Tag Archives: Gloria Estefan

♫ Everlasting Love ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I’ve played this one once before … just a little over two years ago.  Tonight, I went in search of a ‘recovery’ song … one that would help me recover from yesterday’s selection!  And this is what I found!

Tonight’s song is one that will get the blood pumping and the toes tapping … but … which version???  Mac Gayden and Buzz Cason originally wrote this song for Robert Knight in 1967.  The song has been recorded by a number of prominent artists, with four different versions charting in the United States and an astounding seven versions in the UK, the biggest of which was by the English band Love Affair, who reached #1 on the UK charts in 1968, relegating Knight’s original to #40. However, the Knight version was reissued in the UK in 1974 and reached #19.

Love Affair used session musicians rather than the band itself on their version. The only member of the group who performed on it was their 16-year-old vocalist Steve Ellis.  The highest-charting version of this song in the United States (and my favourite, though I like the others also) was by Carl Carlton, whose cover reached #6 in 1974. Carlton kicked off a career in soul, R&B, and funk in the late 1960s, originally recording as “Little Carl” Carlton, in synergy with Stevie Wonder, who also started out as “Little Stevie.”

Chart breakdown of the “Everlasting Love” covers:

Robert Knight (1967): #13 US, #19 UK
Carl Carlton (1974): #6 US
Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet (1981): #32 US, #35 UK
Gloria Estefan (1995): #27 US, #19 UK
Love Affair (1968): #1 UK
Worlds Apart (1993): #20 UK
Cast From Casualty (1998): #5 UK
Jamie Cullum (2004): #20 UK

U2 released a version of this song on their All I Want Is You single. According to the song’s co-writer Buzz Cason in 2015 …

“We still don’t know why U2 did ‘Everlasting Love.’ It was a very big song in England. A bigger song in England than it was in the States. It was a #1 record by a band called the Love Affair in England, so everybody knew it. So I kind of assumed that it was the same in Ireland where Bono and all those guys were and they just decided one night, ‘Hey, let’s throw this thing together.’  They don’t even do the lyrics right on it. But I raced cars for years and one of my mechanics called me and said, ‘Hey, listen to what’s in the background. That’s U2 singing your song.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, man, that’s got to be somebody else. That can’t be.’ It was just surreal.”

Since the versions that were popular in the U.S. largely flopped in the UK, and vice versa, I’m playing several versions tonight.  Gloria Estefan also recorded this song, and while I love Gloria Estefan’s music, her cover of this song was … meh … so, in the interest of time (both mine and yours) and energy (largely mine), I will leave out her version and play instead, Robert Knight’s (he gets top billing, since it was his song, after all), Carl Carlton’s (because it’s my favourite and this is my blog), and the UK fave, Love Affair’s.  Let me know which you like best.

Everlasting Love
Robert Knight/Carl Carlton/Love Affair

Hearts go astray, leaving hurt when they go.
I went away just when you needed me so.
Filled with regret I come back beggin’ you,
Forgive, forget. Where’s the love we once knew?
Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.
From the very start, open up your heart,
Be a lasting part of everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.
Ooh, ooh.

Where life’s river flows, no one really knows
’til someone’s there to show the way to lasting love.
Like the sun that shines, endlessly it shine,
You always will be mine. It’s everlasting love.
When other loves are gone, ours will still be strong,
We have our very own everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.
You give me, you give me, you give me everlasting love

Ooh.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.
From the very start, open up your heart,
Be a lasting part of everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Songwriters: Mac Gayden / Buzz Cason
Everlasting Love lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing, Royalty Network

Note:  Lyrics vary slightly from one cover to another.  Being that it is nearly 3:00 a.m., I took the lyrics that seemed most prevalent.  Any errors are my own due to exhaustion.

♫ Hero ♫

Posted on by under music

I am playing this song tonight in honour of a man most of us know only as Padre Steve, one of only two ‘men of the cloth’, along with John Pavlovitz, that I both respect, and admire.  Padre Steve has served in both the Army and the Navy as a Chaplain, has seen active combat, and returned from the Middle East with PTSD, but still … he kept on.  Now, after a nearly 40-year career in the military, Padre Steve is retiring, and as you might expect, is experiencing some angst, some sadness, as memories flood in, as he wonders … what next?

I don’t know the Padre well, but I can tell you what I do know … he is a good man, a man of conscience, a man who would give his life to save another.  And if my word isn’t good enough … Padre has pups that love him!  That’s all I needed to know, for dogs are much more discerning than humans and if a dog loves you … then in my book you are good people!

