Stephanie Mills first came to fame as "the little girl with the big voice" as the star of the hit Broadway play, The Wiz, an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's classic book, The Wizard Of Oz. She had many R&B hits such as "I Have Learned to Respect the Power of Love," "I Feel Good All Over," "(You're Puttin') A Rush On Me," "Something in the Way (You Make Me Feel)" and "Home" along with one certified million selling single, "Never Knew Love Like This Before." In addition, she also had five gold albums: Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin', Sweet Sensation, Stephanie, If I Were Your Woman and Home.
Mills honed her rich vocals singing gospel music at Brooklyn's Cornerstone Baptist Church as a small child. At age 9, she began appearing in the Broadway play Maggie Flynn. She was presented with first prize after winning "The Amateur Hour" talent contest six weeks straight at New York's famed Apollo Theater when she was nine. That success led to her being chosen as the opening act for The Isley Brothers, eventually becoming good friends with lead singer Ronald Isley. Many years later, Isley would manage and later marry singer/songwriter Angela Winbush, who co-wrote one of her number one R&B hits. Mills' début album, Movin' In The Right Direction was recorded for ABC Records in 1974. A year later, she won the role of Dorothy in The Wiz. Her rendition of the beautiful ballad "Home" was a showstopper, mesmerizing audiences nightly for a number of years. The original cast recording of The Wiz was produced by Jerry Wexler and issued by Atlantic Records in spring 1975. Curiously, when The Wiz was made into a full length feature film by Motown Records' film division and Universal Pictures, Diana Ross played the role of Dorothy instead of Mills. The film ended up being a major flop.
Singer Jermaine Jackson referred Mills to Motown head Berry Gordy, who signed her to the label. Her Motown debut was For the First Time, written and produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, being issued in October 1976. For the First Time is a sweet affair with Mills convincingly covering Bacharach/David standards, most of which were originally recorded by Dionne Warwick. In 1978, she signed to 20th Century Records and was teamed with the hit production duo of James Mtume — later leader of Mtume, who had a gold single with "Juicy Fruit" — and Reggie Lucas. Her first LP for the label, Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin', went gold, going to number 12 R&B and number 22 pop on Billboard's charts in summer 1979 and spawned the singles, "Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin'" and "You Can Get Over." Her next LP, Sweet Sensation (#3 R&B, #16 Pop, spring 1980) yielded "Sweet Sensation," "Never Knew Love Like This Before," and the radio-aired LP track, "Try My Love." Around this time, she briefly married former Soul Train dancer Jeffrey Daniels of the group Shalamar. Next came the LP titled Stephanie in spring 1981, which also was a huge hit, peaking at #3 R&B and #30 Pop. The album included notable songs such as "Two Hearts" — a midtempo duet with Teddy Pendergrass — "Night Games" and the radio-aired LP cut, "Don't Stop Doin' What Cha Do."
In 1981, Mills switched to Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records. Her LPs for the label included Tantalizingly Hot, Merciless and I've Got The Cure. During 1983, she had her own NBC-TV daytime talk show and reprised on role in a Broadway revival of The Wiz. She also signed with MCA Records, where she released her Stephanie Mills album.
The first single from the Stephanie Mills album was "Stand Back," in late 1985, which also included the passionate ballad "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love." "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love" was initially written by Rene Moore and Angela Winbush — best known as the hit singing duo Rene & Angela — as a gospel song and originally was recorded by Alton McClain and Destiny on their self-titled 1978 Polydor LP. The original version is available on Polygram's Power of Love: Best of Soul Essentials Ballads. Because of its massive radio play as an album track, Mills' version of "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love, — produced by Philly Soul keyboardist Ron Kersey — was reissued as an A side holding the #1 R&B spot for two weeks in spring 1986. Its follow-up, "Rising Desire" reached #11 R&B in summer 1986.
