I planned to post Glenn Yarbrough’s 1965 Baby the Rain Must Fall, after being told yesterday that “Into every life a little rain must fall, unless you happen to live in the Atacama Desert.” But, once I listened to the song for the first time in probably 50 years, I decided that I really didn’t like it all that much, so … back to square one. Next I tried to find a song about the Atacama Desert, but to no avail. And so, I just fiddled around with some of my favourite artists and struck paydirt when I got to Dionne Warwick!
According to SongFacts …
Will Jennings wrote this with Richard Kerr, who first recorded the song on his album Welcome To The Club. Jennings is a lyricist who has worked with Steve Winwood, Roy Orbison, Eric Clapton and many others. Kerr is a pianist who wrote the music for Barry Manilow’s first hit “Mandy” and teamed up with Jennings to write Manilow’s songs “Looks Like We Made It” and “Somewhere In The Night.” Jennings told us: “Sometime, sooner or later, you reach a height that you never reached and you never will reach again – and this is the story.”
Explaining what fuels his songwriting, Jennings says, “You have to sit down and write sometime, but it all comes out of life and experience, like any other kind of writing. I travel, look into things. Go out and listen to music. Go to plays. Go to places I haven’t been and places I like to re-visit. Have a good time, drink wine, eat good food, stay up late, dance.”
This won the 1979 Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The song hit #6 in Canada, #5 in the U.S., and only #62 in the UK.
I’ll Never Love This Way Again
Dionne Warwick
You looked inside my fantasies and made each one come true
Something no one else, had ever found, a way to do
I’ve kept the memories one by one, since you took me in
I know I’ll never love this way again
I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on, before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on
A fool will lose tomorrow reaching back for yesterday
I won’t turn my head in sorrow if you should go away
I’ll stand here and remember just how good it’s been
And I know I’ll never love this way again
I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on
I know I’ll never love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on
I know I’ll never, love this way again
So I keep holdin’ on before the good is gone
I know I’ll never love this way again
Hold on, hold on, hold on
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Will Jennings / Richard Kerr
I’ll Never Love This Way Again lyrics © Irving Music, Inc.
“She sat down and played on a guitar, the melody for ‘Evergreen’ that she’d written. It was just such a beautiful melody. I said, ‘There’s your love song. There’s the big love song.’ I asked her for the melody. She put it on tape for me, and I took it home. I actually wrote that as the last thing, which I think bothered her. But all the Kris Kristofferson stuff was the first thing up on the shoot schedule. So I wrote the songs for Kris first.
Mayfield himself had been a popular performer, singing mainly rhythm & blues, but in 1952, at the height of his career, Mayfield was severely injured in an automobile crash. He was returning from a performance in Las Vegas to Los Angeles as the front-seat passenger in a chauffeur-driven car. The vehicle hit the back of an unseen stationary truck, and Mayfield was hit by debris. Though pronounced dead at the scene, he eventually recovered but spent two years convalescing. The accident left him with a facial disfigurement that eventually ended his career as a performer but did not halt his prolific songwriting.