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

"Cool Night" is a song by Paul Davis released as a single in 1981, from the album of the same name. The single peaked at No. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on the week of February 6, 1982 and reached No. 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart in January 1982.
  • A cover version of the song was released in 1996 by Joseph Williams (of Toto), on his solo album I Am Alive.

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Paul Davis "Cool Night"​



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JOSEPH WILLIAMS (TOTO): COOL NIGHT​

 
"I Want to Break Free" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by their bassist John Deacon. It appears on the album The Works (1984), and was released in three versions: album, single and extended. The track became a staple of the band's 1984–85 Works Tour and their 1986 Magic Tour.

The song is largely known for its music video for which all the band members dressed in drag, a concept proposed by drummer Roger Taylor, which parodied the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street. The second part of the video included a composition rehearsed and performed with the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Wayne Eagling. Whereas the parody was acclaimed in the United Kingdom, where cross-dressing is a popular trope in British comedy, it caused controversy in the United States.
After its release in 1984, the song was well received in Europe and South America and is regarded as an anthem of the fight against oppression. The single reached only number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but reached number three in the UK and was certified double platinum with over 1,200,000 copies sold. It also topped the charts of Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The song features on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits II.

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The musicians dressed as female characters from Coronation Street. Left to right: Roger Taylor (as Suzie Birchall), Brian May (Hilda Ogden), Freddie Mercury (Bet Lynch) and John Deacon (Ena Sharples).​

Queen - I Want To Break​



 
"Biggest Part of Me" is a song by American band Ambrosia, from the album One Eighty. Released as a single in 1980, the song reached number one on the Radio & Records chart> and number 3 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. The song was written by band member David Pack. Pack re-recorded the song for his 2005 album, The Secret of Movin' On.

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Ambrosia - Biggest Part of Me​





 
"I Only Want to Be with You" is a song written by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde. Released as a debut solo single by British singer Dusty Springfield under her long-time producer Johnny Franz, "I Only Want to Be with You" peaked at number 4 on the UK singles chart in January 1964.
"I Only Want to Be with You" has been recorded by a wide range of artists, and three remakes of the song were UK chart hits. The first two by the Bay City Rollers (1976) and The Tourists (1979) matched the number 4 peak of the Dusty Springfield original, while the 1989 remake by Samantha Fox peaked at number 16. The song has been a Top 40 hit in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 chart three times, with both the Dusty Springfield original and the Bay City Rollers' remake peaking at number 12 while the Samantha Fox remake peaked at number 31. Many non-English versions have also been recorded by other artists.

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I ONLY WANT TO BE WITH YOU--DUSTY SPRINGFIELD​



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The Tourists - I Only Want To Be With You​



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Bay City Rollers - I Only Wanna Be With You​



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Samantha Fox - I Only Wanna Be With You​

 
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"Danny's Song" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, as a gift for his brother Danny for the birth of his son, Colin. It first appeared on an album by Gator Creek and a year later on the album Sittin' In, the debut album by Loggins and Messina. The song is well remembered for both the Loggins and Messina original, as well as for Anne Murray's 1972 top-ten-charting cover.
Canadian country-pop music singer Anne Murray was a fan of the original recording and recorded a cover version in 1972. Her version of the song omits two of the lyric verses and is in a different key than the original version by Loggins & Messina. Included on her album of the same name, Murray's version of "Danny's Song" was a hit, reaching the Top 10 on three major Billboard music charts in early 1973. On the pop chart, the song reached number seven (returning Murray to that chart's top ten for the first time since 1970's "Snowbird"); on the country chart, it peaked at number ten; and on the easy listening chart, it spent two weeks at number one in March of that year. Murray's version also earned her a Grammy Award nomination in the category Best Female Pop Vocal performance at the Grammy Awards of 1974, losing out to "Killing Me Softly with His Song" by Roberta Flack. Murray stated that she loved the original version, but the song took on a deeper meaning for her after the birth of her first child a few years later. In an interview, she stated that "Whenever I was singing that song, it was very meaningful."
Murray covered the song a second time on her 2007 album Duets: Friends & Legends as a duet with Martina McBride.

