Songoftheday 10/18/17 - Did you know that your feelings show you thought your love was locked up inside, but when your senses start to overload love is something you should never hide...
from the album Power Of Love (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day is from Luther Vandross, who had landed the first top ten pop hit of his career in the spring of 1990 with the ballad "Here And Now" from his first greatest hits record. A year later, with his profile high on mainstream radio, he released his seventh studio album Power Of Love. The first single from the set was a medley combining an original song, "Power Of Love", written by Luther with producer Marcus Miller, and "Love Power", an old soul single from the Sandpebbles, which reached #22 on the pop chart in 1968. The midtempo resulting track fit in quite nicely with the adult soft-pop of the turn of the decade, while the light new jack swing percussion allowed it to be played next to Color Me Badd and Bell Biv Devoe...
"Power Of Love/Love Power" became Luther's second top ten pop hit in June of 1991. The single was his sixth solo release to reach #1 on Billboard's R&B chart, spending two weeks there, while also spending three weeks at #3 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. Internationally, the record peaked at #8 in Canada, but just missed the top-40 in the UK (#46) and New Zealand (#45). The single ended up winning two Grammy Awards, for Best Male Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song (shared with Miller and Vann).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the original recording of "Love Power" from the Sandpebbles, which got to #22 pop and #14 R&B in 1968...
Next up is Luther appearing at the Grammy Awards, where he picked up two for the record, and bringing in a special guest at the end...
While the song didn't make the Dance Club Play chart, the 12" single almost reached the top ten on the sales list at #11...
In 1995, Luther released new mixes of the song from the likes of Frankie Knuckles and Uno Clio...
Here's Luther live in concert in 1994...
Donna Summer covered the song for a Luther tribute album in 2005, and the remixes became a minor club hit (#43)...
Lastly, "Power Of Love/Love Power" was sung at Luther's funeral in 2005, and to have both Patti Labelle and Aretha Franklin on the same stage together is nothing short of a miracle...
Up tomorrow: My 2000th song of the day by a hard workin' band that is taking a little vacation.
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