Songoftheday 12/6/14 - Things look so bad everywhere In this whole world what is fair, we walk blind and we try to see falling behind in what could be...

Steve Winwood - "Higher Love"
from the album Back In The High Life (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day comes from British singer/songwriter/keyboardist Steve Winwood, who started his long career quite early, joining the blues rock band the Spencer Davis Group barely into his teens in 1963. Along with his brother Mervyn (aka "Muff") on bass, they scored back-to-back #1 hits in the UK in 1965 with "Keep You Running" and "Somebody Help Me", both featuring Steve on lead vocals. They followed with two singles that gave them their big break in America with "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm A Man". With this success, the brothers left the group, with Muff going behind the scenes as a producer and record label man, and Steve to form a new group, Traffic, who blended progressive and folk rock in a tight yet expansive package that landed them four top-ten albums in the U.S. He also participated in the one-off supergroup project Blind Faith in 1969. However by the late 70s, Winwood finally put it all aside for a true solo career, releasing his debut album in 1977, which was a moderate hit as a record but didn't churn out any singles for the radio (something true from his proggy days with Traffic and Blind Faith).

Making a left turn into adult-pop territory is what brought Winwood his biggest audience in America, as his sophomore effort Arc Of A Diver went to #3 on the albums chart and gave him a top-ten pop hit with "While You See A Chance". With a keyboard-heavy production all done by the artist, the record was the pinnacle of the soft-rock movement of the beginning of the 80's. His next release, though, Talking Back To The Night, didn't get the same response in late 1982, even though the adult-contemporary backlash hadn't happened as yet. It did manage to get a top-10 rock hit that almost made the pop top-40 with "Still In The Game".

Taking four years to release his next album, Steve moved to America and enlisted A-list talent like Chaka Khan and Joe Walsh for his Back In The High Life album, the former appearing on its first single "Higher Love". Instead of resting on either his prog-rock roots or adult-pop comeback, Steve brightened the room with an island-tinged pop tune that was as happy and toe-tapping as they come..


Steve Winwood. "Higher Love" from 99Tigers on Vimeo.


"Higher Love" became Winwood's first-ever #1 pop hit in America from any of his work in August of 1986. The single also spent a month on top of the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard, and peaked at #7 on its Adult Contemporary list. The 12" single (paired with follow-up "Freedom Overspill") made an appearance on the Dance Club Play chart at #28 as well. Internationally, the record made it to #1 in Canada, top-ten in Australia, and #13 in Winwood's native England.

The record eventually paid off the most at the Grammy Awards, earning Winwood Record of the Year and Pop Male Performance trophies for "Higher Love" in 1987 (he was also nominated for Song and Album of the Year).

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Here's Winwood with "Higher Love" live in 1986 (though this might be him singing to a backing track and the band miming)...

Whitney Houston, who had included "Higher Love" on her I'm Your Baby Tonight album in a new jack swing setting on the Japanese release only, nevertheless performed the track live on tour, and she rocked it...

Back to Steve (and possibly a new nose?) with the song in 1997...

In 2011, Irish indie-folk artist James Vincent McMorrow covered the song , and went to #21 on the British singles chart...

Taking this delicate arrangement of "Higher Love" in a more soulful direction was Voice UK contestant and former Amy Winehouse bestie Tyler James, and he snuck on to the British top-40 at #39 in 2012...

Finally, back to Winwood at a show in 2014..

Up tomorrow: Berkeley soulsters are spreading some stories.