"What Kind of Love" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Rodney Crowell

Rodney Crowell

Rodney Crowell is a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music....

. It was released in June 1992 as the second single from the album Life Is Messy

Life Is Messy

Life Is Messy is the title of the seventh studio album released by American country music artist, Rodney Crowell. It was released in May 1992 by Columbia Records. It peaked at #30 on the Top Country Albums chart. The songs, "Lovin' All Night", "What Kind of Love" and "Let's Make Trouble" were...

. The song reached number 11 on the U.S. Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart and peaked at number 2 on the RPM Country Tracks in Canada.

Crowell and co-writer Will Jennings

Will Jennings

Wilbur H. "Will" Jennings is an American songwriter who is popularly known for writing the lyrics for "My Heart Will Go On", the theme for the film Titanic .-Life and education:...

 wrote the lyrics to a recording of a melody that Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

 had made before his death.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine reviewed the song favorably, calling it the "first step in a major effort to immerse this rock-influenced country star into the pop and AC realm. She goes on to say that "twangy instrumentation a la Tom Petty

Tom Petty

Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...

 and the late Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

(with whom this song was penned), combined with an appealing vocal, makes a strong argument for play at these and album rock formats."

Chart performance

"What Kind of Love" debuted at number 75 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of June 27, 1992.

Chart (1992)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	11
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks	9
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	2
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks	5
Canadian RPM Top Singles	47