Producer
Hal Davis instructed the song's engineer Russ Terrana to install a
strobe light so that Ross could be in the "
disco" mindset.[3] As the song changed from ballad to uptempo, Ross became more comfortable with the material; she hummed, sang bit parts, laughed, danced around and even imitated
Billie Holiday.[4]
The song was first released on the album Diana Ross in February 1976. Motown initially promoted the album by releasing the single "I Thought It Took a Little Time". Singing group
the 5th Dimension released "Love Hangover" as a single. Motown then issued Ross's version as a 7-inch single. Both versions entered the chart the same day. By the time Ross's version of the song reached number one, Ross had reinvented herself as a disco diva and the 5th Dimension's version had peaked at number 80. It won Ross a
Grammy nomination for
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. It appeared on the
soundtrack of the following year's
Diane Keaton movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar.
"Love Hangover" reached number one on May 29, 1976. That week,
Casey Kasem reported on American Top 40 that Ross had broken the record for the most number-one hits by a female vocalist. With her fourth number one, she passed
Connie Francis,
Helen Reddy,
Roberta Flack, and
Cher, each of whom had three.
Ross performed the song on the April 4, 1980 episode of The Muppet Show during its season four run.
The song was remixed several times. A version remixed by
Eric Kupper, known as "Love Hangover 2020", hit number one on Billboard'sDance Club Songs chart in March 2020.
In 1982 British new wave band
The Associates released a double side 45 single "18 Carat Love Affair" / "Love Hangover"[7] which peaked at No. 21 on the UK chart in 1982.
Background vocals from the original alternate take were sampled by
Hardrive in the 1993 House song "No Cure".
British soul singer
Pauline Henry (former lead vocalist of
the Chimes) recorded a contemporary version of the track in 1995 (released as a single).
Italian dance act
Black Box sampled the song on their 1996 disco-house single, "I Got The Vibration/Positive Vibration", which reached no. 21 in the UK and no. 18 in the Italian charts.
The song was sampled in
Monica's 1998 hit "
The First Night", which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2023, the song was performed on
Beyoncé’s
Renaissance World Tour by her background vocalists, Pure Honey, during a band intermission. At the September 4, 2023, show in Los Angeles, Diana Ross joined the Pure Honey singers onstage for their performance and led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Beyoncé.
^
abPitchfork Staff (August 22, 2016).
"The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 13, 2022. Its extended disco metamorphosis, which accounts for more than five of the song's nearly eight-minute length, turns out to be the hair of the dog...
^Breihan, Tom (November 15, 2022). "George McCrae - "Rock Your Baby". The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music. New York:
Hachette Book Group. p. 108.