I was in a local shop yesterday, which had a great oldies station playing over their sound system. As I perused their T-shirt selection, “Lotta Love” by Nicolette Larson came on and I was reminded of how much I’ve always loved that song. Released on October 31, 1978, the song was the lead single from her debut album Nicolette, and became her biggest hit, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1979, and #1 on the Easy Listening (now Adult Contemporary) charts in both the U.S. and Canada. It ranks among my top five favorite songs of 1979.

Born in 1952 in Helena, Montana, Larson moved frequently during her childhood due to her father’s work with the U.S. Treasury Department, and graduated from high school in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri for three semesters and worked at waitressing and office jobs, eventually moving to San Francisco to pursue the music career she’d long dreamed of. In 1975, she auditioned for Hoyt Axton, who was producing Commander Cody at the time. This led to Larson recording background vocals on Commander Cody’s 1975 album Tales From the Ozone, as well as securing a gig with Hoyt Axton and The Banana Band, who were opening for Joan Baez on her 1975 “Diamonds and Rust” tour. She also provided backing vocals for Commander Cody’s 1977 and 1978 albums, as well as for artists like Emmylou Harris, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Billy Joe Shaver, Jesse Colin Young, Jesse Winchester, Gary Stewart and the Doobie Brothers.

Larson’s work with Emmylou Harris on her fourth album Luxury Liner led to her meeting Harris’s associate and friend Linda Ronstadt, who also became friends with Larson. One day in 1977 when she was at Ronstadt’s Malibu home, Neil Young phoned to ask Ronstadt if she could recommend a female vocal accompanist. Ronstadt suggested Larson (she was apparently the third person that day to mention Larson’s name to Young), whereupon Young came over to meet her. When the two proceeded to sing harmonies on several of his newly-written songs, Neil was impressed by her voice. The following week, Ronstadt and Larson recorded backing vocals for Young’s American Stars ‘n Bars album, and in November 1977, Young invited Larson to Nashville to sing on his Comes a Time album. (Wikipedia)

“Lotta Love” was written by Young, who originally recorded the song in January 1976 with his band Crazy Horse, but it wasn’t released until its inclusion on Comes a Time, in October 1978, coincidentally on the same day as Nicolette. Though Larson provided background vocals for that album, she did not sing on the “Lotta Love” track, which had been recorded more than two years earlier.

How Larson came to record “Lotta Love” was noted in a post on the Neil Young News blog, with her recalling: “I got that song off a tape I found lying on the floor of Neil’s car. I popped it in the tape player and commented on what a great song it was. Neil said: ‘You want it? It’s yours.‘” Whereas Young’s original version had a sparse, rather melancholy vibe, Larson’s version, which featured a soothing string arrangement by Jimmie Haskell, along with a bold saxophone riff and beautiful flute solo, sounded more optimistic and hopeful. Larson commented: “It was a very positive song and people don’t want to hear how bad the world is all the time. It had a nice sound rhythm and groove.”

It was that gorgeous sax and flute, combined with Larson’s lovely plaintive vocals, that made the song so impactful and special to me. I love it as much today as I did back in early 1979. Sadly, Larson died at the far too young age of 45 in December 1997, from cerebral edema triggered by liver failure, thought to be related to her chronic use of Valium and Tylenol PM.

It’s gonna take a lotta love
To change the way things are
It’s gonna take a lotta love
Or we won’t get too far

So if you look in my direction
And we don’t see eye to eye
My heart needs protection
And so do I

It’s gonna take a lotta love
To get us through the night
It’s gonna take a lotta love
To make things work out right

So if you are out there waiting
I hope you show up soon
You know
I need relating not solitude

Gotta lotta love
Gotta lotta love

It’s gonna take a lotta love
To change the way things are
It’s gonna take a lotta love
Or we won’t get too far

It’s gonna take a lotta love
It’s gonna take a lotta love
It’s gonna take a lotta love

Here’s Neil Young’s original version: