The Love You Take
1988 song performed by Dan Hartman
"The Love You Take" is a duet song by American musician-singer-songwriter Dan Hartman and freestyle\dance singer Denise Lopez. As part of the official soundtrack for the 1988 comedy film Scrooged, starring Bill Murray, it would be released as a single. The song was written and produced by Hartman.
Background
By the late 1980s, Hartman focused on production and writing material for other artists; however, he contributed the occasional solo performance for movie soundtracks such as "The Love You Take". Although his usual songwriter partner was Charlie Midnight beginning around 1983, this song was solely written by Hartman. At the time, Lopez was signed to A&M Records, and would record two solo album for the label before disappearing from the music scene in the early 1990s. She would achieve success earlier in the year of 1988 with songs such as "Saying Sorry (Don't Make it Right)" (#1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music) and "If You Feel It".
From the soundtrack, Annie Lennox and Al Green would find success with "Put A Little Love in Your Heart", which reached #9 in the US, and was a top 40 hit in several countries worldwide. "The Love You Take" was commercially released for the public to purchase and also featured in promotional only formats. The single made an appearance on the US Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart - a weekly music magazine publication.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Love You Take” is 1988 song performed by Dan Hartman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Love, Take and song, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1988 song performed by Dan Hartman” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17061260. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988 and 1983.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Love You Take”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Love You Take primary sources, The Love You Take archive and Love research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Love You Take”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Love You Take” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.