This one’s for you, Padre.  Wherever you go from here, I ask only that you be at peace, that you take time for you, time to read, to walk in the forest, to … heck, take up painting or write a book!  Just be happy, my friend — you’ve earned it.

In 2001, Carey performed the song at the “Tribute To Heroes” telethon for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the US., and it was included on a benefit album, God Bless America, which helped the Twin Towers Fund.9-11_honor_heroes_full

This song was originally written, unsolicited, for the Dustin Hoffman movie of the same name, but the producers of the movie ultimately chose Luther Vandross’ Heart Of A Hero. According to Walter Afanasieff,  who wrote the music …

He was recording the Music Box album with Carey at the time, and during a break he, “was sitting at the piano and told Mariah about this movie. Within two hours, we had this incredible seed for this song, ‘Hero.’  It was never meant for Mariah to sing. In her mind, we were writing a song for Gloria Estefan for this movie. And we went into an area that Mariah didn’t really go into – in her words, it was a little bit too schmaltzy or too pop ballady or too old-fashioned as far as melody and lyrics.”

Hero was the subject of two copyright plagiarism cases; one by a former limo driver, Christopher Selletti and the other by Rhonda Dimmer, filed in 1993 and 1996.  Neither party’s suit was successful, but since Carey has been involved in similar suits over other songs, one wonders.

She insists on being photographed only from her right side, and during a 2000 tour, she insisted on a rider to the contract that Cristal champagne and bendy straws would be provided backstage at her concerts.

All that aside, though … I just like the song, and think she sings it beautifully, so without further ado …

Hero
Mariah Carey

There’s a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don’t have to be afraid
Of what you are
There’s an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

It’s a long road
When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And that emptiness you felt
Will disappear

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you, oh, oh

Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don’t let anyone
Tear them away, hey yeah
Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time you’ll find the way

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
That a hero lies in you
Mmm, that a hero lies in you

Songwriters: Mariah Carey / Walter Afanasieff
Hero lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ Anything For You ♫

Posted on by under music

This was Gloria Estefan’s first #1 hit in the U.S.  Estefan recorded three versions of this song: all English, all Spanish and ‘Spanglish’, a mix of the two.

By 1988 when this song was released, Estefan had been married to Miami Sound Machine founder Emilio Estefan Jr., who started the band under the moniker Miami Latin Boys, for 10 years. Fans wondered how the supposedly happily married singer could write such a heart-rending ballad about love gone wrong.  She explains …

“I think that’s where the artist uses his creative license. I might have experienced these feelings awhile back or maybe vicariously through somebody else, maybe friends of mine who have gone through a similar thing. I think the artist always writes from within, from the soul, and even if you didn’t experience it yourself, you have to feel how would people in this situation feel, and how would they say it. I always try to write very conversationally, and think how would someone want to say it to someone else and then I try to make it more musical.”

The song was originally cut with just vocals and piano, but at the last minute the Estefans decided to change things up. With a four-day deadline, Miami Sound Machine’s Jorge Casas (bassist) and Clay Ostwald (keyboardist) reworked the track and added guitar, bass, percussion, and horns to the mix.

The song was also a breakthrough hit in the UK, reaching #10 on the charts.

Anything for You
Gloria Estefan, Miami Sound Machine

Anything for you
Though you’re not here
Since you said we’re through
It seems like years
Time keeps draggin’ on and on
And forever’s been and gone
Still I can’t figure what went wrong

I’d still do anything for you
I’ll play your game
You hurt me through and through
But you can have your way

I can pretend each time I see you
That I don’t care and I don’t need you
And though you’ll never see me cryin’
You know inside I feel like dying

And I’d do anything for you
In spite of it all
I’ve learned so much from you
You made me strong

But don’t even think that I don’t love you
That for one minute I forgot you
But sometimes things don’t work out right
And you just have to say goodbye

I hope you find someone to please you
Someone who’ll care and never leave you
But if that someone ever hurts you
You just might need a friend to turn to

And I’d do anything for you
I’ll give you up
If that’s what I should do
To make you happy

I can pretend each time I see you
That I don’t care and I don’t need you
And though inside I feel like dying
You know you’ll never see me cryin’

But don’t even think that I don’t love you
That for one minute I forgot you
But sometimes things don’t work out right
And you just have to say goodbye

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gloria Estefan
Anything for You lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Foreign Imported Productions & Publishing

♫ Here We Are ♫

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I’ve struggled to do a music post the last few nights, for a dear friend has been very ill and much on my mind.  Tonight, however, it appears he is on the mend and I found a song I haven’t yet played, so … Here We Are!

I don’t find much trivia about this song, written and recorded by Gloria Estefan.  It was released in 1989 in the United States and in 1990 to the rest of the world as the third single of the album, Cuts Both Ways.

