Everlasting Love

Overview

The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded in Nashville by Robert Knight, whose producers Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden aimed to record him in a Motown style with especial reference to the Four Tops and the Temptations. Ultimately "Everlasting Love" was released as an A-side for Knight and reached #13 in 1967. Subsequently, the song has reached the US Top 40 three times, most successfully by Carl Carlton, who peaked at #6 in 1974, with more moderate success afforded later remakes by Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet (#32/ 1981) and Gloria Estefan (#27/ 1995).

In the UK "Everlasting Love" was covered by the Love Affair and achieved #1 status in January 1968. Although that version eclipsed the Robert Knight original, which stalled at #40, Knight's version was reissued in 1974 and reached #19 UK. Also in 1968, a cover by the Australian group, Town Criers, reached #2 in the Australian charts.

A 1981 duet version, sung by Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet, reached #35 UK, and in the 1990s "Everlasting Love" reached the UK Top 20 three times via remakes by Worlds Apart (#20/ 1993), Gloria Estefan (#19/ 1995) and, most successfully, a charity single by the cast from Casualty that reached #5 in 1998. In 2004, Jamie Cullum reached #20 with his version.

Thus, "Everlasting Love" is one of two songs to become a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (the other being "The Way You Do the Things You Do") and the only song to become a UK top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, always — with the exception of the 1980s — reaching the UK top 20.

In 1987, the rendition of "Everlasting Love" by Sandra reached the Top 20 in at least eight territories, going Top 10 in four. Her version also reached UK #45 in early 1989, affording "Everlasting Love" its second UK Top 50 incarnation of the decade. The versions of the song by the Love Affair, Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet, Worlds Apart, and Gloria Estefan also saw multinational chart action which was especially strong for the Love Affair version.

As early as 1968, "Everlasting Love" was remade for the country music market by Hank Locklin, who charted at #57. Narvel Felts would make the song a major C&W hit in 1979, reaching #14 on the Billboard C&W chart; a concurrent remake by Louise Mandrell peaked at #69 C&W.

Just prior to the release of Jamie Cullum's 2004 version, Buzz Cason theorized on his composition's appeal: "It's an uplifting song, with a real positive feeling, and it's danceable. I think people get a lift from it. When it comes to that chorus it just really lets go."

Robert Knight version

The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded at Fred Foster Sound Studio in Nashville. According to Cason, the track "had some different sounds on it that, for the time period, were kind of innovative. The string sound is actually a farfisa organ that Mac came up with, and we used a lot of echo." Robert Knight recalls: "Buzz was into country [music] but Mac was R&B...so we made it more of an R&B song like the rhythm and melody Mac had. I practiced and practiced on with Mac, as he had written the song for my voice and made it mine. Mac used his bandmates: [drummer] Kenny Buttrey, [bassist] Norbert Putnam, Charlie McCoy and himself on guitar." The background vocals on the song were performed by Buzz Cason and Carol Montgomery. Robert Knight recalls that he heard "Everlasting Love" for the first time at the actual recording session: "I didn’t sing it the [as] written[:] I made some changes to fit my voice, and I didn’t do it note for note. They had the melody going too fast, and it was jamming, it wasn’t doing right, it wasn’t sounding right. So I started what you call a steady step. I start singing a beat and a half: 'hearts-go-a-stray' — like that. It wasn’t like that in the beginning, and I think that's what got 'Everlasting Love' off the ground."

Although Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden had written "Everlasting Love" to serve as the B-side for their composition "The Weeper" which Robert Knight would record the next day, the hit potential of "Everlasting Love" was evident at the end of that recording session, and it was the last-named song which was issued as Knight's single in July 1967. "The Weeper" would in fact never be released, the track "Somebody's Baby" serving as the B-side for "Everlasting Love".

Debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 dated September 30, 1967, "Everlasting Love" had already reached #1 in Philadelphia and Detroit by the time of its Top 40 debut on October 21, 1967. Cason - "['Everlasting Love'] drove...the promotion guys nuts since it hit in one market then several weeks later pop up somewhere else." The track spent its second week at its Hot 100 peak of #13 on the chart dated December 2, 1967 then dropped off the Hot 100 over the next three weeks. The R&B chart peak of "Everlasting Love" was #14.