Her next LP's title cut was the Clay McMurray/Gloria Jones/Pam Sawyer song, "If I Were Your Woman," originally a 1971 #1 R&B, #9 Pop smash for Gladys Knight and the Pips. Philly-based producer Nick Martinelli gave Mills her second #1 R&B hit with "I Feel Good All Over," written by husband and wife songwriting duo, Gabriel Hardeman and Annette Hardeman. The song held the #1 R&B spot for three weeks in spring 1987. Originally submitted to Mills' fellow MCA labelmate Patti Labelle by the Hardemans, the track was included on Mills' LP If I Were Your Woman, issued June 1987 and peaked at #30 Pop in summer 1987. Paul Laurence produced and co-wrote with Timmy Allen the chugging '"(You're Putting) a Rush On Me" giving the singer her third #1 R&B hit in fall 1987. The single made it to #85 Pop and was followed by "Secret Lady," which landed at #7 R&B in late 1987. Her covers of "If I Were Your Woman" and "Where Is The Love" followed. All were included on her If I Were Your Woman album, which peaked at #1 R&B, #30 Pop in summer 1987. Following these hits, Mills contacted Ronald Isley about working with singer/songwriter/producer Angela Winbush who had hits as half of Rene and Angela and was forging a hit-filled career as a recording artist and producer for the group Body among others. The collaboration between Mills and Winbush resulted in another #1 R&B single, "Something In The Way You Make Me Feel," in summer 1989.
Having starred for five years in the smash Broadway show The Wiz and recorded the song "Home for the play's 1975 original cast soundtrack album, she wanted to record the song again as a posthumous tribute to the play's producer, Ken Harper, and the song's composer, Charlie Smalls. On her new version of "Home," Take 6 sung the background vocals. The song went to #1 R&B in late 1989 and was followed by "Comfort Of A Man" and "Real Love." The Home LP ended up peaking at #5 R&B, #82 Pop in summer 1989. She then recorded a charting single with J.T. Taylor titled "Heart To Heart" in late 1991. Her final MCA album, Something Real included the hit "All Day All Night" and "Never Do Wrong." Following this album, she recorded a gospel album, Personal Inspirations, for Interscope Records and recorded several tracks at Philadelphia International Records with Bunny Sigler among others in the late '90s.
After a hiatus from recording Mills returned with sixteenth album, "Born For This" in 2004. It includes the singles "Can't Let Him Go" and "Healing Time." Mills is currently working on her seventeenth album titled "Breathless." The lead single chosen is a song called, "Yesterday."
I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love
Stephanie Mills Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I was a victim of my foolish thinking
Carelessly I've risked my love and my life
There's no self-pity, I admit I obliged
Overpowered by love I pretended to be blind
Faith has survived all the doubts I've summoned
Helpless I cannot further be driven, ooh, ooh
I've learned to respect
The power of love
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love
I've learned to respect (Ooh)
The power of love
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love
I was always afraid of being the one left hurt
Running away from the one thing
for which I've always yearned
I'm not ashamed to tell you
many nights I've tossed and I've turned
I've learned to respect (Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
The power of love
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love (Yes, I did)
I've learned to respect (Oh ooh)
The power of love (Woo, woo, woo)
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love
I need you, I want you beside me (Beside me)
I trust you, I believe, I believe in you
I adore you, I love you so
Don't you know I learned
I've learned to respect (I've learned)
The power of love (Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
I've learned to respect
The power of love (I've learned)
I've learned to respect
The power of love (Baby, baby, baby, I've learned the power of love)
I've learned to respect
The power of love (I learned it, yes, I did, oh)
I've learned to respect (Yeah)
The power of love (And I'm not ashamed to tell you, oh)
I've learned to respect
The power of love (Oh, honey, honey, I need you)
Oh, it's that power, oh
Baby, baby, baby, I've learned
I've learned to respect
The power of love (And I'm not ashamed to tell you that)
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love
I'm talkin' about the power, yeah
I'm talkin' about the power, oh (Power of love), ooh
The power, oh, ho
It's so good, it's so good to me
I'm talkin' about power, oh (Power of love)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The power of love, ooh
Yeah, say it to me
You're talkin' about (Power of love)
And oh, let's talk about the yearnin', oh
And everybody, I, I, I wanna talk about the feelin', ooh (Power of love) oh, ho
I wanna talk about the screamin', ooh
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let's talk about the lovin' (Power of love), oh, ho, oh, ho, oh, ho
Let's talk about the power (Power of love), oh
'Cause I, I've learned the power
I've learned to respect (I've learned, I've learned, I've learned, oh)
The power of love (I said I've learned)
I've learned to respect (Oh)
The power of love (Baby, baby, I've learned)
I've learned to respect (Oh, and I'm not ashamed to tell you that)
The power of love (That I, I've learned)
I've learned to respect (Oh, I'm not ashamed to tell you)
The power of love (I've learned it, oh)
I've learned to respect (And everybody, everybody needs to learn it, ooh)
The power of love
I've learned to respect (Ooh ooh)
The power of love (Oh, baby, baby, I've learned it)
Please report any inappropriate comments to us I've learned to respect (Oh, ho, yeah, oh)
The power of love
I've learned to respect
The song "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love" by Stephanie Mills talks about the singer's journey from being a victim of her own foolish thinking to being empowered by the power of love. The singer admits to carelessly risking her love and life but not pitying herself. She was once overwhelmed by love that she pretended to be blind, but faith survived all her doubts. She understands that she has to respect and acknowledge the power of love. She used to run away from love but now knows the value of love and is not ashamed to tell anyone. She has learned that love takes courage, faith, and commitment.