A new Spanish version was released in July 2019 on YouTube by Gloria called “Tu y yo” celebrating the 30th anniversary of the song. This will be included her forthcoming album which will also include 4 brand new tracks, plus Brazilian inspired-music revisited versions of her hits.

The song was Estefan’s ninth Top 10 single, peaking at #6 in the U.S. in 1990, #18 in Canada, and #23 in the UK.  

Here We Are
Gloria Estefan


Here we are
Face to face
We forget, time and place
Hold me now
Don’t let go
Though it hurts and we both know
The time we spend together’s gonna fly
And everything you do to me
Is gonna feel so right
Baby when you’re loving me
I feel like I could cry
‘Cause there’s nothing I can do
To keep from loving you, no no no


Here we are
All alone
Trembling hearts, beating strong
Reaching out, a breathless kiss
I never thought could feel like this
I want to stop the time from passing by
I want to close my eyes and feel
Your lips are touching mine
Baby when you’re close to me
I want you more each time
And there’s nothing I can do
To keep from loving you


There’s nothing I can do
I’m helpless in your arms
Oh baby what you do
I’m in love, this is it
There’s no turning back this time
No no no


Here we are
Once again
But this time we’re only friends
Funny world
Sometimes lies
Become the game, when loves the prize
And though no one knows what’s going on inside
And all the love I feel for you
Is something I should hide
When I have you close to me
The feelings so sublime
That there’s nothing I can do
To keep from loving you, no no no
Can’t keep from loving you baby
No no no
That there’s nothing I can do my baby
To keep from loving you


Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gloria Estefan
Here We Are lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group, Foreign Imported Productions & Publishing

♫ Everlasting Love ♫

Posted on by under music

Tonight’s song is one that will get the blood pumping and the toes tapping … but … which version???  Mac Gayden and Buzz Cason originally wrote this song for Robert Knight in 1967.  The song has been recorded by a number of prominent artists, with four different versions charting in the United States and an astounding seven versions in the UK, the biggest of which was by the English band Love Affair, who reached #1 on the UK charts in 1968, relegating Knight’s original to #40. However, the Knight version was reissued in the UK in 1974 and reached #19.

Love Affair used session musicians rather than the band itself on their version. The only member of the group who performed on it was their 16-year-old vocalist Steve Ellis.  The highest-charting version of this song in the United States (and my favourite, though I like the others also) was by Carl Carlton, whose cover reached #6 in 1974. Carlton kicked off a career in soul, R&B, and funk in the late 1960s, originally recording as “Little Carl” Carlton, in synergy with Stevie Wonder, who also started out as “Little Stevie.”

Chart breakdown of the “Everlasting Love” covers:

Robert Knight (1967): #13 US, #19 UK
Carl Carlton (1974): #6 US
Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet (1981): #32 US, #35 UK
Gloria Estefan (1995): #27 US, #19 UK
Love Affair (1968): #1 UK
Worlds Apart (1993): #20 UK
Cast From Casualty (1998): #5 UK
Jamie Cullum (2004): #20 UK

U2 released a version of this song on their All I Want Is You single. According to the song’s co-writer Buzz Cason in 2015 …

“We still don’t know why U2 did ‘Everlasting Love.’ It was a very big song in England. A bigger song in England than it was in the States. It was a #1 record by a band called the Love Affair in England, so everybody knew it. So I kind of assumed that it was the same in Ireland where Bono and all those guys were and they just decided one night, ‘Hey, let’s throw this thing together.’  They don’t even do the lyrics right on it. But I raced cars for years and one of my mechanics called me and said, ‘Hey, listen to what’s in the background. That’s U2 singing your song.’ I was like, ‘Oh no, man, that’s got to be somebody else. That can’t be.’ It was just surreal.”

Since the versions that were popular in the U.S. largely flopped in the UK, and vice versa, I’m playing several versions tonight.  Gloria Estefan also recorded this song, and while I love Gloria Estefan’s music, her cover of this song was … meh … so, in the interest of time (both mine and yours) and energy (largely mine), I will leave out her version and play instead, Robert Knight’s (he gets top billing, since it was his song, after all), Carl Carlton’s (because it’s my favourite and this is my blog), and the UK fave, Love Affair’s.  Let me know which you like best.

Everlasting Love
Robert Knight/Carl Carlton/Love Affair

Hearts go astray, leaving hurt when they go.
I went away just when you needed me so.
Filled with regret I come back beggin’ you,
Forgive, forget. Where’s the love we once knew?
Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.
From the very start, open up your heart,
Be a lasting part of everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.
Ooh, ooh.

