Yearning for Your Love

"Yearning for Your Love"
Single by The Gap Band
from the album The Gap Band III
B-side	"Oops Up Side Your Head" "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" "Humpin'" "When I Look In Your Eyes"
Released	January 1981
Recorded	1980
Genre	R&B funk quiet storm[1]
Length	3:59 (single) 5:43 (album version)
Label	Mercury
Songwriter(s)	Oliver Scott Ronnie Wilson
The Gap Band singles chronology
"Humpin'" (1980) "Yearning for Your Love" (1981) "Early in the Morning" (1982)

"Yearning for Your Love" is a 1980 ballad recorded and released by The Gap Band on Mercury Records. The single was the third release off the band's fifth album, The Gap Band III (1980). Four different singles, each with a different B-side, were released in 1981.

The song became a modest hit on the US and UK charts when it was released; it arose to number five on the Hot Soul Singles chart and number sixty on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Gap Band keyboardist Oliver Scott and keyboardist Ronnie Wilson, it was a romantic love song dedicated to Wilson's wife at the time and was performed by Ronnie's brother Charlie Wilson.

The song was markedly different in style from the past few hits,^[2] with less emphasis on synthesizers, instead on "light slices of guitar, smooth keyboard pads and soft percussion". It is said,^{[by whom?]} Charlie Wilson's smooth baritone take on the song helped the song become influential to contemporary R&B singers, such as Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill and Gerald Levert.

1. "Yearning for Your Love" / "Burn Rubber"^[3]
2. "Yearning for Your Love" / "Humpin'"^[4]
3. "Yearning for Your Love" / "When I Look in Your Eyes"^[5]
4. "Yearning for Your Love" / "Oops Upside Your Head"^[6]

• Lead vocals by Charlie Wilson
• Background vocals by Oliver Scott, Ronnie Wilson and Robert Wilson
• Drums by Ronnie Kaufman
• Guitars by Fred Jenkins, Glenn Nightingale
• Bass by Robert Wilson
• Synthesizers by Ronnie Wilson
• Keyboards by Oliver Scott

In 1989, Swiss pianist Alex Bugnon covered the song for his album, Love Season.^[7]

In 1990, Guy also covered the song on their 1990 album, The Future.^[8]

In 2001, keyboardist Kevin Toney covered the song on his album Strut. The song featured Evelyn "Champagne" King on vocals.^[9]

In 2019, singer PJ Morton covered the song from his album Paul.^[10]

The song has been sampled several times including some of the following:

• "Giants vs. Giants" by Askari X (1991)
• "Gank Move" by Big Mello (1992)
• "Always On My Mind" by SWV (1993)
• "Life's a Bitch" by Nas feat. AZ and Olu Dara (1994)
• "Outta My Life" by Paris (1994)
• "My Woman" by Coop MC (1995)
• "Sacramento Summertime" by Gangsta Dre (1996)
• "Keep Hustlin" by WC feat. E-40 and Too Short (1998)
• "Pad & Pen" by A Tribe Called Quest (1998)
• "Keep It Comin'" by Heavy D (1997)
• "Watcha Wanna Do" by Mia X feat. Charlie Wilson (1998)
• "It's Going Down by Parle (2000)
• "I-95" by Styles P feat. Tre Williams (2007)
• "Touch My Body" by Mariah Carey (2007)
• "Love Like This" by Natasha Bedingfield feat. Sean Kingston (2008)
• "Lifes a Bitch" by Elzhi feat. Royce da 5'9 & Stokley Williams (2011)
• "Real" by Common feat. Elijah Blake (2014)
• "Yernin" by Sevyn Streeter (2018)
• "Only God Knows" by D-Flexx (1997)