Songoftheday 3/7/13 - Tonight no one's gonna find us, we'll leave the world behind us when I make love to you...

Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson - "Tonight I Celebrate My Love"
from the album Born To Love (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is a pairing of two classic old-school soul vocalists who came together for a duet album Marvin and Diana-style in 1983. The last time we saw Roberta Flack in the top-40 was with the theme to the big-budget "down-low" coming out film "Making Love", which went to the #13 spot in the summer of 1982.

Peabo Bryson's first break with singing on the disco producer Michael Zager's single "Do It With Feeling", which was a minor pop hit that made the top 40 on the R&B chart in 1975. A year later, He released his first solo album, and by his second, Reaching For The Sky, he scored his first top-10 R&B hit with the title track. On his next effort, Crosswinds, he went all the way to #2 on the chart with "I'm So Into You".

After a few more successful soul records, including another collaborative one with Natalie Cole and a single on his live album with Roberta, the two recorded their quiet storm set Born To Love for release in 1983. The first single, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", was a delicate, made-for-the-bedroom jam written by ballad master Michael Masser ("The Greatest Love Of All") and Brill Building alum Gerry Goffin that put Peabo into the top-40 on pop radio for the first time...

While "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" fell short of the top-10 on the pop chart, it lingered around longer than most songs that did, and stayed on the charts for a full eight months. It also went to #4 on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) and #5 on the R&B charts, and was huge in England, where the single peaked at #2, the highest placing for either Roberta or Peabo in that country. Peabo would go on to have more hit duets with the likes of Celine Dion and Regina Belle, while Roberta did the same with Maxi Priest.

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In 2006, British tabloid fodder Katie Price and husband of the moment Peter Andre covered the song for their own "duets" album...

Up tomorrow: Pure Arson.