Love Grows by donnica59

donnica59 - Love Grows

donnica59

Aug 21, 2025 09:56am

<ul><li>The British producers Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason wrote this song with Sylvan Mason, who was Barry's wife at the time. (Sylvan is often uncredited, but her divorce agreement provides hard evidence that she co-wrote this song and the Tom Jones hit "<a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/tom-jones/delilah" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Delilah</a>.")</li><li>The song is about a free spirit named Rosemary who leaves the singer besotted.</li><li> </li><li>Many have claimed to be the actual Rosemary the song is about, but Sylvan Mason says that like Delilah, no such person exists.</li><li>She told Songfacts: "Tony [Macaulay] came over with a melody and rough idea for a song, which title originally was 'It's My Heart You'll Be Breaking Apart,' but he said he wanted to put a girl's name in the title because that's what sold records in those days.</li><li>The girl's name Rosemary fitted with the title so we started the song from scratch merely using the name Rosemary."</li><li> </li><li>Macaulay and Barry Mason recorded the song using session musicians.</li><li>When it became a hit, they put together a band from members of the group Greefield Hammer in order to perform it live.</li><li> McCaulay eventually put together another group using the Edison Lighthouse name.</li><li> </li><li>A session singer named Tony Burrows sang lead.</li><li> </li><li>He was the voice of several studio groups, including White Plains, The Pipkins, and Brotherhood Of Man, First Class ("Beach Baby") and the Flowerpot Men ("Let's Go To San Francisco").</li><li>He famously appeared on one UK TV show three times in one night when three different groups (all fronted by him) were due to perform their current chart hits. He said, "I just kept changing hats." </li><li>Why is the love growing?</li><li>That's a play on the name Rosemary, which is an herb.</li><li>Tony Macaulay also co-wrote and sang lead on "<a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-flying-machine/smile-a-little-smile-for-me" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Smile A Little Smile For Me</a>" (recorded by The Flying Machine), which is about "Rose Marie." </li><li class="ql-align-center"> </li><li>This song is mentioned in the dialogue on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack by a faux-'70s DJ (voiced by deadpan comedian Steven Wright), although the song itself is not used in the film.</li><li> </li><li>"Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was featured in the 2001 movie Shallow Hal, starring Jack Black as a man who comes under a spell and sees only the inner beauty of women.</li><li>He falls for an overweight girl named Rosemary, who to him looks like Gwyneth Paltrow.</li><li> </li><li>The song also appears in the 2018 movie The Kissing Booth, and in the 2004 episode of The Sopranos, "All Happy Families."</li><li>The song enjoyed a revival in early 2022 after TikTok user Rosemary Blake (exhibitionbuffalo) posted a video on the platform. Her "I love Rosemary" visual shows the TikToker acting along to the opening lines.</li><li> </li><li>She ain't got no money</li><li>Her clothes are kinda funny</li><li>Her hair is kinda wild and free</li><li>Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes.</li><li> </li><li>Blake's clip sparked a major TikTok trend of users <a href="https://youtu.be/KR66a6iGSG4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">posting videos and snapshots of themselves</a> to accompany the song's lyrics.</li><li>Tony Macaulay had just inked a new deal and, as these things tend to go, was immediately under pressure to produce a hit.</li><li>So when he found himself in a room with Barry Mason, he knew they needed to come up with something simple, catchy, and with the kind of Motown flair that would practically compel you to tap your foot whether you liked it or not.</li><li> </li><li>Macaulay had a concept in mind that played around with the timing, something designed to make the song's message hit fast and linger.</li><li>With no particular artist in mind, he laid down a few demos, guided mostly by instinct. T</li><li>he key of A? No deep musical philosophy there - it just seemed to give the riff a bit more oomph.</li><li> </li><li>The whole recording process was, by all accounts, a rather spontaneous affair. Macaulay began by building a basic drum loop, then layered on some guitar and bass.</li><li> </li><li>"I just put the Fender guitar on twice and damped it down, played a very basic track," <a href="https://eu.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/story-behind-the-song/2024/10/22/songwriter-tony-macaulay-rosemary-edison-lighthouse/75454497007/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Macaulay recalled to The Tennessean</a>.</li><li> </li><li>"The reason it sounds tight is that it's just one person playing it.</li><li>That afternoon, strings and brass came in, and I just shouted out the notes. There was no orchestration for that intro - everyone just played it</li></ul>