Songoftheday 10/8/17 - Birds fly, they don't think twice they simply spread their wings, the sun shines it don't ask why or what the whole thing means...
from the album Time, Love and Tenderness (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 13
Today's song of the day comes from pop singer/songwriter Michael Bolton, whose Soul Provider album had landed him five top-40 hits in America with "Georgia On My Mind", "Soul Provider", "When I'm Back On My Feet Again", "How Can We Be Lovers", and the #1 single "How Am I Supposed To Love Without You". So when his next release, Time, Love & Tenderness, arrived, he was at the peak of his career. The first single from the record was the uptempo adult-pop of "Love Is A Wonderful Thing". A blandly soulful ode to love in itself, it created a problem when the Isley Brothers sued for plagiarism, claiming the record rips off from their same-titled single from 1966, which missed the pop chart. Here's the Isley's record...
...and here's Michael's...
In my opinion, neither song is really any great news, and besides the chorus (which both cop off a thousand other gospel classics) they don't sound alike, but a jury did find a case against Bolton, forcing him, co-writer Andy Goldmark, and his record company to pay millions in royalties.
Nevertheless, at the time of release, Bolton's "Love Is A Wonderful Thing" became his fourth top ten pop hit in the U.S. in June of 1991. The record also spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the song peaked at #2 in Canada, and reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#12), Sweden (#16), the UK (#23), Ireland (#23), Australia (#25), and Germany (#40).
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Here's Michael singing it live...
Up tomorrow: Scottish singer does it by instinct.
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