Mixed by Tee Scott, the song was a club hit in the early 1980s when recorded by American singer Sharon Brown, the niece of songwriter Phil Medley.

Released as a single in March 1982, by Profile Records, it spent three weeks at number two on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart,[2] her only song to reach this survey.

[3] Brian Chin of Billboard called "I Specialize in Love" a "very skillful pastiche of a whole passel of recent street and fusion sounds, along with a simple rap.

"[4] Ten years later, the American girl group Exposé included a cover version of the song on its 1992 self-titled studio album.

[5] It also reached the top twenty on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart in December of that year.