Tag Archives: Whitney Houston

♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫ (Redux)

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

Today’s song is brought to you courtesy of our friend Keith, who planted numerous earworms yesterday with his fun post titled, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then – an encore post”.  Check it out if you haven’t already seen it!  And now, for today’s offering …

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “I never thought I could feel this way and I got to say that I just don’t get it; I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost you can see

If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
The story always ends
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feeling that you left

I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ One Moment In Time ♫ (Redux)

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

I have only played this one once before, and that was waaaaaay back in 2019, so … REDUX!

This song, sung by the late Whitney Houston was written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis for the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea.  The song was Houston’s third number one in the UK Singles Chart, and reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The song’s melody was inspired by the timeless figure of Elvis Presley, with Hammond imagining it as being sung by Presley at the opening of the Olympics. It appeared on the album 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, produced in conjunction with NBC Sports’ coverage of the Seoul games and which, in addition to Whitney Houston who sang it live at the main ceremony, also featured artists such as: The Four Tops, The Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Taylor Dayne and the film composer John Williams. The track is an anthem for believing in yourself against all odds as Houston asks for “One moment in time/when I’m racing with destiny/Then, in that one moment of time, I will feel eternity.”

One Moment in Time
Whitney Houston

Each day I live
I want to be
A day to give
The best of me
I’m only one
But not alone
My finest day
Is yet unknown

I broke my heart
Fought every gain
To taste the sweet
I face the pain
I rise and fall
Yet through it all
This much remains

I want one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity

I’ve lived to be
The very best
I want it all
No time for less
I’ve laid the plans
Now lay the chance
Here in my hands

Give me one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity

You’re a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time
Make it shine

Give me one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be
I will be
I will be free
I will be
I will be free

Songwriters: Albert Hammond / John Bettis
One Moment in Time lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

♫ Didn’t We Almost Have It All ♫

Posted on by under music

I’ve played many of Whitney Houston’s best songs, but turns out I haven’t played this one!  This song, written by Michael Masser and Will Jennings and released in 1987, was the fifth of seven consecutive US #1 hits for Houston.  

According to Will Jennings …

“I think that probably took longer than any other song. Michael was traveling and he was in the studio and doing this and that, so I think it was about a year or two after we started it that it was finished. And I sort of lost track of the whole thing. It was one of those never-to-be-repeated experiences, because he was producing the record and he wanted to really nail it down. He kept feeling it wasn’t finished and so he’d put it away, and I was off working on something. I’d lost track of what went on with it.”

There are two main versions of the song, and I shall play both here. My favourite is the first, for while I usually prefer a live version, like the energy and emotion that comes through in the artist’s body language and facial expressions, in this case the live version, from her September 2, 1987 concert in Saratoga Springs, New York, is a bit too melancholy to suit me.

Didn’t We Almost Have It All
Song by Whitney Houston

Remember when we held on in the rain
The night we almost lost it
Once again we can take the night into tomorrow
Living on feelings
Touching you I feel it all again

Didn’t we almost have it all
When love was all we had worth giving?
The ride with you was worth the fall my friend
Loving you makes life worth living
Didn’t we almost have it all
The night we held on till the morning
You know you’ll never love that way again
Didn’t we almost have it all

The way you used to touch me felt so fine
We kept our hearts together down the line
A moment in the soul can last forever
Comfort and keep us
Help me bring the feeling back again

Didn’t we almost have it all
When love was all we had worth giving?
The ride with you was worth the fall my friend
Loving you makes life worth living
Didn’t we almost have it all
The night we held on till the morning
You know you’ll never love that way again
Didn’t we almost have it all

Didn’t we have the best of times
When love was young and new?
Couldn’t we reach inside and find
The world of me and you?
We’ll never lose it again
‘Cause once you know what love is
You never let it end

Didn’t we almost have it all
When love was all we had worth giving?
The ride with you was worth the fall my friend
Loving you makes life worth living

Didn’t we almost have it all
The night we held on till the morning
You know you’ll never love that way again
Didn’t we almost have it all

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Michael Masser / Will Jennings
Didn’t We Almost Have It All lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ Where Do Broken Hearts Go ♫

Posted on by 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

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

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

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

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, for me
You still care for me

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

♫ Higher Love ♫

Posted on by under music

The inspiration for tonight’s song comes from Joe Biden & Kamala Harris’ victory speech earlier tonight from Wilmington, Delaware, where they played this after giving their speeches.  It seemed as good as any to celebrate what I see as a chance to restore unity, sanity and compassion to this nation.