Where life’s river flows, no one really knows
’til someone’s there to show the way to lasting love.
Like the sun that shines, endlessly it shine,
You always will be mine. It’s everlasting love.
When other loves are gone, ours will still be strong,
We have our very own everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.
You give me, you give me, you give me everlasting love

Ooh.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.
From the very start, open up your heart,
Be a lasting part of everlasting love.
Real love will last forever.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Open up your eyes, then you’ll realize here I stand
With my everlasting love.
Need you by my side, girl you’ll be my bride.
You’ll never be denied everlasting love.

Songwriters: Mac Gayden / Buzz Cason
Everlasting Love lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing, Royalty Network

Note:  Lyrics vary slightly from one cover to another.  Being that it is nearly 3:00 a.m., I took the lyrics that seemed most prevalent.  Any errors are my own due to exhaustion.

♫ Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me ♫

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Do not ask me how in heck I got from Herman’s Hermits’ Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter to this one by Mel Carter.  I SAID, don’t ask!!!  There’s a story that involves tobacco, a cricket, Tom Jones, pretzels and cheese dip.  ‘Nuff said!

This song was written by Harry Noble and originally performed by Karen Chandler in 1952.  The version most often associated with the song, however, was recorded by Mel Carter, released in 1965.  It was also covered by Gloria Estefan in 1994.

Tonight, I am too tired to go digging for fun trivia, so … just listen to the music, okay?  I am truly torn between Carter’s and Estefan’s version, so I shall present them both.  Each has merits, and I truly cannot decide.  Your preference?

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me

Hold me, hold me
And never let me go until you’ve told me, told me
What I want to know and then just hold me, hold me
Make me tell you I’m in love with you

Thrill me (thrill me), thrill me (thrill me)
Walk me down the lane where shadows
Will be (will be) will be (will be)
Hiding lovers just the same as we’ll be, we’ll be
When you make me tell you I love you

They told me “Be sensible with your new love”
“Don’t be fooled, thinking this is the last you’ll find”
But they never stood in the dark with you, love
When you take me in your arms
And drive me slowly out of my mind

Kiss me (kiss me), kiss me (kiss me)
And when you do, I’ll know that you
Will miss me (miss me), miss me (miss me)
If we ever say “Adieu”, so kiss me, kiss me
Make me tell you I’m in love with you

kiss me
When you do, I’ll know that you will
Miss me (miss me), miss me (miss me)
If we ever say “Adieu” so kiss me, kiss me
Make me tell you I’m in love with you

Never, never, never let me go (Hold me, thrill me)
never, never, never let me go (Hold me, thrill me)
never, never, never let me go

Songwriters: Harry Noble
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ Hero ♫

Posted on by under music

Tonight’s song, Hero, by Mariah Carey, has been the subject of a bit of controversy, but then Carey herself is steeped in a bit of controversy ranging from plagiarism to being a bit of a diva.

In 2001, Carey performed the song at the “Tribute To Heroes” telethon for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the US., and it was included on a benefit album, God Bless America, which helped the Twin Towers Fund.9-11_honor_heroes_full

This song was originally written, unsolicited, for the Dustin Hoffman movie of the same name, but the producers of the movie ultimately chose Luther Vandross’ Heart Of A Hero. According to Walter Afanasieff,  who wrote the music …

He was recording the Music Box album with Carey at the time, and during a break he, “was sitting at the piano and told Mariah about this movie. Within two hours, we had this incredible seed for this song, ‘Hero.’  It was never meant for Mariah to sing. In her mind, we were writing a song for Gloria Estefan for this movie. And we went into an area that Mariah didn’t really go into – in her words, it was a little bit too schmaltzy or too pop ballady or too old-fashioned as far as melody and lyrics.”

Hero was the subject of two copyright plagiarism cases; one by a former limo driver, Christopher Selletti and the other by Rhonda Dimmer, filed in 1993 and 1996.  Neither party’s suit was successful, but since Carey has been involved in similar suits over other songs, one wonders.

She insists on being photographed only from her right side, and during a 2000 tour, she insisted on a rider to the contract that Cristal champagne and bendy straws would be provided backstage at her concerts.

All that aside, though … I just like the song, and think she sings it beautifully, so without further ado …

Hero
Mariah Carey

There’s a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don’t have to be afraid
Of what you are
There’s an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

It’s a long road
When you face the world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And that emptiness you felt
Will disappear

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you, oh, oh

Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don’t let anyone
Tear them away, hey yeah
Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time you’ll find the way

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you
That a hero lies in you
Mmm, that a hero lies in you

Songwriters: Mariah Carey / Walter Afanasieff
Hero lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group