Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee (born March 7, 1945) and the group's second songwriter, guitarist Bryan MacLean (born September 25, 1946; died December 25, 1998). One of the first racially diverse American pop bands, their music reflected a remarkable array of influences, combining elements of rock and roll, garage rock, folk, showtunes and psychedelia. The band's critical reputation far exceeds the limited success they experienced: their 1967 album Forever Changes is consistently cited by critics as one of the outstanding albums in the history of rock music.
Signed to the Elektra Records label, the band scored a hit single in 1966 with their version of Burt Bacharach's "My Little Red Book".
Their musical reputation largely rests on two albums issued in 1967, Da Capo and Forever Changes. Da Capo included proto-punk rockers like "Stephanie Knows Who" and "7 and 7 Is" (their second hit single), melodic songs such as "¡Que Vida!" and "She Comes in Colors", and a side-long mostly-instrumental track, "Revelation".
Forever Changes, released in November 1967, is an integrated suite of songs using acoustic guitars, strings and horns. Writer Richard Meltzer, in his The Aesthetics of Rock, comments on Love's "orchestral moves", "post-doper word contraction cuteness" and Lee's vocal style that serves as a "reaffirmation of Johnny Mathis". Forever Changes included one modest hit single, the MacLean-written "Alone Again Or", while "You Set the Scene" would go on to receive airplay from some progressive rock radio stations. Depsite the lackluster commercial reception, it is thought of as the greatest psychedelic album of all time by many critics.