'The Love Train' by the O'Jays

It’s hard to imagine now that the O’Jays were considering quitting the music business just a few months before they landed their first and only number one record with the 1973 hit ‘Love Train’. Written and produced by the great Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble it launched the O’Jays to the forefront of the burgeoning Philadelphia soul scene and became one of the most instantly recognisable sounds of the seventies.

The song is an upbeat plea for global harmony written at a key time in history as the war in Vietnam was ending, relations between the west and China began to ease and tensions began to rise in the middle east. The song tours these hotspots with a simple message to join hands and spread the love and has also become an anthem for couples celebrating their love.

Considered by some a sleeper hit because of it’s enduring status, ‘Love Train’ has never gone away and over the years the song has been covered many times by artists as diverse as the Rolling Stones and Kylie Minogue and lead to many more hit songs from the O’Jay’s through the seventies and a performing career which lasts to the present day.

In 2005 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, proving that the ‘Love Train’ keeps rolling to this day!

People all over the world (everybody)
Join hands (join)
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world (all the world, now)
Join hands (love ride)
Start a love train (love ride), love train
The next stop that we make will be
England Tell all the folks in Russia, and China, too
Don't you know that it's time to get on board
And let this train keep on riding, riding on through 
Well, well 
People all over the world (you don't need no money) 
Join hands (come on) 
Start a love train, love train (don't need no ticket, come on) 
People all over the world ( ride this train)
(Ride this train, y'all) 
Start a love train (Come on, train), love train 
All of you brothers over in Africa Tell all the folks in Egypt, and Israel, too 
Please don't miss this train at the station 
'Cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you 
Well People all over the world (Sisters and brothers) 
Join hands (join, come on) 
Start a love train (ride this train, y'all), love train (Come on) 
People all over the world (Don't need no tickets) 
Join hands (come on, ride) 
Start a love train, love train 
Ride, let it ride Let it ride Let it ride 
People, get on board. 
People all over the world (on this train) 
Join in (ride the train) Start a love train, love train (ride the train, y'all) 
People all over the world (come on) 
Join hands (you can ride or stand, yeah) 
Start a love train, love train (makin' love) 
People all over the world ('round the world, y'all) 
Join hands (come on) 
Start a love train, love train