Songoftheday 12/21/17 - We used to talk never owed a dime, now we live together never find the time...
from the album Discipline (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 1
Today's song of the day comes from Desmond Child, who along with Diane Warren and Holly Knight was one of the biggest songswriters in pop music in the 1980's. Born John Barrett in Gainesville, Florida (home to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Desmond success began in 1979, when he penned the disco-rock hit for KISS, "I Was Made For Lovin' You", which peaked at #11 on the pop chart. He also formed his own band, Desmond Child and Rouge, which had a minor pop hit that same year with "Our Love is Insane" (#51). However, that group didn't last past two quickly-released albums, and Child concentrated on writing and producing others. And with that tack his profile tore through the roof, writing top ten hits for Cher ("We All Sleep Alone"), Aerosmith ("Angel"), Joan Jett ("I Hate Myself For Loving You"), Alice Cooper ("Poison"), Michael Bolton ("How Can We Be Lovers"), and most notably, Bon Jovi, with whom he helped write their #1 hits "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' On A Prayer", and "Bad Medicine". His status as a "song doctor" for mainstream rock acts landed Child a solo record deal, and he released his disc Affliction in 1991. With an all-star lineup with members of Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Kane Roberts, and Vivian Campbell on board, the album was meant to be a big-time affair. The first single from the record, "Love On A Rooftop", was originally recorded by 60s girl-group queen Ronnie Spector. Written by Child with Diane Warren, it had all the bells and whistles of the music for artists he had written for, though his voice wasn't quite as strong or memorable as like Jon Bon Jovi or Steven Tyler. But the girl-group-style "whoa-whoa's" that carried over from Spector's version made for a nice hook...
"Love On A Rooftop" slipped in to the American top-40 for a week in August of 1991. The follow-up single, "You're The Story Of My Life" (also penned by Child and Warren), slipped in at #74 on the pop Hot 100, but did climb to #29 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. A third single, "Obsession" with former Rouge bandmate Maria Vidal, went to #19 on that latter chart, his final appearance so far as an artist.
Focusing back on producing and writing, Desmond continued to have massive success with Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, as well as for artists as diverse as Ricky Martin ("Livin' La Vida Loca"), Sisqo ("Thong Song"), and Carrie Underwood ("Inside Your Love"). Also, coming out to the public as a gay man, Child and his husband Curtis live in Nashville, with their sons, and produced a documentary about their journey to start a family.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Ronnie Spector's original version of "Love On A Rooftop" from her Unfinished Business album in 1987...
And finally, a trailer for the documentary Desmond and Curtis made back in 2013...
Up tomorrow: A veteran soul singer observes universal human folly.
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