♫ I Write The Songs ♫

Posted on June 5, 2023 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Well, it seems my two co-directors cannot agree about Barry Manilow. One of them, Carolyn, suggested Manilow’s I Write the Songs, while the other, Clive, threatened to sick up if he had to listen to Manilow. And then my friend Ryinger ringed in and suggested Copacabana! So much to consider, yes? So, I considered all viewpoints, listened to Copacabana … a song I’ve always liked, but never really bothered to listen and contemplate the lyrics & meaning before. I opted out of that one, and then reviewed Manilow’s record in the UK … not a very impressive set of charts for him, I must admit. And after much pondering and listening to a variety of Manilow’s songs, I settled on the one Carolyn originally suggested! Why? Well, I’m not gonna please Clive, nor likely any of my UK friends, with ANY Manilow song, so I might as well play what I want, and frankly, I Write the Songs is one of my top favourites of Barry Manilow’s music. And so, that’s my reason/excuse for tonight’s song! Now if somebody would get Clive a bag …

According to SongFacts …

This was written by Bruce Johnston, who is a member of The Beach Boys. The song is sometimes erroneously rumored to be about Brian Wilson. Johnston cleared this up when he told us: “The Captain & Tennille were the first artists to record my song ‘I Write The Songs.’ I never wrote ‘I Write The Songs’ about Brian Wilson. I wrote it about ‘where music comes from’ (for me, music comes only from God). My song has nothing to do with Brian! I admire Brian Wilson’s great melodies and, as a member of the Beach Boys, I’m singing these fantastic songs in concert year after year.”

Teen heartthrob David Cassidy released a successful version that was a single in England and hit #11 on the UK charts. Clive Davis, who was in charge of Manilow’s record label, heard Cassidy’s version and had Manilow record it.

This won a Grammy for Song of the Year. The Beach Boys never won a Grammy – after winning this, Johnston became the only member of the group to get one until Brian Wilson’s “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow” was awarded Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 2005.

From the liner notes of The Complete Collection And Then Some…: Manilow was originally reluctant to record this song, saying to Arista Records chief Clive Davis, “This ‘I Write The Songs’ thing Clive, I really don’t want to do it.” Manilow says his worry “was that the listeners would think I was singing about how I write the songs, when it was really about the inspiration of music. Clive understood, but didn’t think it would be a problem. ‘Besides,’ he told me, ‘You DO write songs!'”

Manilow says he was concerned about coming off as a gigantic egomaniac, but that he liked the song so much he decided to record it. He adds, “Whenever I heard the song in public, I felt the need to run to everyone who was listening and say, ‘You know, I’m really not singing about myself!'”

Interestingly, the David Cassidy version did make the UK charts at #11, but Manilow fell short there, not even charting in the UK and charting in the U.S. at #1 and in Canada at #3.

I Write the Songs

Barry Manilow

I’ve been alive forever
And I wrote the very first song
I put the words and the melodies together
I am music
And I write the songs

I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs

My home lies deep within you
And I’ve got my own place in your soul
Now when I look out through your eyes
I’m young again, even tho’ I’m very old

I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs

Oh, my music makes you dance and gives you spirit to take a chance
And I wrote some rock ‘n roll so you can move
Music fills your heart, well that’s a real fine place to start
It’s from me, it’s for you
It’s from you, it’s for me
It’s a worldwide symphony

I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs

I am music and I write the songs

♫ Lost In Love ♫

Posted on May 23, 2023 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I last played this one back in 2019 upon request by SoundEagle! I had all but forgotten it, but then tonight, after dozing in my chair, computer on my lap, I went in search of a song to play … up popped this one! I know David doesn’t care for it, and Clive likely won’t either, but maybe some of you will!

Graham Russell, Air Supply’s guitarist and song writer, says he wrote this song in 15 minutes …

“‘Lost In Love’ is such a simple song. I think about the songs before I start to write them, and I think about where they’re going to go. I’m very aware that when that inspiration comes, it comes very quickly: it’s like a dart, and it doesn’t last a long time, that real initial impulse. So when it comes I know that the thoughts are going to be scattered, and they’re going to come really fast, and I need to get them down quickly, so I need to think about the song first when I know it’s coming. When a song is coming I get a weird feeling, and then I kind of drift somewhere on my own to think about it. But when I actually play the piano or pick the guitar up, it’ll come really quickly. But my songs, too, are very simple. I mean, I’m not into jazz, and I’m not into fusion or anything like that. My songs are really straight ahead, real simple chords, the simpler the better. So a song like ‘Lost In Love’ with four chords, there’s only two parts to it. There’s really no chorus. There’s just a verse and a bridge. So something like that shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes to write, you know.”

The legendary record man Clive Davis is famous for developing the careers of Whitney Houston, Aerosmith and Alicia Keys, but Air Supply was one of his greatest success stories. “Lost In Love” was a hit in the group’s native Australia in 1979, but Davis released it in America and unleashed Air Supply on an international audience.

