Love Shoulda Brought You Home

"Love Shoulda Brought You Home" was written by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Daryl Simmons, and Bo Watson, and originally to be recorded by Anita Baker.[1] Production on the track was overseen by Edmonds and Simmons along with L.A. Reid, while mixing was handled by Reid and Barney Perkins.[1] Background vocals were provided by Braxton, Edmonds, Debra Killings, and Trina Broussard, with Watson playing keyboards and Vance Taylor playing acoustic piano.[1] Reid and Edmonds also served as executive producers on "Love Shoulda Brought You Home".[1]

The song served as the follow-up to Braxton's duet with Babyface, titled "Give U My Heart", her debut as a solo singer, which was also included on the soundtrack of Eddie Murphy's film, Boomerang (1992). Both songs "Give U My Heart" and "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" were originally to be recorded by Baker, but due to Baker's pregnancy, she had to decline.[2][3] The title of the song is a direct line from Boomerang. In the film, Halle Berry's character, Angela Lewis, angrily tells her man, Marcus Graham, played by Murphy, after he spent the night with another woman, "Love should've brought your ass home last night."[4]

Marisa Fox from Entertainment Weekly said that "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" "is a bit too much of an Anita Baker ”Real Love” clone".[5] James Hamilton from Music Week's RM Dance Update described the song as a "pleasant rolling 87.8bpm sultry swayer".[6]

In the United States, "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" peaked number five on the Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart on December 5, 1992. The song spent a total of twenty nine weeks on the chart.[7] A months later, on January 16, 1993, it peaked at number nineteen on Billboard's Rhythmic Songs chart and number thirty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[8][9] "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" also peaked at number thirty six on the Radio Songs chart.[10]

In the United Kingdom, on November 27, 1994, "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" debuted at number thirty three on the UK Singles Chart.[11] In its second and third week the song fell to numbers forty six and seventy five.[12][13] On January 14, 1995, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart, charting at number ninety three before falling out the top 100.[14]

The music video for "Love Shoulda Brought You Home", directed by Ralph Ziman, shows an angry Braxton—alternating between a long sweater, worn as a dress, and a suit complete with tie. She is fed up with her boyfriend and testifies that if he really cared, then love should have brought him home last night.[15]

Credits lifted from the single's liner notes.[18]