In its original release, Knight's "Everlasting Love" lost out in the UK to a cover by Love Affair, although Knight's version did spend two weeks at #40 UK in January 1968. In the spring of 1974, Knight's "Everlasting Love" had a second UK release to follow up the Top Ten success of the reissue of Knight's "Love on a Mountain Top"; this time the first-named track reached #19.

An airplay staple on American oldies radio stations (though less so than the 1974 Carl Carlton version), Knight's "Everlasting Love" has become a "cult favorite" of the beach music scene. In a 2011 interview, Buzz Cason stated that the Robert Knight original of "Everlasting Love" remained Cason's favourite version of the song: "I just think Robert's was the one [version] that had the magic in it."

The Love Affair version

According to the Love Affair lead vocalist Steve Ellis: "We had two managers David Wedgebury and John Cokell who both worked at Decca [and] had access to all the imports on the Monument label. We rehearsed in a factory in Walthamstow and one night they turned up with 'Everlasting Love' by Robert Knight...I loved it and so we set about putting it down on tape." Muff Winwood produced the original Love Affair version of "Everlasting Love" which was recorded at Island Studios and featured the group's actual members: Island Records passed on releasing the track but CBS in-house producer Mike Smith - after failing to interest his regular clients Marmalade in recording the song (which Marmalade deemed "too poppy") - cut a new Love Affair version of "Everlasting Love".

The second Love Affair recording of "Everlasting Love" in fact featured only one member of the group: lead vocalist Steve Ellis who fronted a session ensemble comprising arranger/ conductor Keith Mansfield's 40-piece orchestra plus a rhythm section, the session musicians including Peter Ahern (triangle percussion), Clem Cattini (drums), Alan Parker (guitar), Russ Stableford (bass) and a chorale comprising Madeline Bell, Kiki Dee, Lesley Duncan and Kay Garner: the track was recorded in two takes. Mike Smith would eventually attribute the non-utilization of the actual musicians in Love Affair to the need for expediency (quote - "there just wasn’t time for the group to learn the arrangement in time, so we used session musicians"), a UK release for the Robert Knight original version being imminent.

Debuting on the UK Top 50 dated January 2, 1968, "Everlasting Love" by the Love Affair rose to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for a two-week stay that February. The track also charted internationally - see the chart below.

When the Love Affair appeared on the ITV program Good Evening I'm Jonathan King host Jonathan King asked group bassist Mick Jackson if the band had actually played on their hit recording of "Everlasting Love" and Jackson admitted the track had featured Ellis backed by session musicians. Steve Ellis has stated that Jonathan King was aware of the background of the Love Affair hit and ambushed Mick Jackson to invoke controversy, although Jackson would state: "We announced it ourselves because there were rumours about it in the business and we heard a Sunday newspaper was going to blow the story". Jackson also stated: "At first we didn’t worry that much when the story about us not playing came out...Then the thing escalated and people all over the place started slagging us. We got to regard it as a terrible nuisance, every time we opened a paper there was someone having a go at the Love Affair." The bad press had little if any negative impact on the band's popularity: Their follow-up to "Everlasting Love": "Rainbow Valley" - another Cason/Gayden composition introduced by Robert Knight - reached #5 UK and the additional success of "A Day Without Love" (#6) made Love Affair the UK's top group in singles sales for the year 1968 apart from the Beatles. (The Love Affair singles continued to feature Ellis fronting a session ensemble with no other group members participating.)

All of these singles were released by CBS in the label's native United States on its Date Records subsidiary. However, despite their popularity in Europe, none of the Love Affair's singles charted in the US.

Carl Carlton version

The most successful US release of "Everlasting Love" was by Carl Carlton, which reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.

The track features a distinctive countermelody running through most of the song consisting of background vocal harmonies. Brenda Russell is among the background vocalists.

Carlton had recorded "Everlasting Love" in October 1973 at the Berry Hill (Tenn) studio Creative Workshop, which was owned by Buzz Cason; however, Cason was not involved in the recording by Carlton, the singer himself choosing to record "Everlasting Love", which he knew via the version on David Ruffin's 1969 My Whole World Ended album. Produced by Papa Don Schroeder and Tommy Cogbill, Carlton's original recording of "Everlasting Love" was issued as the B-side of the 1973 single "I Wanna Be Your Main Squeeze"; the track (i.e. "Everlasting Love") was then issued in July 1974 as an A-side after having been given a disco style remix, and became a discothèque favorite before breaking on the Hot 100 in September 1974 to proceed to a #6 peak that November, almost reaching the R&B Top Ten at #11.

Carlton's version remains an airplay favorite on American oldies radio stations. According to Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the 1974 Carl Carlton version has been played more than 4 million times.

One of the earliest Pop hits to crossover from disco airplay, Carlton's "Everlasting Love" is a staple of disco compilations, including the second installment of the Pure Disco CD compilation series.

Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet version

"Everlasting Love" reached the Top 40 for the third time in the summer of 1981 via a duet version cut by Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet; this version features revised lyrics including an additional verse of uncredited authorship which was approved by the song's composers and which would be retained by Sandra for her 1987 remake. Recorded at the Record Plant (NYC) and featured on both Sweet's ...And Then He Kissed Me album and the album Everlasting Love by Smith , "Everlasting Love" as a single featured a two-track B-side featuring Sweet's "Billy and the Gun" and Smith's "Still Thinking of You" respectively taken from each singer's album cited above.

Both Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet were on the roster of Columbia Records with the album ...And Then He Kissed Me marking Sweet's label debut subsequent to two album releases on the new wave oriented Stiff label: according to Sweet, upon submitting the tracks intended to comprise her first album for Columbia - all original songs produced by Pete Solley - she'd been told: "we'd like you to cut some more songs. And we'd like it if they weren't yours." (Sweet would typify the "outside material" which would eventually appear on ...And Then He Kissed Me as "lighter and more overtly commercial than her own songs".) Smith meanwhile had recorded a solo remake of "Everlasting Love" intended for his album produced by Rick Chertoff - then best known for his work with Air Supply - , and after Rachel Sweet's manager (and father) Dick Sweet learned of Smith's recording of the song, arrangements were made for "Everlasting Love" to be recorded as a Rex Smith/ Rachel Sweet duet: Chertoff remained as producer of this duet version which was the first "outside" track recorded for ...And Then He Kissed Me, and on the basis of his work on the Smith/ Sweet version of "Everlasting Love" Chertoff was invited by Dick Sweet to record four additional tracks with Sweet which, with "Everlasting Love" and four of the tracks from the Pete Solley sessions, would eventually comprise the ...And Then He Kissed Me album.

With neither Smith nor Sweet being a strong Top 40 force - Smith's solitary Billboard Hot 100 single had been "You Take My Breath Away" #10 in 1979 while Sweet had yet to rank on the Hot 100 - their collaboration on "Everlasting Love" would only generate qualified chart impact: the single peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1981, affording Sweet her only Top 40 showing and Smith his second and last. The track also appeared on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary chart peaking at #31.

This Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet version of "Everlasting Love" was also a mid-chart item in the UK at #35; in Australia the track reached #41 mainly due to its being a local Top Ten hit in Adelaide at #9. In 1982 the Smith/Sweet version of "Everlasting Love" became a Top Ten hit in Switzerland (#9) and Denmark (#4) also reaching #11 in South Africa.

A promotional video was shot for "Everlasting Love" with Smith and Sweet playing a couple getting married. The singers performed "Everlasting Love" live on the Solid Gold episode aired February 19, 1983: Smith was currently co-hosting the show on which Sweet guested to promote her current single "Voodoo".

Sandra version

In late 1987 and early 1988, "Everlasting Love" was a hit in several European territories as rendered by German singer Sandra: according to Buzz Cason total sales for the Sandra version of "Everlasting Love" were in the area of three million units.

Born in 1962, Sandra was familiar with the song via the 1968 Love Affair version; she'd say of the song: "I have always loved it...Even as a little child I heard that song and I said that I would like to sing it sometime." However for her remake of the song Sandra would record the lyrics of the 1981 Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet duet version.

"Everlasting Love", the tenth solo single released by Sandra, was featured on her October 5, 1987 album release Ten on One (The Singles). The track was a Top Ten hit in Austria (#6), Belgium (Dutch chart #9), Germany (#5), the Netherlands (#8), Switzerland (#5) and South Africa (#4), also charting in France (#12), Italy (#19) and Sweden (#13).

The video shot for Sandra's version featured the singer and Austrian model Rupert Weber playing lovers at different points in history, beginning with Adam and Eve.

Sandra's "Everlasting Love" also reached the UK chart at #88; the track was subsequently acquired by Pete Waterman, who had "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" - remixed by Pete Hammond - released in the UK in the summer of 1988 to barely improve on the original's UK chart performance with a #79 peak. However, "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" re-entered the UK chart in December 1988 to rise as high as #45 in January 1989, while in its Australian release, it reached the Adelaide hit parade at #21 and had a national chart showing of #72. In the US, "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)" rose as high as #22 on the Billboard maxi single sales chart.

The PWL mix of "Everlasting Love" was showcased on an Everlasting Love album, which was released in December 1988 only in the UK and the US. Besides "Everlasting Love (the PWL mix)", the album comprised the original versions of several of Sandra's European hits.

In 2006, a ballad version was also done by Sandra, this one being from her album Reflections.

Data

Worlds Apart version

UK boy band Worlds Apart included a cover of "Everlasting Love" on their 1994 debut album Together. All of the album's tracks featured Aaron Paul on lead and were recorded at Select Recording Studios in Wood Green with producers Pete Schwier and Ricki Wilde. The track had a single release in September 1993, reaching no. 20 UK and no. 23 in Ireland, and was issued in September 1994 in Germany to peak at no. 40. A new version of "Everlasting Love" with lead vocals by Nathan Moore was included on the French edition of the second Worlds Apart album Everybody; produced by Andy Reynolds and Tee Green, this track spent nine weeks in the top ten in France—four of them at its number 4 peak—in December 1996 and January 1997 and also became a hit in Belgium on both the French and Dutch charts, respective peaks being no. 29 and no. 33.

Gloria Estefan version

"Everlasting Love" was recorded by Gloria Estefan for her 1994 album release Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me which comprised remakes of well-known hits, with "Everlasting Love" being the second album track issued as a US single following "Turn the Beat Around" (in some territories including the UK Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me was the album's second single precedent to "Everlasting Love").

While "Everlasting Love" was not one of Estefan's highest ranking Billboard Hot 100 entrants, it still managed to peak at #27 in March 1995. However, the single topped the US Hot Dance Club Play. The single was more successful in the UK with a #19 peak in February 1995 buoyed by a performance by Estefan on February 19, 1995 broadcast of TOTP.

Video

Estefan, pregnant with her second child at the time, could not appear in the video. The production team, which included co-directors Tony Minnelli and Paul Lynde, along with Estefan, decided to give the video a twist. They selected some of the best drag talent from West Hollywood, California to star in the video. Five appeared as Gloria Estefan, each representing a different stage in Estefan's career. Some notable video cast members include female impersonator; Julian Viva, Hollywood Super Club Kids; The Fabulous Wonder Twins, and drag performers Venus D-Lite and Sutan Amrull aka Raja. The latter two recently appeared as cast member's of Logo's series RuPaul's Drag Race (Season 3), in which Sutan Amrull was crowned the winner. "Everlasting Love" was shot at The Sunset Studios in Hollywood, California.

The video was so well received worldwide, Estefan decided to add video cast members, Julian Viva and Willie E., to her "Evolution Tour" "Evolution Tour" act at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009).

Gloria Estefan went on to receive The Award for "Best Video Clip of the Year" at the Billboard Music Awards.

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Miscellaneous