The song is delivered in the form of a prayer:
Heaven please send to all mankind
Understanding and peace of mind
And if it’s not asking too much
Please send me someone to love.
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” is a ballad written and recorded by Percy Mayfield in 1950 for Specialty Records. I first heard it sung by Sade, but you may know it from recordings by B.B. King, Count Basie, Etta James, Gladys Knight… the list goes on.
Every other love song in existence is about just two people. Their names are “You” and “I.” It’s a whole lot of “Me Me Me Wanting/Having/Losing You You You” out there.
Percy turns this convention on its head by asking first for the greater good.
“Listen, we really need help down here. Lots of conflict. Discrimination. Poverty. Suffering. Please help us stop being such jerks to each other. And, uh, oh yeah, just one more thing… this is low on the priority list, but despite all this madness, I’m human and I’m lonely. Please send me someone to love.”
Even to an atheist like myself, that’s a very moving prayer.
The Lesson
By showing sensitivity to larger ills and troubles in the world, Percy gave his plea for love a powerful context.
To give your next love song extra punch, put the situation in context. Zoom out and look at where the song’s characters are, what’s going on around them, and what their love or loneliness means to the world at large.
“The world” might mean this entire blue-green ball, which is far too large for our imaginations to hold. But “the world” here could also mean “this city,” “my social group,” or “this room, you, right now. With all the insanity going on just outside these walls, I’m glad that you’re here.”
Give love a fresh context, and you just might have the kind of love song that audiences pine for.