Released in 1986 by Steve Winwood, Higher Love was written by Winwood and Will Jennings and produced by Russ Titelman and Winwood. The female vocals on the song were performed by Chaka Khan, who also appeared in the promotional music video.

This was Winwood’s first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, topping the chart for one week.  The song earned two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It also peaked at number 13 in the United Kingdom, Winwood’s highest charting solo entry there, and reached number one in Canada for a week.

Whitney Houston covered the song in 1990, and in June 2019 Norwegian DJ Kygo reworked Houston’s cover into a tropical house track and it was released as a single worldwide.  On August 21, 2019, their version hit number one on Billboard magazine’s Dance Club Songs chart, making it Houston’s highest-charting posthumous release to date, and hit #2 in the Uk, even better than Winwood’s.

I like both the Winwood version and the Whitney Houston/Kygo one, so I thought I’d just play both and let you pick one or listen to both.

Higher Love
Steve Winwood; Whitney Houston, Kygo

Think about it, there must be a higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart, and I’ll look inside mine

Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk the line and try to see
Fallin’ behind in what could be, oh

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love, oh
Bring me a higher love
Where’s that higher love I keep thinking of?

That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, oh
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me a higher love

That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, oh
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me a higher love

Worlds are turnin’, and we’re just hanging on
Facing our fear, and standin’ out there alone
A yearning, yeah, and it’s real to me
There must be someone who’s feeling for me

Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk the line and try to see
Fallin’ behind in what could be, oh

Bring me a higher love (oh my Lord)
Bring me a higher love, oh (oh)
Bring me a higher love (my Lord)
It’s that higher love I keep thinking of

That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, oh
That love, that love
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love
Bring me a higher love

oh, bring me love
(Bring me a higher love, oh) we need a higher love
(Bring me a higher love) bring me, bring me, yeah
A higher love I keep thinking of, oh

That love, that love (bring me a higher love)
Bring me higher love, love
That love, that love (bring me a higher love)
Bring me higher love, oh
That love, that love (bring me a higher love)
Bring me higher love, love
A higher love I keep thinking of

Bring me a higher love (that love, that love)
(Bring me higher love, love)
Bring me a higher love (that love, that love)
(Bring me higher love) oh

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Steve Winwood / Will Jennings
Higher Love lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

♫ How Will I Know? ♫

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This was written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam.  According to them …

George: “They asked us to write for Janet Jackson’s next record, so Shannon and I went to work and came up with our song How Will I Know, which was sent to Janet Jackson’s people. They passed on it because it wasn’t right for her at the time – she was in the midst of doing her Control album.

Shannon: “It wasn’t right for that, but then our publishing company played it for Gerry Griffith when he was in Los Angeles gathering material for the unknown Whitney Houston. He loved it, sent it to Clive (Davis), and Clive said, ‘We must have it.’ And we said, ‘Whitney who? Clive who?’

George: “Shannon and I had our first record deal, so we were caught up in Boy Meets Girl land, and the idea of writing for other people, this is pre-Whitney Houston and pre- our understanding of songwriting for other people, so it was really a big deal when they wanted to hold onto this for Whitney Houston. Then we started checking into it and thought, well, this could be kind of a neat deal. Our good friends, brother team Alan and Preston Glass, called us where they were working with Narada Michael Walden. They were recording Whitney Houston on ‘How Will I Know’ and they said, ‘Guys, you’ve got to hear this.’ They played it over the phone, and I swear, her voice, hearing the first take of ‘How Will I Know’ on the phone we knew we were on to something special, too.”

Interestingly, the backing vocals are by Whitney’s mother, Cissy Houston.

George and Shannon also wrote Houston’s hit I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).

How Will I Know
Whitney Houston


There’s a boy I know, he’s the one I dream of
Looks into my eyes, takes me to the clouds above, mmm-hmm
Oh, I lose control, can’t seem to get enough, uh-huh
When I wake from dreaming, tell me is it really love


Ooh, how will I know (don’t trust your feelings)
How will I know
How will I know (love can be deceiving)
How will I know


How will I know if he really loves me?
I say a prayer with every heartbeat
I fall in love whenever we meet
I’m asking you what you know about these things
How will I know if he’s thinking of me
I try to phone but I’m too shy (can’t speak)
Falling in love is so bittersweet
This love is strong, why do I feel weak?


