To Be a Lover in early 1969. This version has since been sampled by Ludacris on his song "Growing Pains" from "Word of Mouf", by Jaheim on "Put That Woman First" from "Still Ghetto" and by Dilated Peoples on the song "Worst Comes to Worst". In 1977, the song was covered as a more uptempo reggae number by the Jamaican singer George Faith under the amended title of "To Be a Lover (Have Mercy)" for his Lee "Scratch" Perry-produced album also called "To Be a Lover". In 1986, the track was again reworked and became the second high-profile cover Billy Idol released as a
Lover to Lover to Lover" received acclaim from music critics. In a review of "Ceremonials", Allison Fitts of Dart News Online praised the song, calling it "one of the most unique [songs] on Ceremonials" and saying, "'Lover to Lover' is basically what the band would have sounded like 50 years ago", and compared it to the works of Fitz & the Tantrums. American magazines "Rolling Stone" and "Billboard", in their reviews of the album, compared the song to the work of Adele. A music video to accompany the release of "Lover to Lover" was first released onto YouTube on 19 November 2012 at