70's, 80's 'Feel Good' Music

[postnew]

"Young Hearts Run Free" is a disco song written by David Crawford and originally recorded by American soul singer Candi Staton in 1976.
In June 2019, NME ranked Staton's "Young Hearts Run Free" among "The 20 Best Disco Songs of All Time", writing, "The song became a sort-of letter written by Candi Staton, giving advice to young listeners, and telling them to run from manipulators and abusers." In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked it number 150 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time", while Billboard magazine ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2023. In March 2025, Billboard ranked "Young Hearts Run Free" number 44 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time", noting that "under its warmth and sweetness, Candi Staton’s 1976 disco classic tells a darker tale"

Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free​

​

 

[postnew]

"Hot Stuff" is a song by Pete Bellotte, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey released as the lead single by American singer Donna Summer on her seventh studio album Bad Girls, produced by English producer Pete Bellotte and Italian producer Giorgio Moroder in 1979 through Casablanca Records. Up to that point, Summer had mainly been associated with disco songs but this song also showed a significant rock direction, including a guitar solo by ex-Doobie Brother and Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. It is the second of four songs by Summer to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
When the song was heard by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus it inspired them to write ABBA's 1979 hit Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) with similar riffs, melody and sentiment with the ABBA girls in need of 'a man after midnight and Donna looking for some 'hot stuff'.
In 2018, a remix by Ralphi Rosario and Erick Ibiza entitled "Hot Stuff 2018" went to number one on the US Dance Club Songs chart.
Billboard claimed that "Hot Stuff" has a "strong R&B, soulish feel" along with a "fiery" vocal performance from Summer. Cash Box said that the song "has an exciting newness to its rock/disco sound" with "power guitar chording, interesting synthesizer lines and unusual Summer vocal." Record World called it a "splendid rock disco tune."
"Hot Stuff" won Summer the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in the inaugural year the award was given out.
In 2010, the song was ranked No. 104 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time"

Donna Summer - Hot Stuff​

​

 

[postnew]

Giorgio Moroder - Night Drive​

​

 

[postnew]

"Lay All Your Love on Me" is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA for their seventh studio album, Super Trouper (1980). The song was not intended to be a single but after a remixed version gained popularity in nightclubs, it was released as the album's sixth and final single in the summer of 1981 by Polar Music, eight months after the album's release. At the time, it was the highest selling 12-inch record in UK chart history, where it peaked at No. 7. In the US, "Lay All Your Love on Me" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. In 2006, Slant Magazine ranked it No. 60 in their list of the greatest dance songs of all time, and No. 66 in the updated 2020 list.

ABBA - Lay All Your Love On Me​

​

 

[postnew]

"Woman in Love" is a song performed by Barbra Streisand and taken from her 1980 album Guilty. The song was written by Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, who received the 1980 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. It is her fourth of four Platinum records, and is considered her greatest international hit.
After the success enjoyed by the Bee Gees in the late 1970s, the band was asked to participate in musical endeavors for other artists, and Streisand asked Barry Gibb to write an album for her. This album ultimately became Guilty. "Woman in Love", as the lead single, became one of the most successful songs of Streisand's music career. It reached the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Streisand's fifth (and last to date) number-one hit on that chart. It replaced Queen's big-selling hit "Another One Bites the Dust", spent three weeks at number one, and was itself replaced by "Lady" by country singer Kenny Rogers. It also spent five weeks atop the adult contemporary chart, her sixth number one on that tally.The song also proved very popular internationally, reaching number one in many countries, including on the UK Singles Chart. The song sold more than 2.5 million copies up to December 1981, according to Billboard. In 2023, American Songwriter and The Guardian ranked the song number one and number seven, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Barbra Streisand songs.
The music video for the song included clips from A Star Is Born, starring Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and from other movies she made in the 1970s.
In 1979, demo versions of the tracks proposed for inclusion on Guilty were recorded for Streisand, with Barry Gibb on vocals. These versions, including "Woman in Love", were released on iTunes in 2006 as The Guilty Demos.

Woman in Love - Barbra Streisand​

​

 

[postnew]

"Tell Him" is a song written by Linda Thompson and producers Walter Afanasieff and David Foster. It was recorded as a duet between American singer Barbra Streisand and Canadian singer Celine Dion for their respective 1997 albums, Higher Ground and Let's Talk About Love, and released as the lead single from these albums on November 3, 1997.
The song was a top-10 commercial success across Europe and Australia. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards. Later, "Tell Him" was included on both singers' greatest hits albums: Streisand's The Essential (2002), Duets (2002) and The Ultimate Collection (2010), and Dion's The Collector's Series, Volume One (2000), My Love: Essential Collection (2008) and The Best of Celine Dion & David Foster (2012).
On March 24, 1997, Dion became the first artist ever to perform twice on the same Academy Awards night. In addition to singing "Because You Loved Me," she also sang "I Finally Found Someone" from the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces, recorded by Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams. Streisand preferred not to perform that night, and Natalie Cole had been scheduled to sing her song instead. But Cole pulled out, so only two days before the Oscar night, Dion was asked if she could do it. Although nervous, she accepted and managed to perform on the night.
A few days later, Streisand sent Dion flowers and a note: "I watched the tape afterwards, you sang my song beautifully and I regret I wasn't in the room to hear you, next time let's make one together. I really wish your song would have won, you are a wonderful singer". That note wasn't left without an answer, and René Angélil called up David Foster to write a song for them, and the result was "Tell Him". Citing Streisand as one of her most prominent idols, Dion had always wanted to sing with her but feared getting too close to her idol, explaining, "It takes practically nothing to destroy your image of them. And just as little to crush you".
A radio version of the song was commissioned. It is also under the same clock length as the album version. The radio edit features a high-frequency flute playing during Dion's bridge.
Streisand was first introduced to Dion's music several years earlier, by tennis player Andre Agassi.

Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion - Tell Him​

​

 

[postnew]

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a 1957 folk song written by British political singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who later became his third wife. At that time, MacColl was still married to his second wife, Jean Newlove. During the 1960s, it was recorded by various folk singers, including the Kingston Trio, We Five and Peter, Paul and Mary. It became a major international hit for Roberta Flack in 1972, winning Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Billboard ranked it as the number-one Hot 100 single of the year for 1972.

​

 

[postnew]

"Kiss Me Goodbye" is a Les Reed/ Barry Mason composition recorded in 1968 by Petula Clark.
After recording the Reed/Mason composition "The Last Waltz" for her 1967 album The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener, Clark had rendered that song as "La derniere valse" for release in France to serve as the follow-up to her #1 hit "C'est Ma Chanson".The success of "La derniere valse", which reached #2 in France in January 1968, encouraged Clark to record another original Reed/Mason composition, "Kiss Me Goodbye".
The recording session took place at Pye Studios in Marble Arch and was produced by Tony Hatch, although the arranging/conducting duties were assigned to Les Reed, who played piano; the track also featured Big Jim Sullivan on guitar. Hatch also produced the B-side, "I've Got Love Going For Me', a composition by Clark herself, with Hatch's then former assistant Johnny Harris as arranger/conductor.

Kiss Me Goodbye - Petula Clark​

​

 

[postnew]

"The House of the Rising Sun" is an American traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues". It tells of a person's life gone wrong in the city of New Orleans. Many versions also urge a sibling or parents and children to avoid the same fate. The most successful commercial version, recorded in 1964 by the British rock band The Animals, was a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in the US and Canada. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit".
The song was first collected in Appalachia in the 1930s, but probably has its roots in traditional English folk song. It is listed as number 6393 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
The song has been widely (more than 300 times} covered and remixed over the ages.

• In 1977, Santa Esmeralda scored a top 20 disco hit with a dance version of the song and number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Santa Esmeralda - House Of The Rising Sun​

​

 

[postnew]

"So Many Men – So Little Time", or "So Many Men, So Little Time", is a song by Canadian singer Miquel Brown, which was a hit in 1983.
It is a song about "a woman sleeping with countless men and waking in the morning unaware of the name of the person sharing her bed"
Ian Levine and Fiachra Trench wrote this song specifically for the London gay club Heaven, where Levine worked as a DJ.

Levine remembers:
The big record at Heaven was Dan Hartman's 'Relight My Fire'—that's when we brought the big fans out and two thousand people had their hands in the air screaming. It was electrifying. But there weren't enough records coming out that could capture that magic, so we started making our own. I had been at the Circus Maximus in L.A. and I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that said, 'So many men, so little time,' and I was like, 'One day I want to make a record with that title.' The concept was I sat down with my cowriter and arranger, an Irish guy called Fiachra Trench, and I played him 'Relight My Fire' and I said, 'I want this kind of choppy piano, big powerful chords, and the idea is a woman is going to sing, instead of “I love you, I want you, you're the man of my dreams,” I want the opposite. I want “I wake up next to this man and say, 'Who are you?'” It's so naughty but nice and everyone'll love it.'

Miquel Brown - So Many Men, So Little Time​

​

 

[postnew]

Leslie Sebastian Charles MBE (born 21 January 1950), known professionally as Billy Ocean, is a Trinidadian-born British singer and songwriter. Between 1976 and 1988, he had a series of hit songs in the UK and internationally.
After releasing several recordings under other stage names, he achieved breakthrough success with the 1976 single "Love Really Hurts Without You". It was the second single released under the stage name Billy Ocean and peaked at no. 2 in the UK and no. 3 in Australia. Later that year, he achieved two additional top 20 singles in the UK. In 1977, his single "Red Light Spells Danger" also peaked at no. 2. After a period of limited chart success, he released the single "Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)" in 1984. In the UK, the song peaked at no. 6. In the U.S., it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 85 but peaked at no. 1 ten weeks later. Ocean won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song. It also charted in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and across Europe under three different titles. Across the next three years, Ocean accumulated a series of international hit singles. Released in 1985, "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" peaked at no. 1 in the UK and no. 2 in the U.S. the following year. In the same year, he achieved an American no. 1 with the single "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)". In 1988, his single "Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car" reached no. 1 in the U.S. and no. 3 in the UK.

