Where Did The Lyrics What Is Love First Appear?

2025-08-27 05:19:32 245

3 Answers

Gavin
Gavin
2025-08-28 09:13:38
Short and casual: the most famous modern lyrics that go "What is love? Baby don't hurt me" first appeared on Haddaway’s 1993 single 'What Is Love' (and then on the album 'The Album'). If you meant the earlier song titled 'What Is Love?' by Howard Jones, that one was released as a 1983 single and later included on 'Human's Lib'.

If you meant some other piece — like a poem or an older song — the phrase itself shows up all over literature and philosophy long before either recording, so give me the specific track or lyric line and I’ll track down the first published instance for you.
Una
Una
2025-08-30 01:43:09
I still get a little thrill tracing song origins, so here’s the cleaner, slightly nerdier take: there are two obvious milestones depending on what you meant by the phrase. The modern club lyric most people think of — the line "Baby don't hurt me" tied to the refrain "What Is Love" — was first released in 1993 on Haddaway's single 'What Is Love', later included on his debut collection 'The Album'. That single is the moment those exact lyrics entered popular culture in that particular form.

If you instead had the earlier synth-pop track in mind, Howard Jones released a song called 'What Is Love?' as a single in 1983 and it showed up on his album 'Human's Lib' soon after. Those lyrics and themes are different from Haddaway’s, so the question of "where did the lyrics first appear" splits: historically for that specific lyric set it’s 1993, but for similarly titled songs it could be 1983 or other earlier works. Beyond pop music, the question itself is centuries old — philosophers, playwrights, and poets have been riffing on it long before recorded music existed. If you want, I can pull up the exact single release dates, label info, and songwriting credits for either track.
Xanthe
Xanthe
2025-08-31 03:25:22
I get asked this one a lot in music-chat threads, and it's a juicy little trivia rabbit hole. If you mean the catchy club anthem with the line "Baby don't hurt me," the lyrics to 'What Is Love' first showed up publicly on the 1993 single by Haddaway — that's the Eurodance track that exploded in clubs and on radio. I still vividly recall hearing it looped in a late-night mix and asking my friend what the hook even meant; those exact words were released as the recorded lyrics when the single and then the album 'The Album' came out in 1993, which is where most people first encountered them.

That said, the phrase "what is love" isn't owned by that one song. An earlier pop tune with almost the same title, 'What Is Love?' by Howard Jones, was out as a single in 1983 and later appeared on the album 'Human's Lib' — same question in a new wave package. And if you back away from pop music, the question "what is love?" is ancient: philosophers in 'Symposium' and poets through the ages have asked it in different words. So, short of a time machine, the 1993 Haddaway single is where those specific lyrics "Baby don't hurt me" and the modern dance phrasing first appeared, while the general question turns up all over literature and older songs. If you meant a different song, tell me which one and I’ll dig into that release history with you — I love tracing these paths.
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