It Must Be Love

"It Must Be Love" is a collaboration between American singer-songwriter Amy Marshall and Danish disco singer Charlie C released as a single to promote the special edition of Amy's debut album Amy Marshall. The song is a precursor to her current electropop direction.

Song information
Recorded in February 2005, "It Must Be Love" was originally written by Amy for inclusion on Charlie's second album, Listen Up! However, Amy wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of meeting Charlie by recording the song as a collaboration with her. Charlie was not pleased with the finished product and decided against including it on her album, so Amy decided to keep it for her own and release it on her second album.

Amy's plans changed, however, when a tabloid reporter who had been stalking Amy and stealing items from her hotel room leaked an MP3 of the song on their web site. While Amy would usually be disappointed, it actually gave Amy her biggest hit single in North America, as "It Must Be Love" was a #1 smash on the Billboard Hot 100. It was only logical, after its success in the states, to push it in the UK.

The song itself blends dance, pop, and rock and features piano, guitar, bass, synthesizer, and flute influences. The song's lyrics express a woman's overwhelming feelings for a man she desires, and how she enjoys all the time she spends with him.

This is Amy's first dance pop single as a performer, but not the first dance pop song she wrote, as she previously wrote songs of the same style intended for Chayne Moore and CeCe Winston (coincidentally, both also collaborated with Charlie C). Amy did not revisit the genre again until 2008 with the Horrorfilm Horizon collaboration "Running With Scissors" and the China-penned "Trying To Keep Myself Sane"; she finally went down the pop direction for a full-length album when she released Reincarnation in 2009.

Controversy
Charlie C decided to release her next single, "Get Your Groove On", on the same date as this single. During the promotion, Charlie expressed her disgust in Amy's motivation in using her name and likeness to get a hit, and had even admitted she didn't want the single to be released! The split vote between Charlie's own single and a song with her name given a featuring credit may have attributed to the failure of this single.

Proving there were no hard feelings, Amy and Charlie collaborated again in 2008, on a re-recording of Charlie's 2004 single "Superstar" for her remix album.

Track listings
CD1 1. It Must Be Love (f/Charlie C) (album version) 2. Drowned World/Substitute For Love (live from Madonna Mania) 3. It Must Be Love (f/Charlie C) (video) CD2 1. It Must Be Love (Vikki's Love At First Sight Remix) 2. It Must Be Love (Didinanana's Disco Dancing Diva Dub) 3. It Must Be Love (Tom Fletcher's What Else Could It Be? Vocal) 4. It Must Be Love (Ellen's Cinderella Storymix) 5. It Must Be Love (AOK's Good Mix) 6. It Must Be Love (Kantar's boil it up mix) 7. It Must Be Love (Morris' All the Way Mix) 8. It Must Be Love (Bethany Hamilton's Steamy Lust Remix)

Chart performance
"It Must Be Love" debuted and peaked at #9 on the Urapopstar Top 40 Singles Charts on July 31, 2005, selling 24,218 copies in its first week. It is considered a major disappointment following a hit as big as "No One/Mood Swing", and with total sales of 59,503 copies, this is Amy's least successful top 10 hit to date.