Love or Let Me Be Lonely

"Love or Let Me Be Lonely" is a pop song recorded by the soul group The Friends of Distinction and released as a single in early 1970. The song was a multi-format success, peaking in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at #6 on May 1, 1970 and at #13 on the R&B chart. On the Adult Contemporary singles charts, "Love or Let Me Be Lonely" went to #9. The song is ranked as the 63rd biggest hit of 1970.

Paul Davis version
The song returned to the charts in the summer of 1982 in a version by American singer-songwriter Paul Davis as the third and final single from his 1981 album Cool Night (Davis' seventh, final, and breakthrough album), which reached number 40 on the Hot 100 and number 11 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. This would go on to be Davis' final single as the lead artist and last single overall for 5 years until he was featured on Marie Osmond's "You're Still New to Me", Davis would retire from music alltogether in 1988 and died in 2008. As with all tracks on Cool Night, Davis' version was co-produced by Davis himself and keyboardist Ed Seay.

Sylvie Vartan version (in French)
In August 1970, the song was adapted into French as "La chasse à l'homme" (meaning "The manhunt") by Gilles Thibault and recorded by French pop singer Sylvie Vartan, who released her version as a non-album single, 5 months after the release of the original Friends of Distinction version. Vartan's version peaked at Number 17 on the French Belgian charts on October 24, 1970.