The lyrics in the song respect the power of love which is the central message that Stephanie Mills is trying to communicate. It is a message that can help people to understand the value of love in their everyday lives. The lyrics suggest that love is not just a feeling but also requires us to have the courage to face our fears, the faith to trust that it will work out, and the commitment to make it work. For Stephanie Mills, love has become her source of strength, and it has taught her the value of vulnerability and honesty. She urges listeners to respect the power of love by facing their fears, having faith, and committing to love.
Line by Line Meaning
I was a victim of my foolish thinking
I made bad choices due to lack of wisdom.
Carelessly I've risked my love and my life
I put my love and my life in jeopardy recklessly.
There's no self-pity, I admit I obliged
I have accepted that I brought this upon myself without wallowing in self-pity.
Overpowered by love I pretended to be blind
I was so blinded by love that I pretended not to see the signs.
Faith has survived all the doubts I've summoned
Despite my doubts, faith in love has prevailed.
My heart has stood all the failure and loss
My heart has endured past failures and losses.
Helpless I cannot further be driven, ooh, ooh
I am no longer helpless or controlled by my emotions.
I was always afraid of being the one left hurt
I was afraid of getting hurt in love.
Running away from the one thing for which I've always yearned
I avoided the very thing I always wanted.
I'm not ashamed to tell you many nights I've tossed and I've turned
I suffered many sleepless nights thinking about love.
I need you, I want you beside me (Beside me)
I crave your presence in my life.
I trust you, I believe, I believe in you
I have faith in you and our love.
I adore you, I love you so
I have strong feelings of love and admiration for you.
Don't you know I learned
My experiences taught me a valuable lesson.
It's so good, it's so good to me
Love is a great feeling for me.
And oh, let's talk about the yearnin', oh
Let's discuss the strong desire for love.
Let's talk about the lovin' (Power of love), oh, ho, oh, ho, oh, ho
Let's talk about the power of love in bringing people closer.
I've learned to respect (I've learned, I've learned, I've learned, oh)
I have gained appreciation and admiration for love.
And everybody, everybody needs to learn it, ooh
Everyone needs to learn the importance of love.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: ANGELA WINBUSH, RENE MOORE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@nichelle3973
I am 50 years old ...and I have learned to respect the power of Love....God's Love. It is truly like no other and NOTHING can be compared to it.
@Mike-ip8dm
Always love ❤️ 😍 wholove no.1 my life, she have love me hard like 💛 her hard with my heart
@teeahtate
Exactly
@bosslady3907
Amen ❤🙏🏾🙌🏾
@Kevin198898
this song was written By Angela Winbush 1976 but wanted Ms Stephanie Mills to release it herself later in 1989 Angela Winbush from her Real Thing CD recovered it i thought that was an honor that Angela Winbush wanted Stephanie Mills to sing it first yes Angela Winbush was a song writer at that time back in 1975 when she worked on the words of the songs made beautifully by both Angela Winbush And Stephanie Mills
@ksand1976
Yes, Both of these women are Powerhouse singers. ♫♫ You know its real when the runs and notes they hit, gives you chills!I love ♥ love Stephanie! My first time seeing her in concert, I was 13yrs old. Now in my early 40's I'm still listening!I seen Angela perform this song live in concert last year and she did not disappoint either. She still has it. That woman has some lungs on her!!
@OluwasegunJosephIsrael
I never knew the answer to my question was already here...
Thanks
@jeremiahpolk8908
She was 18 years old, if I'm correct when she wrote this for her.
@darlasaddler7257
They should do a concert together ❤
@moenaebaskerville5615
My favorite song