"Love Really Hurts Without You" is a song recorded by British R&B recording artist Billy Ocean. The song – written by Ocean under his real name Leslie Charles with the track's producer Ben Findon – was the second single recorded in the name Billy Ocean (although the singer had had several previous releases using other stage names) and provided Ocean with his first chart record in 1976.
The song reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. It also became Ocean's first Top 40 hit in the US, reaching number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It remains tied with the 1977 number-two UK hit "Red Light Spells Danger" as his second-highest charting single in the UK, behind "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" which had a four-week run at number one in 1986. It is often cited for its Motown influence.
Background
At the time of his single's success, Ocean was quoted (indirectly) as considering himself "the most surprised person in the world that 'Love Really Hurts Without You' became a hit. It's his tenth release, and he'd got to the point where he assumed his records would be flops." Ocean had been pursuing a singing career in London by 1969, with a stint singing demos at Southern Music Studio on Denmark Street leading to Ocean's working as a studio "gofer" for producer Ben Findon. At the time of his meeting Findon, Ocean was working on the assembly line at Ford Dagenham: (Billy Ocean quote:) "I would do sessions during the day and after I had finished a session I would go work at Ford all through the night. It half killed me, but while I was doing that I met this producer who gave me [the] opportunity [to record 'Love Really Hurts...']." The inaugural collaboration between Ocean and Findon was in fact the 1974 single "On the Run" which was credited to Scorched Earth, after which "Whose Little Girl Are You" became the first single recorded and released (8 August 1975) in the name Billy Ocean.
Ocean had written the original version of "Love Really Hurts Without You" several years earlier while working as a pattern cutter at a fashion house on Savile Row: when a co-worker mentioned that she was selling her piano Ocean impulsively borrowed £23 from his boss to purchase it – (Billy Ocean quote:) "We carried the piano up to the third floor and it fitted perfectly in my little bedroom" (Ocean was living in his parents' council flat off Brick Lane) – and taught himself to play it: (Billy Ocean quote:) "The novelty of it was coming home every lunchtime and evening and tinkling my piano until eventually I did get something out of it which was the song 'Love Really Hurts Without You'. My left hand started playing the melody and my right hand just did some down beats and my voice just started coming out with [the opening lyric] 'You run around town like a fool and you think that it's groovy' and the song just came together there and then." Ocean admitted that his song's tune strongly resembled the Four Tops' 1965 Pop/Soul classic "I Can't Help Myself", which via Donnie Elbert's 1972 remake had been a UK hit at the time of "Love Really Hurts..."' inception .
Recording and impact
After producer Ben Findon touched-up Ocean's composition "Love Really Hurts Without You" was recorded to be released 23 January 1976: debuting at number 34 on the UK Top 50 dated 21 February 1976, the single rose as high as number two on the chart dated 27 March 1976, held off from number one by "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. Billy Ocean said: "I was on the [Ford assembly line] when I heard that song on Radio Luxembourg. I felt so good, because I knew I was free to leave. So I left." "Love Really Hurts Without You" afforded Ocean an international hit with high rankings in national hit parades around the globe: its March 1976 US single release drew a somewhat muted response, the Billboard Hot 100 peak of "Love Really Hurts" being number 22. Ocean would state in 2015: "A few [Americans] might remember 'Love Really Hurts...' because I believe it was a bit of a [US] hit." Ocean would not again place a single on the Hot 100 until 1984 when "Caribbean Queen" would top the chart.
The song was featured on the closing credits of the 2013 film Filth. In 2019, the song was included in the fourth episode of Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education.