Santana Feat Michelle Branch “The Game Of Love”

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When you hear the lyrics to Michelle Branch’s song you may become a bit confused because many of the lyrics are portions and resounds of similar recordings. But as a matter if fact, Michelle’s recording is a cover.

The song had originally been recorded with New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander, but producer Clive Davis felt a female voice would maximize the song’s appeal and a recording of Santana performing “The Game of Love” with Tina Turner as vocalist was completed. When Turner declined to participate in making a video for the track, Davis recruited Macy Gray to record a replacement vocal.

When Davis was not satisfied with that version, Michelle Branch was asked to record the song,[better source needed] with Branch’s rhythm guitar playing also added to the track. Branch said, “It was the first time for me to sing somebody else’s song. Usually I’m like: ‘Oh I want it this way’ and I’m in charge…I didn’t meet [Carlos Santana at the recording session], I didn’t know what was going on…It felt to me like wow it seems like there’s so much at stake, I’m going to go in there and just sing my heart out and just cross my fingers.”

The Tina Turner version of “The Game of Love” was issued on the 2007 retrospective Ultimate Santana. Santana said “There’s only one Tina Turner…No one can hit a note like Tina Turner…I love Michelle [Branch] and she did a great interpretation of it. It’s just that with all honor and respect to Michelle, there’s the girl and there’s the woman, and Michelle is unfolding into a woman…but it takes time to go from a girl into a woman.wiki