Lovin' You

Minnie Riperton recorded this for her 1974 album Perfect Angel, co produced by Stevie Wonder, and after it was issued as a single at the end of 1974 it reached number one in America and the UK top three the following spring. It is almost weightless: electric piano, birdsong, her husband Richard Rudolph's guitar and a vocal that climbs into the whistle register in the chorus. Couples choose it because it is gentle, short and unmistakable, and the slow tempo suits a quiet dance under low light. Riperton wrote it as a lullaby to distract her daughter Maya, later the comedian Maya Rudolph, and the name Maya can be heard sung softly near the fade on the album version.