Music producer Eric Williams is the creative talent behind the R&B, chart-climbing song “Crazy For Your Love.” Williams, who is also known as “E-Will,” enlisted two dynamic singers to perform the vocals on the track.
One of the two singers was Coko, the lead singer of the all-female musical trio SWV. The other vocalist was K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci, and later K-Ci & JoJo fame. At the same time, they are bandmembers in their respective groups, Coko and Hailey are also songwriters.
When Hailey first heard Williams’ track for “Love,” he said, “I knew the song was a banger — I knew that! I said, ‘You got one.’ I said, ‘the only thing missing without me is Coko – we got to have Coko.’”
“The song was amazing, when I first heard it,” said Coko. “I was like, ‘Yeah, this is hot.’ I definitely wanted to be on it.”
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Before “Love,” Williams, Coko, and Hailey were already acquaintances. Hailey would liken them to being more like family, and Williams and Coko agreed.
Williams said “Crazy For Your Love” details three different kinds of love that can sometimes exist all at the same time. He described them as emotional, physical, and spiritual.
“When you understand what love is – it embodies all three of those components,” said Williams. “You put it all together – you’ve got to be crazy. When you find real love – love that never runs dry – love that lives – it’ll drive you crazy.”
Williams said other than the lead vocalists and bassist Mykal Curtis playing bass on “Love,” he was responsible for most of the music heard on the song.
Williams called Hailey “one of the greatest male vocalists of all time,” and that if he produced a record with a male vocalist it had to be one of the greatest of all time. “I was like, ‘K is going to kill it,”’ said Williams. “But I didn’t know he was going to put the K-Ci thang on it!”
Williams also said candidly that when Coko first heard the demo version of the track without Hailey on it, she did not want to do it. But when she heard Hailey’s vocals, she wanted to join in on their collaboration.
Coko called the project “long-overdue,” and Hailey said he knew the song would become a hit.
Hailey described Jodeci and SWV – of which he and Coko were members, respectively — as two of the hottest rhythm and blues groups of the 90s. Hailey said he and Coko bring elements from both groups in their vocal stylings on “Love.”
Coko and Hailey said they both love performing with their groups, but there is also something special about collaborating with other performers outside of their groups.
“It’s experience and challenges,” said Hailey. “I love challenges, myself. Doing something with other artists is a challenge for me,” he continued, “and Coko is really my first one. Doing it with someone like Coko, that’s phenomenal with the vocals, that’s a challenge for me. I love it.”
“For me it’s the freedom,” said Coko. “I don’t like to be in a box, so when I get to step out and do something – especially with someone like K-Ci that will push you and make you go hard – I love that, anytime. It was a challenge and I loved it.”
Williams said the only thing he had to do to pull the best performances out of both artists was tell the engineer to press record.
“How do you tell Superman to be Superman? You can’t,” said Williams. “Superman is Superman and Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman. They get up and they do what they do. And I was just honored to be there, sit back, and watch history take place.”
