The Powers of Love

"The Powers of Love" is a song by Swedo-Finnish band Twelve featuring American singer and rapper. The song was written by Twelve members Charle "Captain V" Vikström and Gert Risberg, contributions were made to the final version by Ocasek and producer Kåre Berrefjord's collaborators Toby Aarbakke and Kurt Evang-Aasvold. It was released as the lead and title single from their 2002 album of the same name. It is known as Twelve's most commercially successful single in the U.S., reaching no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and their third to chart on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

According to Acclaimed Music, it was one of the most-critically-well-received songs of 2002.

Background and development
The melody for the song was written by Twelve co-founder Gert Risberg in 1997 while he was visiting relatives in,. He recalled writing the melody on a napkin while eating lunch at a. Upon returning to the group's home base of, Risberg brought his ideas to the group's hype man Captain V, who wrote a set of lyrics, the two then put down their ideas onto tape using Risberg's home equipment, which included a TASCAM multitrack DAT cassette recorder. One of the recordings consisted of the main verse and riffs played on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard and Alesis SR-16 drum machine with some vocals. A "more developed" version with additional keyboard lines and a bass line was completed in early-1999.

In 2000, Gert Risberg was introduced to former singer  by  of fellow -area act  at a  dinner party. The next day, Risberg and Captain V went to Ocasek's New York City home. While Risberg was on a bathroom break, he left the demo tape running and Ocasek heard the 1999 demo recording of "The Powers of Love". He disliked the "incoherent writing" of some of the verses (as Captain V's English wasn't great at the time) and suggested some lyrical changes. Shortly after presenting his ideas and lyrical changes, Risberg asked Ocasek if he wished to participate more in the "making" of the song. Ocasek offered to be the song's lead singer, which he jokingly referred to as "the moment that I realized that my career was already over as is, and thus didn't need to worry about potential criticism."

Risberg, Captain V and Ocasek quickly recorded a second demo, with Ocasek recording his parts in one take over an ISDN line from New York. For this demo, Risberg added a breakbeat and several samples. Twelve's frequent producer Kåre Berrefjord heard the new demo and recognized it as a potential hit, calling it "an obvious game changer."

In October 2001, Kåre brought in member  as his personal choice to be the second guest on the track (T-Boz and Ocasek had met prior when TLC recorded a cover of "Venus" (made famous by Shocking Blue and Bananarama) for Pop Goes Insane, for which Ocasek re-recorded the guitar riffs and performed some lines in the music video and Extended cuts of the track). T-Boz and Ocasek were guests for the song's official debut performance at a November 5, 2002 Twelve concert at in,.

In March 2002, Ocasek and T-Boz were flown in to to record the final version of "The Powers of Love" at Heart Beat Studios. By then, Kåre brought in Toby Aarbakke and Kurt Evang-Aasvold to rewrite some of the lyrics.

Track listings
12" maxi-single


 * The Powers of Love (Original Mix)
 * The Powers of Love (Radio Edit)
 * The Powers of Love (Club Mix)
 * The Powers of Love (Studio Version)
 * The Powers of Love (Akio's Super-Mix)
 * The Powers of Love (C.D.M. Mix)

Music video
The music video was directed by and shot in the  section of,.