 remixed by Tom Lord-Alge
  Tom Lord-Alge
  Tom Lord-Alge is a four-time Grammy Award–winning record producer and mixer. He is the youngest of Vivian Lord's five children, Mark Lord-Alge, Lisa Lord-Alge, Chris Lord-Alge, Jeff Lord-Alge and Tom Lord-Alge...
  
  

12": Island / PRO-A-2507 United States

1. "Higher Love" (Edit) - 4:08
2. "Higher Love" (LP Version) - 5:45

• US Promo 12"