Songoftheday 9/16/13 - We had a once in a lifetime but I just couldn't see until it was gone...

Peabo Bryson - "If Ever You're In My Arms Again"
from the album Straight From The Heart (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Todays song of the day is by soul singer Peabo Bryson, who after years of solid success on R&B radio but rather minor exposure on pop stations got his big break in one of his many duets, this time with Roberta Flack in 1983 with "Tonight I Celebrate My Love", which reached the top-20 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. Using that as a springboard, Peabo recorded his next solo album, Straight From The Heart. The first single, the ballad of love lost and second chances, "If Ever You're In My Arms Again", was co-written and produced by Michael Masser (who had a hand in "Tonight I Celebrate..."), along with Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow. Helping the promotion was its inclusion in the 80s soap opera Santa Barbara. It became his biggest solo success and only solo top-40 single.

"If Ever You're In My Arms Again" reached the pop top-10 in the US for three weeks in August of 1984. It also topped the adult contemporary chart and topped out at #6 on the R&B list in Billboard.

Can you imagine this being sung by Whitney Houston? I sure can. This is one of those songs you don't remember how good it was until you hear it again.

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..and here's Peabo live in concert in 2001 singing "If Ever You're In My Arms Again" sounding just as smooth...

Up tomorrow: Heavy Metal goes South. America. (well, almost)