Songoftheday 9/11/19 - Hearts gone astray leaving hurt when they go, I went away just when you you need me so...
from the album Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from the Cuban-American pop singer Gloria Estefan, who took her remake of the disco classic "Turn The Beat Around" to the pop top 20 in America in the fall of 1994. Even her old band, the Miami Sound Machine, would also score a top-20 dance hit with "Jambala", both appearing in the Sylvester Stallone movie The Specialist. However that would mark the first time a lead single from one of her studio albums would fail to make the top ten here. In the UK, they rushed out a second single from the covers album, a take on Mel Carter's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me", which just missed the top ten at #11, while making it to #22 in Ireland as well. When the chart run of "Turn the Beat Around" ended in America, they released another disco-fied remake, this time of a song originally released in 1967. "Everlasting Love", written and produced by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, was first a success for singer Robert Knight, who took the mid-tempo soul number to #13 on Billboard's Hot 100; seven years later he would reach #19 in the UK with the same record....
Meanwhile, across the pond, the pop/soul band from London, Love Affair, offered their own version of "Everlasting Love" which way oversold Knight's version (which went to #40 there) and would go on and top the British chart in 1968...
In 1974, singer Carl Carlton released a cover of "Everlasting Love", first as a B-side to another single, then on its own, and then in one of the first "disco remix" transformations that would propel the song to the top ten on the American pop chart, peaking at #6 pop/#11 R&B...
Twenty years later, Gloria Estefan's version brought the song to a new generation. And even provided a little history, as a then-pregnant Gloria, who couldn't shimmy around for the video, employed a bunch of drag queens to lip-sync for their lives to the song, including future RuPaul Drag Race winner Raja...
Estefan's version of "Everlasting Love" became her second top-40 pop hit from Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me in March of 1995. The song also climbed to #5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. And the remixes of the track (along with the LBGT presence in the music video) helped it be her biggest club hit, spending two weeks at #1 on the Dance chart. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Iceland (#12), Canada (#19), the UK (#19), and Australia (#29).
Instead of another club banger, Estefan's next single would be a laid back version of the Carole King classic "It's Too Late". While it went to #31 on the Adult Contemporary list, the record stiffed totally at pop, missing the Hot 100 (it did go to #72 in Canada). After that, a dance record was issued solely for the club, a version of Dr. Buzzard and the Savannah Band's "Cherchez La Femme", which went to #19 on Billboard's Dance Club Play tally.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
"Everlasting Love" proved its title, recorded over decades by a myriad of artist and hitting the charts over and over again. In 1968, a cover from Australian act the Town Criers climbed to #2 in their home country, a benefit of a pre-internet time when local acts can rush records right when they're popular elsewhere...
Meanwhile in France, Nicoletta recorded it as "L'Amour Me Pardonne", which was a minor hit in her country (#60)...
In 1979, singer Narvel Felts recorded a country version, which went to #14 on that genre's chart...
...while Louise Mandrell also released it the same year with a more "cosmopolitan" country-disco production, going to #69...
Pin-up boy Rex Smith and newcomer Rachel Sweet turned the song to a duet, reaching the top-40 on the pop chart in America (#32) and the UK (#35)...
The team of Stock Aiken Waterman helped German singer Sandra (future member of Enigma) remix the song (produced by Michael Cretu, Sandra's future husband and Enigma bandmate) to be a gay club favorite and a top ten hit in Germany (#5), Switzerland (#5), Austria (#6), the Netherlands (#8), and Belgium (#9), while missing the British top 40 by a smidge at #45...
British boy-band Worlds Apart had the distinction of having a hit with the song in two different recordings, first in 1993 when it hit #40 in Germany and #20 in Britain...
And then a year later, with new member Nathan Moore (of Brother Beyond), the new version hit #4 in France and #29 in Belgium...
In 1998, the song re-appeared on the British charts courtesy of the hit TV hospital drama Casualty, with the cast led by actress Rebecca Wheatley recording the song for the charity Children In Need. The result went to #5 in Britain...
In 1989, U2 put "Everlasting Love" as the B-side to "All I Want Is You", and in the Netherlands, was the "A-Side", hitting #10 on the charts and getting significant radio airplay in America...
British jazz-pop artist Jamie Cullum had one the most recent singles chart hit with the song, from the movie Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, going to #20 in the UK, #13 in Denmark, and #19 in the Netherlands in 2004...
In 2010, the Soldiers, a group made of British military veterans, included the song on their top ten album Coming Home (UK Albums #4)...
Now back to Gloria, with her post-pregnancy performance on Top Of The Pops...
And the remix of the song that helped it top the dance chart for two weeks....
Gloria even took her queens with her, as in this Spanglish-version live clip from Mexico City...
And finally, Gloria performing "Everlasting Love" with her daughter Emily in 2013...
I know this was a long, long post with a lot of clips, but as one of my all-time favorite songs, it is worth listening to all the different takes on it.
Up tomorrow: Classic rock band finds the fountain of youth, perhaps?
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