Oh, wake me, I’m shaking, wish I had you near me now, uh-huh
Said there’s no mistaking, what I feel is really love


Ooh, tell me how will I know (don’t trust your feelings)
How will I know
How will I know (love can be deceiving)
How will I know


How will I know if he really loves me?
I say a prayer with every heartbeat
I fall in love whenever we meet
I’m asking you what you know about these things
How will I know if he’s thinking of me
I try to phone but I’m too shy (can’t speak)
Falling in love is so bittersweet
This love is strong, why do I feel weak?


If he loves me
If he loves me not
If he loves me
Ooh, if he loves me not
Hey, if he loves me
If he loves me not


Oh, how will I know, how will I know
How will I know
Hey, how will I know


Ooh, how will I know if he really loves me?
I say a prayer with every heartbeat
I fall in love whenever we meet
I’m asking you ’cause you know about these things
How will I know if he’s thinking of me
I try to phone but I’m too shy (can’t speak)
Falling in love is so bittersweet
This love is strong, why do I feel weak?


How will I know (how will I know)
How will I know
How will I know (I say a prayer)
How will I know
Ooh, how will I know (I fall in love)
How will I love, hey, how will I know?


Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: George Robert Merrill / Narada Michael Walden / Shannon Rubicam
How Will I Know lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ If You Could Read My Mind ♫

Posted on by under music, Social commentary

I had a number of songs in my head to play for you tonight, but … turns out I’ve played them all.  So, I happened across one by Gordon Lightfoot that somehow I haven’t yet played, and it happens to be one I like!

Written by Lightfoot and released in 1970, this song was inspired by the breakup of his first marriage.  In the liner notes of his boxed set Songbook, he describes it as “A song about the failure of marriage.”

At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that you lack” is altered to “I’m just trying to understand the feelings that we lack.” He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston’s hit The Greatest Love of All, Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of If You Could Read My Mind; the transitional section that begins “I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow” of the Masser song has the same melody as “I never thought I could feel this way and I got to say that I just don’t get it; I don’t know where we went wrong but the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back” of Lightfoot’s song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn’t want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.

The song reached #1 in both Canada and the U.S., and #30 in the UK.

If You Could Read My Mind
Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost you can see

If I could read your mind love
What a tale your thoughts could tell
Just like a paperback novel
The kind the drugstore sells
When you reach the part where the heartaches
Come the hero would be me
Heroes often fail
And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take

I walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three way script
Enter number two, a movie queen
To play the scene of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love lets be real

I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feelings gone and I just can’t get it back

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie about a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
The story always ends
And if you read between the lines
You’ll know that I’m just trying to understand
The feeling that you left

I never thought I could feel this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone
And I just can’t get it back

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gordon Lightfoot
If You Could Read My Mind lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

♫ I Have Nothing ♫

Posted on by under music

I honestly didn’t realize that I had done this one before, but I find I did back in August 2018.  This one goes out for … me.  It came to me tonight, or should I say a single line of it came to me, then once the line “I don’t want to hurt anymore” was implanted in my head, the rest flowed naturally.  So, I apologize for yet another redux, but … tonight this one is for Filosofa.

I try to make it a practice never to repeat the same artist in a period of a week, or even two, but … tonight this one takes on the personal and keeps looping in my head, over and over, and in an effort to exorcise the demon, I offer you once again, my friends, Whitney Houston!!!

I Have Nothing
Whitney Houston

Share my life
Take me for what I am
‘Cause I’ll never change
All my colors for you
Take my love
I’ll never ask for too much
Just all that you are
And everything that you do

I don’t really need to look
Very much further
I don’t want to have to go
Where you don’t follow
I will hold it back again
This passion inside
Can’t run from myself
There’s nowhere to hide

Don’t make me close one more door
I don’t want to hurt anymore
Stay in my arms if you dare
Or must I imagine you there
Don’t walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing
If I don’t have you, you, you, you, you

You see through
Right to the heart of me
You break down my walls
With the strength of your love, hm
I never knew
Love like I’ve known it with you
Will a memory survive
One I can hold on to

I don’t really need to look
Very much further
I don’t want to have to go
Where you don’t follow
I will hold it back again
This passion inside
I can’t run from myself
There’s nowhere to hide
Your love I’ll remember forever

Don’t make me close one more door
I don’t want to hurt anymore
Stay in my arms if you dare
Or must I imagine you there
Don’t walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing

Don’t make me close one more door
I don’t want to hurt anymore
Stay in my arms if you dare
Or must I imagine you there
Don’t walk away from me
No, don’t walk away from me
Don’t you dare walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing
If I don’t have you, you
If I don’t have you, oh you

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: David W. Foster / Linda Thompson / Linda Thompson Jenner
I Have Nothing lyrics © Linda’s Boys Music, One Four Three Music, Peermusic Iii Ltd, Warner-barham Music Llc.

