"The Real Thing" is a song by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani from her debut studio album, Love.

Despite initially declining, they eventually changed their minds and lent members Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook to perform background vocals and bass, respectively.

Baby., Stefani felt inspired by the music of Prince, New Order, Club Nouveau, and Madonna, and wanted to create a feel-good dance-pop album.

Because they were in the process of creating original lyrics for their eighth studio album, Waiting for the Sirens' Call (2005), they declined her offer, leaving Stefani to write a song in the style of the group instead.

However, after hearing the track she wrote, they decided to play on it, explaining that they admire Stefani as an artist and were also recently impressed by a remix of her debut single "What You Waiting For?".

[6] Stefani ultimately enlisted members Peter Hook to play on bass, and lead vocalist Bernard Sumner to provide background vocals on "The Real Thing".

[3] Due to the song's many collaborators, Niall McMurray from Into the Pop Void assumed that Stefani was likely unable to work with them all simultaneously.

[9][10][11][12][13] The Miami Herald's Howard Cohen felt the song would appeal to a mostly teen-fanbase and compared Stefani's singing style to that of Madonna.

[14] David Browne from Entertainment Weekly described the track's genre as "glacial '80s synthpop" while Jenny Eliscu from Rolling Stone called the song "so eighties, in fact, that members of New Order are the backing band".

's "Cool" and No Doubt's 1995 single "Don't Speak", calling them all emotional ballads that extend "out an olive branch to an ex-lover".

[20] The key of the song is in A-flat major, with Stefani's vocal range spanning an entire octave, from E3 to D5 in scientific pitch notation.

[20] The song begins with an instrumental introduction, created by Wendy & Lisa, followed by the Hook's first usage of bass, which McMurrary felt was a "sudden thrilling moment where you get to what New Order might have sounded like [if] fronted by a girl".

[9][21] Mark Robisch, a writer for Thought Catalog, explained that the song was about Stefani's "deep love" for her husband.

[9] "The Real Thing" received generally positive reviews from music critics, who frequently labeled it as one of the strongest cuts from Love.

Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone was impressed that by the collaboration of New Order and Wendy & Lisa, calling Stefani "some kind of visionary" for being able to pull it off.

[23] In a similar vein, Kathi Kamen Goldmark Common Sense Media was surprised that their combination of sounds "actually works".

[7] In a 2020 review of "The Real Thing", Wass called the song a "lost hit" and used it as "irrefutable evidence" that some of the album cuts on Love.

[25] Labeling it "the cheesiest moment on the album", Marcus Floyd from Renowned for Sound said that the song's sappiness was not "enough to stop you from singing along to it though".

[26] The Gay City News' Winnie McCroy felt the song was dated, calling it slightly better than "Cool" and evocative of American singer Debbie Gibson.

[27] Charles Merwin, a writer for Stylus Magazine, criticized "The Real Thing" for being tepid, writing that Perry's work only added "depth to an already three-dimensional character".

[28] Pitchfork's Nick Sylvester panned the track, calling it a Karaoke Revolution version of New Order's 1986 single "Bizarre Love Triangle" that had been "unbizarrif[ied], unlove[d], and untriangulate[d]".

[32] For the performance of "The Real Thing", Stefani was joined by her backup dancer troupe, the Harajuku Girls, who were dressed as "Malibu Barbie" dolls.

[33] Melissa Maerz from Spin, reviewing Stefani's show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, felt that the dancers were busy during the performance, and noted that they were accompanied by four breakdancers demonstrating acrobatic headspins.

[33] Jane Stevenson from the Toronto Sun called the performance a concert standout, and claimed that it created high expectations for the rest of the show.

[32] Comparing her stage presence to Madonna, Corey Moss from MTV News joked that Stefani could have retitled "The Real Thing" to "Lucky Star 2005" due to their similarities.

[38] Derek Paiva, the entertainment writer for The Honolulu Advertiser, provided a positive review of the live rendition, praising Dorsey's vocal abilities.

[43] Johnny Loftus from AllMusic labeled their chamber rendition as boring, writing that something else "besides Stefani's voice is lost in [their] translation".