Here you go, SoundEagle …

Lost in Love
Air Supply

I realize the best part of love is the thinnest slice
And it don’t count for much
But I’m not letting go
I believe there’s still much to believe in

So lift your eyes if you feel you can
Reach for a star and I’ll show you a plan
I figured it out
What I needed was someone to show me

You know you can’t fool me
I’ve been loving you too long
It started so easy
You want to carry on

Lost in love and I don’t know much
Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch?
But I’m back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted

So lift your eyes if you feel you can
Reach for a star and I’ll show you a plan
I figured it out
What I needed was someone to show me

You know you can’t fool me
I’ve been loving you too long
It started so easy
You want to carry on

Lost in love and I don’t know much
Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch?
But I’m back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted

You know you can’t fool me
I’ve been loving you too long
It started so easy
You want to carry on

Lost in love and I don’t know much
Was I thinking aloud and fell out of touch?
But I’m back on my feet and eager to be what you wanted

Now I’m lost, lost in love, lost in love, lost in love
Now I’m lost, lost in love, lost in love, lost in love
Lost in love, lost in love, lost in love
Lost in love, lost in love, lost in love

Songwriters: Timothy Hawes / Pete Kirtley / Kimberley Gail Marsh
Lost in Love lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ Where Do Broken Hearts Go ♫

Posted on December 2, 2020 by jilldennison under music

A night or two ago (I’m old, the mind fails, and I cannot remember my name some days), I played a Mariah Carey song. In an ensuing comment thread, I made the comment that while I do like some of Carey’s songs, there are more I don’t like because she seems somehow fake to me. And that led my poor mind down the path of singers, particularly female singers, and I landed … or rather my mind landed … on Whitney Houston who I never sensed an insincere word from her mouth. And in looking back through my archives, I discovered that I had played no less than 21 songs either by or including Whitney Houston! Nonetheless, I found one that I like and that I haven’t played …

Written by Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll & Hyde) and ’60s R&B singer Chuck Jackson, this ballad was the last in a string of seven consecutive #1 hits for Houston, smashing the 6-hit record held by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.

Wildhorn had been itching to write a song for Houston ever since he heard her duet with Teddy Pendergrass, Hold Me, four years earlier. When Jackson called him with the song title, the rest came together quickly. Says Wildhorn …

“I sat there at the piano, and in about 40 minutes, 90 percent of the sketch of the song was done. I called Jackson back and said, ‘You gotta come over here tonight because I think we’ve got something.'”

The duo finished the song that night.

Houston didn’t think a song about a woman trying to convince her boyfriend to come back to her had enough depth, but Arista Records president Clive Davis assured her it would be a hit. Not only did it top the Hot 100, but the song was also #1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart and #2 on the R&B chart.

Interestingly, the Peter Israelson-directed music video finds Houston in her dressing room after receiving roses and a goodbye note from her boyfriend. She remembers the happier times in their relationship before reuniting with him at the end. Because the race of Houston’s onscreen boyfriend wasn’t apparent, the clip caused a bit of controversy among black audiences who accused the singer of moving further and further away from her roots to appease white audiences. Sigh. Only in the United States would it even matter.

Interestingly, according to SongFacts, this one charted in the UK at #14, while Wikipedia tells me it did not chart at all in the UK. Gary … David … Frank … Roger???

Where Do Broken Hearts Go
Song by Whitney Houston

I know it’s been some time
But there’s something on my mind
You see, I haven’t been the same
Since that cold November day
We said we needed space
But all we found was an empty place
And the only things I learned
Is that I need you desperately

So here I am
And can you please tell me, oh

Where do broken hearts go
Can they find their way home
Back to the open arms
Of a love that’s waiting there
And if somebody loves you
Won’t they always love you
I look in your eyes
And I know that you still care, for me

I’ve been around enough to know
That dreams don’t turn to gold
And that there is no easy way
No you just can’t run away
And what we have is so much more
Than we ever had before
And no matter how I try
You’re always on my mind

So here I am
And can you please tell me, oh

And now that I am here with you
I’ll never let you go
I look into your eyes
And now I know, now I know

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Chuck Jackson / Frank N. Wildhorn
Where Do Broken Hearts Go lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management

♫ All Out Of Love ♫

Posted on January 6, 2020 by jilldennison under music

For some reason, I had this one on my TBP (to be played) list … I’m not sure if one of you requested it … usually I put a name by the song if it was requested … or if I just happened on it one night and decided I should play it soon. At any rate, it came up, I listened, and I really wanted to play this one tonight.

Released in February 1980, this is a song by the Australian soft rock group Air Supply. The song was written by Graham Russell & Clive Davis. In the United States, it reached #2, and in the UK, where it was the only Air Supply song to make it to the top 40, it reached #11.

An interesting bit of trivia … The chorus was originally “I’m all out of love, I want to arrest you”. However, Clive Davis thought that Americans wouldn’t understand what that meant (he was right … I’m still scratching my head over it) so he suggested “I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you”. This is why he has a songwriting credit.

The song is known for vocalist Russell Hitchcock holding the final note for 16.2 seconds. This was the longest-held note for a male pop singer until 1983, when Sheriff lead vocalist Freddy Curci held the final note of When I’m with You for 19.4 seconds.