♫ Saving All My Love For You ♫

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I get most of my inspiration for my music posts while either showering or rolling smokes, and tonight the same song came into my head during both of those activities.  It was not the song I’m playing, but rather another by Whitney Houston, One Moment in Time.  But, sadly, I played that already.  Yes, I know, I’ve become the master of reduxes, but that’s just it … I’ve relied too heavily on repeating songs I’ve already played lately, so I felt that I needed to present something different.  But, as Ms. Houston was stuck in my head, I went in search of another … not a difficult task, as I love her voice and much of her music.

This was originally recorded by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., who released it on their 1978 album Marilyn & Billy. Although credited to the pair, McCoo did all the lead vocals. Her performance was pure acting: she and Davis had been married since 1969.

The lyrics were written by Gerry Goffin and the music by Michael Masser, who also produced it. The McCoo/Davis version didn’t get much attention, but when Whitney Houston included it on her 1985 debut album, it found a huge audience. Houston went supernova after Saving All My Love for You was released as a single; it became the first of seven consecutive #1 hits for the Ms. Houston, and also topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary charts. It was also her first #1 in the UK.

At the time of release, the adultery theme of the video for Saving All My Love for You generated much media controversy, which led Whitney to insist, “I could never see myself in that position. I wouldn’t just take whatever someone wants to give to me, especially if I am giving a lot to him but not getting that much back. I could never find myself in that situation, but someone else might. The video tells a story but it’s by no means my story.”

I shall withhold the comment that comes to mind about her marriage to Bobby Brown …

Saving All My Love
Whitney Houston

A few stolen moments is all that we share
You’ve got your family and they need you there
Though I’ve tried to resist being last on your list
But no other man’s gonna do
So I’m saving all my love for you

It’s not very easy living all alone
My friends try and tell me find a man of my own
But each time I try I just break down and cry
‘Cause I’d rather be home feeling blue
So I’m saving all my love for you

You used to tell me we’d run away together
Love gives you the right to be free
You said be patient just wait a little longer
But that’s just an old fantasy

I’ve got to get ready just a few minutes more
Gonna get that old feeling when you walk through that door
‘Cause tonight is the night for feeling alright
We’ll be making love the whole night through
So I’m saving all my love for you
Yes, I’m saving all my love
Yes, I’m saving all my love for you

No other woman is gonna love you more
‘Cause tonight is the night that I’m feeling alright
We’ll be making love the whole night through
So I’m saving all my love
Yeah, I’m saving all my lovin’
Yes, I’m saving all my love for you
For you
For you

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gerry Goffin / Michael Masser
Saving All My Love lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

♫ Greatest Love Of All ♫

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This song periodically visits inside my head and sometimes sticks around for several days.  I don’t know why, but I awoke this morning with it wafting through the corners of my mind, and it’s still there this evening.  So, you know what that means …

I did not remember George Benson doing this song in 1977, which is odd, for it charted at #2 in Rhythm & Blues, but I was only familiar with Whitney Houston’s fabulous version of this song (I think that when the mind gets old, it runs out of places to store information and just ends up tossing some out through either the nose-holes or ears). Benson’s version was released in 1977, and Whitney’s not until 1985.  Both are excellent … Benson’s a little softer, a bit more mellow than Houston’s, but I like them both.

This was written by songwriters Michael Masser and Linda Creed. Linda Creed was recovering from breast cancer when they wrote the song in 1977.  Creed’s cancer claimed her life on April 10, 1986. She was later inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the strength of this song and the many hits she co-wrote for The Spinners, The Stylistics, and other acts on the Philadelphia International label.

Masser and Creed wrote this for the 1977 film biography of Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, and the song first appeared on the film’s soundtrack recorded by George Benson. Ali played himself in the movie, essentially recreating his defining moments intercut with clips of his actual fights. Ali was the heavyweight champ at the time of the film’s release.

Since I like both, I offer you your choice …

Greatest Love of All
George Benson/Whitney Houston

I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
Everybody searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfill my needs
A lonely place to be
And so I learned to depend on me

I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity

Because the greatest
Love of all is happening to me
I found the greatest
Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be

I decided long ago
Never to walk in anyone’s shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I’ll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can’t take away my dignity

Because the greatest
Love of all is happening to me
I found the greatest
Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

And if, by chance, that special place
That you’ve been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love

Songwriters: Linda Creed / Michael Masser
Greatest Love of All lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC