How to play Love potion Number 9
“Love Potion No. 9” is a song written in 1959 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally performed by the Clovers, who took it to number 23 on the US as well as R&B charts that year. The song was recorded by the Searchers in 1964. Their version reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two on Cash Box during the winter of 1965. The Coasters released a version in December 1971 with “D. W. Washburn” on the B-side. It reached No. 76 on the Billboard Pop chart.
The song describes a man seeking help to find love. He enlists the help of a gypsy who determines, by means of palmistry, that he needs “love potion number 9”. The potion, an aphrodisiac, causes him to fall in love with everything he sees, kissing whatever is in front of him, eventually kissing a policeman on the street corner, who breaks his bottle of love potion. In one recorded version of the ending of the song, the Clovers used the alternative lyrics:
I had so much fun that I’m going back again,
I wonder what’ll happen with Love Potion Number Ten?
The narrator describes himself as being “a flop with chicks … since 1956”; later recordings of the song have often changed the year to suit the year of recording or the age of the performer. An exception is the Australian alternative rock band Tlot Tlot’s recording, which leaves the year in the song as 1956. It also uses the alternative “Love Potion No. 10” lyrics. The recording by the Searchers also leaves the year as 1956.
The song was the basic premise of the 1992 film of the same name starring Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan.