#11: I Love To Love by Tina Charles

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: July 1976
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
Peak Position on Irish Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #1
Peak Position on French Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Norwegian Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Swedish Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Italian Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on South African Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on West German Singles chart ~ #5
YouTube: “I Love To Love”
Lyrics: “I Love To Love”

Tina Charles was born Tina Hoskins in London, England, in 1954. By the age of 14, in 1969, she was working as a session singer. When Hoskins was taken to CBS Records, that year she released her first non-album single titled “Nothing in the World” with a then obscure piano player in the studio named Reginald Dwight (who was soon took the stage name Elton John). During the early 1970s, she supplied vocals for the Top of the Pops album series of cover versions of contemporary hits. In 1971, she made appearances in the first series of The Two Ronnies, the BBC1 sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, performing “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Ruby Tuesday” and other pop hits. Starting in the 70s, Tina Charles provided vocals and spoken word on a variety of TV commercials. These include Crosse & Blackwell, Vauxhall, Interflora and others.

In 1975, she provided backing vocals for the song “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” featuring Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. The song climbed to number-one in Ireland and the UK, #5 in the Netherlands, and #7 in Belgium. Charles also provided backing vocals on the 5000 Volts hit “I’m On Fire”, which sampled the 1966 hit “Black Is Black” by Los Bravos. The single reached number-one in Belgium, Israel and West Germany, #3 in the Netherlands and Switzerland, #4 in Sweden, #5 in Australia, #7 in Austria and New Zealand, #9 in Ireland, and #10 in Norway and South Africa.

In 1975, her single “You Set My Heart on Fire” reached #3 in Belgium and Sweden, #6 in the Netherlands, and #7 in Spain.

In 1975-76, Tina Charles had a huge international hit with “I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance)”.

“I Love To Love” was cowritten by Jack Robinson and James Bolden. Robinson was born in 1938 in Seattle, Washington. He served in the United States Marines, and began to work for United Press International as a journalist based in Paris, France. Robinson became a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg. He dropped his news work to become a professional manager (directeur artistique) in an American publishing company which, among others, had just signed The Rolling Stones and The Who. The job of a professional manager is to take songs from the publishers’ catalog and to find new writers and present songs to artists and record producers. Robinson then decided he would become a record producer. In 1972, Robinson produced the Top Ten hit “Dancing In The Moonlight” for King Harvest. In 1975, Robinson and Bolden cowrote Gloria Gaynor’s number-one dance hit “(If You Want It) Do It Yourself”. Robinson and Bolden wrote Tina Charles followup to “I Love To Love” titled “Love Me Like a Lover”. They also wrote a Top 30 hit in the UK for Tina Charles titled “Rendezvous”. In 1978, they wrote “Do Or Die” and “Fame” for Grace Jones which became #3 disco hits. In 1979, the disco band Frantique had a #10 hit in the UK with “Strut Your Funky Stuff”. The single was covered by Phunky Phantom as “Get Up Stand Up” in 1997 and became a #1 dance hit. In 1982, the duo wrote “Saddle Up” which climbed to #9 on the UK pop charts for David Christie (aka James Bolden). Robinson more recently has worked with English theatrical producer Julie Clare.

James Bolden was born in 1948 in the 12th century medieval town of Tarare eastern France with the birth name Jacques Pepino. After his string of hits he and Jack Robinson cowrote, using the pseudonym James Bolden, he had a brief singing career with the stage name David Christie, and also Napoleon Jones. Between 1974 and 1984, he released seven studio albums. He died by suicide in 1997 after the accidental death of his eleven-year-old daughter Julie.

The single peaked at number-one in Ireland and the UK, #2 in Norway and Sweden, #4 in South Africa, #6 in Australia and West Germany, #7 in New Zealand, and #8 in Argentina. In 1987, the song shot to #2 in France.

The Buggles made choices in the production of their 1979 hit “Video Killed the Radio Star” based on the production of “I Love to Love”. They had Tina Charles provide backing vocals on “Video Killed the Radio Star” who did a demo with “Oh-a-a-a-oh” thrown in. The Buggles liked it and included the vocalized vowels in the studio recording.

“I Love to Love” was accompanied by her debut album I Love to Love. The album topped the album charts in Norway and Sweden, and reached the Top Ten on album charts in Finland and Spain. In 1986, a remix of the song made the Top Ten in Austria, the Netherlands and West Germany. In 1976, her second studio album, Tina Sings, featured the single “I Can’t Dance to That Music You’re Playin'” which failed to chart. Later in 1976, a second track from I Love to Love titled “Love Me Like a Lover” became a Top 15 hit in West Germany, and a Top 30 hit in Belgium and the Netherlands, and #31 in the UK.

In the spring of 1976, Tina Charles released “Dance Little Lady Dance”.

At the end of 1976, Tina Charles released the single “Dr. Love”. It climbed to #4 in the UK, #11 in Australia and Sweden, #20 in West Germany, and the Top 30 in New Zealand and Spain.

In 1976, Charles released her fifth studio album, Heart ‘n Soul, which reached #8 in Norway, and #11 in Finland and Sweden. In 1978, Charles was a joint winner at the World Popular Song Festival held in Tokyo, performing the tune “Love Rocks”. Charles represented the UK, and shared the top prize with Japan’s own entry.

By 1980, her career was in decline, and disco music generally was losing some of its public appeal. She attempted to change her disco style for her 1980 album Just One Smile for a more hard edge rock electronic style but the album was virtually ignored. Charles married and had a child, and devoted herself for some years to her family life, putting her singing career on hold.

Since 2000, Charles has performed throughout Europe, where disco music and her hit singles have been reappraised, and she has become a popular live performer. Charles featured in the Top 5 of the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart with “Higher” in 2006. The song was produced by Sanny X. She made a guest appearance with The Producers at their 2007 concert, singing “Slave to the Rhythm”. In October 2007, Charles recorded “Hide and Seek” with producer Ian Levine for the album Disco 2008. Her latest album, Listen 2 the Music, was released in March 2008.

In 2010, she went on tour with 5000 Volts, the band with which she experienced her first hit record. Between 1969 and 2015, Tina Charles released 44 singles, including 26 non-album singles.

November 19, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Tina Charles Interview,” Colly D Show, Soundcloud.com, 2024.
Tony Padman, “Whatever happened to disco queen Tina Charles famed for pop hit I Love To Love,” Express, UK, January 10, 2016.
Dave Simpson, “The Buggles: How we made Video Killed the Radio Star,” Guardian, October 30, 2018.
Tina Charles, “Good To Be Alive“, CBS Records, 1969.
“David Christie,” Wikipedia.org.
“Welcome to Robin Song Music,” robinsongmusic.com.

CFGO 1440-AM Ottawa Top Ten | July 19, 1976