She Comes in Colors
1966 single by Love
"She Comes in Colors" is a song written by Arthur Lee and released by the band Love as a single in 1966 and on their second album Da Capo. It was also included on a number of Love compilation albums, including Love Revisited and Best of Love and on the multi-artist compilation album Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra 1963–1973.
Although modern critics have praised the song as being "sublime," or a "timeless jewel," or as possibly the best song Lee ever wrote, at the time of its release as a single it failed to make the Billboard Hot 100. Lee and some music critics believed that "She Comes in Colors" was a source for The Rolling Stones' song "She's a Rainbow", and several music critics and record company executives also believe that it influenced Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger", although Madonna has denied this. The song was also covered by several artists, including The Hooters.
Writing and recording
Inspiration for "She Comes in Colors" came from the clothing worn by Love fan Annette Bonan (later Ferrell), who was also a friend of Arthur Lee. Love guitarist Johnny Echols recalls that the song "was about this girl named Annette who would come to all our shows wearing these outrageous gypsy clothes." The lyrics include a line about being in "England town," although Lee had never been to England when he wrote the song; Echols suggested that Lee change the line to "London town" but Lee refused. The guitar riff was influenced by folk rock. Instrumentation of Love's recording of the song includes harpsichord played by Alban "Snoopy" Pfisterer and flute played by Tjay Cantrelli.
Echols remembers "She Comes in Colors" to be the most difficult song on Da Capo to record, because it incorporated a lot of "strange chords." He said that the recording "probably took seven or eight takes, because in a way it's three songs in one, but it's hard to hear where the changes are." According to Echols: "The single version...
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7491951. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1963 and 1973.
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