Wrapped Up in Your Love

The riff that opens Wrapped Up in Your Love doesn’t sound like the rest of Inner Circle’s tracks. It’s not the band’s classic reggae, with its heavy basslines and catchy choruses, but a more melancholic melody that intertwines with Bon’s voice. The song drifts between reggae and a near-soul vibe, something noticeable from the first seconds: the acoustic guitar and keyboards give it a distinct shine, as if the track were meant to be heard at night, on a porch overlooking the sea.

Recorded in 1992 for the album Bad to the Bone, this track almost went unnoticed in the international version of the record, but when the label Big Beat Records reissued the material in 1993 under the title Bad Boys, Wrapped Up in Your Love found its place. It wasn’t a song meant to be a single, but a hidden gem that producers Per Adebratt and Tommy Ekman —alongside Bernard "Touter" Harvey and the Lewis brothers— let play naturally. The result was an album that ended up winning the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album and selling over a million copies in the United States, something no one expected when it was recorded at Jamaican studios with borrowed equipment. The song, clocking in at 3:39, is an example of how an unusual detail can end up being the signature of an entire album.