All Out of Love
Air Supply

I’m lying alone with my head on the phone
Thinking of you till it hurts
I know you hurt too but what else can we do
Tormented and torn apart
I wish I could carry your smile and my heart
For times when my life seems so low
It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring
When today doesn’t really know, doesn’t really know

I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I’m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong

I want you to come back and carry me home
Away from this long lonely nights
I’m reaching for you, are you feeling it too
Does the feeling seem oh so right
And what would you say if I called on you now
And said that I can’t hold on
There’s no easy way, it gets harder each day
Please love me or I’ll be gone, I’ll be gone

I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I’m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong

Oh, what are you thinking of
What are you thinking of
What are you thinking of
What are you thinking of

I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I’m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late I know I was so wrong

I’m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I’m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong

Songwriters: Clive J. Davis / Graham Russell
All Out of Love lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) ♫

Posted on April 12, 2019 by jilldennison under music

This song, recorded by Whitney Houston and released in 1987, was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, who had previously written the number-one Whitney Houston hit How Will I Know.

According to Ms. Rubicam …

I pictured somebody single wishing that they could find that special person for themselves. It wasn’t, ‘I wanna go down the disco and dance,’ really. It was, ‘I wanna do that dance of life with somebody.’ That was the thought behind the song. So we sent our demo version off to Clive Davis and he loved it.

But, the song did not impress the producer Narada Michael Walden, who had produced How Will I Know. He took a little more persuading with regard to the song’s potential, and at first was not too keen on having Houston record it, as he felt it was too “country and western sounding.” He said of it …

[It] reminded me of a rodeo song with Olivia Newton-John singing. I love Olivia Newton-John, but for Whitney Houston it didn’t seem right. I felt the song needed a much more funkier feel. I slept, dreaming about it, woke up in the morning thinking about it, wondering what am I gonna do with this dance song. So, we just jumped in the water and lo and behold a magic record was born, Houston just knocked it out and then I knew we had a good record.

An interesting aside … George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam met when they both performed at the wedding of Seattle socialite Susan Boeing (yes, of the infamous aircraft Boeing family) and began playing clubs in the Northwest US. In 1985, they released an album as Boy Meets Girl and wrote Houston’s hit How Will I Know. A year after this was released, they had a hit with Waiting For A Star To Fall.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)
Whitney Houston

Clock strikes upon the hour
And the sun begins to fade
Still enough time to figure out
How to chase my blues away
I’ve done alright up to now
It’s the light of day that shows me how
And when the night falls, loneliness calls

Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me
Oh, I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me

I’ve been in love and lost my senses
Spinning through the town
Sooner or later, the fever ends
And I wind up feeling down
I need a man who’ll take a chance
On a love that burns hot enough to last
So when the night falls
My lonely heart calls

Somebody oo Somebody oo
Somebody who loves me yeah
Somebody oo Somebody oo
To hold me in his arms oh
I need a man who’ll take a chance
On a love that burns hot enough to last
So when the night falls
My lonely heart calls

Don’tcha wanna dance with me baby
Dontcha wanna dance with me boy
Hey Don’tcha wanna dance with me baby
With somebody who loves me

Don’tcha wanna dance say you wanna dance
Don’tcha wanna dance
Don’tcha wanna dance say you wanna dance
Don’tcha wanna dance
Don’tcha wanna dance say you wanna dance
With somebody who loves me
Dance

Songwriters: George Robert Merrill / Shannon Rubicam
I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ How Am I Supposed To Live Without You ♫

Posted on March 13, 2019 by jilldennison under music

This was the song that launched Michael Bolton’s singing career. Laura Branigan took this song, written by Bolton and Doug James, to #12 in 1983, but Bolton himself did not release it until his 1989 album, Soul Provider. Before Branigan recorded it, it was supposed to have been recorded by Air Supply, but when Arista President Clive Davis asked for permission to change the lyrics of the chorus, Bolton refused, and Davis let go of the song.

How Am I Supposed to Live Without You
Michael Bolton

I could hardly believe it
When I heard the news today
I had to come and get it straight from you
They said you were leavin’
Someone’s swept your heart away
From that look upon your face, I see it’s true

So tell me all about it
Tell me ’bout the plans you’re makin’
Oh, tell me one thing more before I go

Tell me how am supposed to live without you?
Now that I’ve been lovin’ you so long
How am I supposed to live without you?
And how am I supposed to carry on?
When all that I’ve been livin’ for is gone

I’m too proud for cryin’
Didn’t come here to break down
It’s just a dream of mine is coming to an end
And how can I blame you
When I build my world around
The hope that one day
We’d be so much more than friends
I don’t wanna know the price I’m gonna pay for dreaming
Oh, even now it’s more than I can take

Now I don’t wanna know the price I’m gonna pay for dreaming
Oh, now that your dream has come true

Songwriters: Doug James / Michael Bolton
How Am I Supposed to Live Without You lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ Lost In Love ♫

Posted on January 29, 2019 by jilldennison under music

A week or so ago, I had a request for a song by Air Supply — any song, my choice. Well, this is my favourite of Air Supply’s repertoire, so this is my choice!