"(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" is a song written by Stax Records songwriters Homer Banks, Carl Hampton, and Raymond Jackson.
The song is about an adulterous love affair, told from the point of view of either the mistress or the cheating spouse, depending on the gender of the performer.
Regardless, both parties involved express their desire to maintain the affair, while at the same time acknowledging that the relationship is wrong according to conventional moral standards.
Titled "The Rap", the middle segment is a monologue in which an unrepentant Jackson discusses her status as the "other woman" and why she loves it.
[8] Other notable singers to cover it include: country singer Jackie Burns (whose version made Hot Country Songs in 1972),[9] Isaac Hayes, Millie Jackson, Rod Stewart, Percy Sledge, Bobby "Blue" Bland, David Ruffin, Barbara Mason, LeAnn Rimes, Renée Geyer, Ramsey Lewis, jazz chanteuse Della Reese, reggae singers Alton Ellis, George Faith and Glen Washington, Tom Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Nathan Cavaleri, Rania Zeriri, Barbara Mandrell and Johanne Desforges (French cover: «Si je ne peux t'aimer a quoi bon exister»).