What Is This Thing Called Love
Clifford Brown Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

What is this thing called love?
This funny thing called love?
Just who can solve its mystery?
Why should it make a fool of me?

I saw you there one wonderful day
You took my heart and threw it away
That's why I ask the Lord in Heaven above
What is this thing called love?

I saw you there one wonderful day
You took my heart and threw it away




That's why I ask the Lord in Heaven above
What is this thing called love?

Overall Meaning

The song "What Is This Thing Called Love?" is a classic jazz standard originally written by the legendary composer Cole Porter. The lyrics express confusion and frustration with the concept of love, suggesting that it is a mysterious and confounding force that can make one feel like a fool. The vocalist, Dinah Washington, emphasizes this feeling of uncertainty with her soulful delivery, while the trumpet playing of Clifford Brown adds a sense of longing and melancholy.


The opening line of the song, "What is this thing called love?" sets the tone for the rest of the lyrics which explore the confusing and irrational aspects of the emotion. The line "Just who can solve its mystery?" highlights the idea that love is unexplainable and perhaps even unattainable. The final lines "That's why I ask the Lord in Heaven above, What is this thing called love?" suggest that even religion cannot provide answers to the perplexing nature of love.


Line by Line Meaning

What is this thing called love?
I want to understand the nature of this elusive feeling that we call love


This funny thing called love?
Love can be strange and confusing, making us act in unexpected ways


Just who can solve its mystery?
Love is a puzzle that no one has fully figured out yet


Why should it make a fool of me?
Love can make us do things that seem foolish to ourselves and others


I saw you there one wonderful day
I remember the moment I first laid eyes on you and felt a spark of attraction


You took my heart and threw it away
You broke my heart by rejecting me or ending our relationship


That's why I ask the Lord in Heaven above
I turn to a higher power for guidance and understanding in matters of the heart


What is this thing called love?
I am still searching for answers about this complex and often painful emotion




Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Song not found
Comments from YouTube:

@GrumpyStormtrooper

2:00 so satisfaying when he finally gets that phrase

@jacobanteau6020

First thing I heard when I listened to this track as well

@artem.ostroverkh

Favorite moment from this tune. That is REAL emotion, love it.

@p.davidhornik947

Fiercely intense stuff by one of the greatest groups ever.

@clintjones9848

Bebop

@brucescott4261

@@clintjones9848 ...No, it's hard bop in the beginning.

@clintjones9848

You're misinterpreting the definition of hard bop. Hard bop is groove oriented stuff that's soul but still in the straight ahead idiom beginning in the 60s. Bebop is virtuosic melodic stuff.

@brucescott4261

@@clintjones9848 ...Hard bop started in the mid-'fifties. The top three jazz combos: The Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet, The Jazz Messengers and The Miles Davis Quintet. Others have followed such as The Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop, The Jazz Modes, The Jay Jay Johnson-Kai Winding Quintet, and so on.

@clintjones9848

Your date of the origin of hard bop may well be accurate. I'm not so sure about the groups that you think are hard bop. Miles played straight ahead until he went fusion. Mingus is avante garde. This tune is absolutely not hard bop. It's bebop.

6 More Replies...

@vylanradio

Clifford Brown is fire!

More Comments

More Versions