Songoftheday - Sometimes lonely nights turn into sunny days....

Johnny Mathis & Dionne Warwick - "Friends In Love"

from the Johnny Mathis album Friends In Love (1982)

and the Dionne Warwick album Friends In Love (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (two weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 3

Today's Song of the Day is by two legends of vocal pop music, Johnny Mathis and Dionne Warwick. Mathis, who was 46 years old in 1982, was the premiere crooner of the late fifties and early sixties, and his Greatest Hits album was one of the longest-selling albums in American history. He's also had two #1 pop singles, 1957's "Chances Are" as well as his 1978 duet with Deniece Williams, "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late". Mathis' first 12 charting albums were all top-10 on the US albums chart, and Mathis at the time was the living legacy of the mainstream success of Nat "King" Cole. I grew up on his music, as my mother was a huge fan of his, and owned all his albums (on 8-track, of course).

Warwick, who was 41 in the spring of '82, is best known as the muse of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and made classics of songs like "Anyone Who Had A Heart" and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose". In the 70's she had her sole #1 pop hit up to that point with "Then Came You" with the Spinners. In the beginning of the 80's, Dionne had a hosting gig on the music countdown show Solid Gold, but left in 1981.

Written by producer David Foster and future Chicago member Bill Champlin, "Friends In Love" was released as the title song on albums released by both Mathis and Warwick in 1982. It came at a time where older artists were still embraced on pop radio, so they made the top-40, as well as having a top-5 adult-contemporary (soft-rock) hit with the song.

The same year, Us Weekly magazine printed an interview claiming Mathis' came out of the closet, but was retracted at the time - he would officially come out in 2006. The single would be Mathis' final top-40 hit so far, but Dionne would keep doing well throughout the 80's, having the biggest hit of her career in 1986 with "That's What Friends Are For".  The two have each struggled with addiction, but still are performing today, and remain the premier vocalists of their generation.

Up tomorrow: Another state-named band has their lucky seventh straight country #1 hit.