In recognition of his success and influence, Ocean has received a number of awards. In 2002, he was presented with an honorary doctorate of music by the University of Westminster. In 2010, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the MOBO Awards. The following year, he became a Companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
“Caribbean Queen” scored Ocean two Grammy Award nominations, and he won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1985 Grammy Awards. Ocean was later presented his award by Jeffrey Daniel of vocal group Shalamar on 620 Soul Train, a UK incarnation of the American musical variety television show Soul Train. The album's title track also became a success, peaking at no. 4 in both the U.S. and the UK. The song "Loverboy" was a no. 2 U.S. success in 1985. Ocean appeared at Live Aid from JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in 1985, singing "Caribbean Queen" and "Loverboy".

Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen​

​

 

[postnew]

"You Are the Woman" is a song by Firefall, released as the second single from their self-titled debut album. Written by Rick Roberts, then the group's frontman, the track is distinguished by the performance on flute of Firefall member David Muse and vocals by Chuck Kirkpatrick.
Rick would recall writing "You Are the Woman": "When that chorus and tune jumped into my head I realized I was [not] creating...one of the great works of art in history...[but rather] a bouncy little pop ditty...I was stumped for several months about where the verses should go [ie. develop] lyrically. Then I realized I was over thinking it. I took a more simple approach, and the verses were finished in a day or two."
Steve Heflin recalls that right after the song jumped into Rick's head, a group of his friends were fortunate to have him sing it: Steve Heflin, Chris Wienard, and Janet Cooper were gathered around Rick who was sitting on the arm of an over-stuffed chair in Chris's apartment in Boulder, Colorado.
Introduced on Firefall, the band's debut album recorded at Miami's Criteria Studios and released in August 1976, "You Are the Woman" was issued as the album's second single that summer after several other tracks had received airplay on FM radio including the lead single "Livin' Ain't Livin'", which had just missed the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. After two months of support in smaller markets, "You Are the Woman" broke in such larger areas as Chicago and Houston in October 1976, effecting a top 40 entry with a subsequent ascent to a No. 9 peak that November, becoming the band's only top 10 hit to date. "You Are the Woman" also peaked at No. 6 on the Easy Listening chart. It also reached the top 20 in Canada and New Zealand.
Jock Bartley of Firefall would account for the popularity of "You Are the Woman" thus: "Every female between the ages of 18 and 24 wanted to be the woman portrayed in the song, and that caused their boyfriends and spouses to call radio stations and subsequently flood the airwaves with dedications of the song and the sentiment. The message was simple and sincere, and the song was easy to sing. It was like our fans let us be a singing version of the Hallmark card that said what they weren't quite sure what to express."
Bartley also states: "Everybody knows 'You Are The Woman'. It ended up kind of being a hindrance because people would only hear 'You Are The Woman' and would think, oh, that light Rock band from Colorado. We're actually a pretty smokin' Rock band that really has fun onstage and cooks and jams and plays 'You Are The Woman' also."

Firefall - You Are the Woman​

​

 

[postnew]

Champaign is an American R&B band, best known for their 1981 hit, "How 'Bout Us".
The septet, who named themselves after their hometown of Champaign, Illinois, United States, included Pauli Carman and Rena Jones (later Day) on vocals; Michael Day and Dana Walden on keyboards; Leon Reeder on guitar; Michael Reed on bass; and Rocky Maffit on percussion and drums.
"How 'Bout Us" is the most successful single released by R&B music group Champaign. Composed by band keyboardist Dana Walden and originally released on the band's debut album How 'Bout Us, the title track peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. A romantic ballad, the song was released on Valentine's Day, 1981.
The song was originally released in 1975 by an earlier incarnation of the group, then called the Water Brothers Band. It was released as the B-side of their single, "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" on Sky Records NR6668. The band at the time of recording was made up of Dana Walden on keyboards & vocals, Howard "Leon" Reeder on vocals, lead & rhythm guitars, Keith Harden on vocals, lead & rhythm guitars, Scott Karlstrom on bass, and Bobby Carlin on drums.
It was re-recorded by Champaign, and it was Champaign's version that became a hit single. "How 'Bout Us" peaked at number 4 on the soul chart and was one of three releases to make the Top 10 on the soul chart. It was on the Hot 100 chart for 23 weeks, peaking at number 12 on June 6, 1981, and also reached the top of the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks. Jet magazine listed the song in its "Soul Brothers Top 20 Singles" list for May and June 1981.
Champaign's membership included former Water Brothers members, Walden, Reeder and Day.
Casey Kasem played a portion of the Champaign version on his American Top 40 show. He then played the entire version of the Water Brothers release. This was broadcast on June 6, 1981.

Champaign - How 'Bout Us​

​

"Try Again" released in February 1983 as the only single from their album Modern Heart, this ballad rose through the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April and May, peaking at number 23 in mid-June.

​

Try Again - Champaign​

​