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Kenny Loggins - Danny's Song​



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"Annie's Song" (also known as "Annie's Song (You Fill Up My Senses)") is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter John Denver. The song was released as the lead single from his eighth studio album Back Home Again. It was his second number-one song in the United States, occupying that spot for two weeks in July 1974. "Annie's Song" also went to number one on the Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1974.
It went to number one in the United Kingdom, where it was Denver's only major hit single. Four years later, an instrumental version also became flautist James Galway's only major British hit.
"Annie's Song" was written as an ode to Denver's wife at the time, Annie Martell Denver. Denver "wrote this song in January 1973 in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift" to the top of Aspen Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, as the physical exhilaration of having "just skied down a very difficult run" and the feeling of total immersion in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses inspired him to think about his wife. Annie Denver recalls the beginnings: "It was written after John and I had gone through a pretty intense time together and things were pretty good for us. He left to go skiing and he got on the Ajax chair on Aspen mountain and the song just came to him. He skied down and came home and wrote it down... Initially it was a love song and it was given to me through him, and yet for him it became a bit like a prayer."
"The first time I heard 'Annie's Song,' I told John it had the same melody as Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Second Movement," says Milt Okun. "He walked over to the piano, sat for an hour and came back, and the only thing remaining from Tchaikovsky was the first five notes. It was fantastic."
Shawn M. Haney of Allmusic noted the song's expressive emotionality, calling it an "ever so romantic tearjerker". Haney praised "Annie's Song" as "one of Denver's finest achievements". Billboard called it a "fine love song." Record World said that this "folk ballad, subtle and sweet, glows with a continental flair that should take it to all the right places."
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Downtown Aspen

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John Denver - Annie's Song​

 
"Everytime You Go Away" is a song written by American musician Daryl Hall. It was first recorded in 1980 by his duo Hall & Oates but was not released as a single. A cover version of the song by Paul Young became an international hit in 1985, reaching No. 1 in the US and No. 4 in the UK.
The original version of "Everytime You Go Away" appeared on Hall & Oates's 1980 studio album, Voices, although it was not released as a single. Hall & Oates also recorded it for their 1985 concert album Live at the Apollo.
English singer Paul Young recorded a cover version of the song titled "Every Time You Go Away" for his studio album The Secret of Association in 1985. His cover features a combination of echoed piano, the Yamaha DX7's "harp" preset, the distinctive fretless bass of Pino Palladino, as well as a Coral electric sitar and a Ovation Spanish acoustic guitar, which were both played by John Turnbull.
In March 1985, Young's version hit No. 4 in the UK singles chart. It was among the songs he performed at Live Aid held at Wembley Stadium in London on 13 July 1985. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 two weeks later, and was one of two top 10 hits Young had on the U.S. pop singles chart (the second being his 1990 cover of "Oh Girl" by the Chi-Lites). "Every Time You Go Away" also topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks. The song won British Video of the Year at the 1986 Brit Awards.
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"I Was Made for Lovin' You" is a song by American rock band Kiss, released in 1979 as the lead single off their seventh studio album Dynasty. The song became a smash hit on the pop singles chart, was certified gold in the U.S. on August 16, 1979, and went platinum in several countries. The song has remained a concert staple and is featured on many live albums and compilations.
The song has become a permanent staple in Kiss's live performances. The band's performance of the song at their 30th anniversary show in Melbourne, Australia, was accompanied by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, who wore Kiss-style makeup with their tuxedos. At first Desmond Child said, "Paul wanted to write a good disco song and I decided to help him with that. Paul started to write lyrics and chords then I played the song on the guitar and said 'OK, we'll do something to improve this and make it really a good song.'"
"I Was Made for Lovin' You" draws heavily from the disco style that was popular in late-1970s United States. According to legend, the members of the band were in conflict with their producers, who wanted the band to shift to a more commercial sound. In response, the band argued that lucrative disco songs could be written by anyone in a short time frame. The story goes that the song's demo was completed in mere hours after the bet. While the story is unproven, Paul Stanley, who co-wrote the song with Desmond Child and Vini Poncia, has stated that it was a conscious effort on his part to prove how easy it was to write and record a hit disco song. Child confirms that he and Stanley wrote the verses together in an hour at SIR Studios, while the "Motown-influenced" chorus was penned by Stanley and Poncia after Child had left the studio. Gene Simmons revealed in a 2018 interview that he always disliked the song because of his vocal part.
"I Was Made for Lovin' You" was the band's second gold single, selling over 1 million copies. The single was certified gold in the U.S. on August 16, 1979, and in Canada on August 1, 1979. The song was one of the band's few singles to chart in the UK in the 1970s, peaking at No. 50.


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Kiss - I Was Made For Lovin' You​



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"Eye of the Tiger" is a song by the American rock band Survivor. It was written as the theme song for the 1982 film Rocky III and released that year as a single from Survivor's third album, Eye of the Tiger.

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Sylvester Stallone, the director and star of Rocky III, enlisted Survivor after Queen denied him permission to use their song "Another One Bites the Dust". Survivor derived lyrics, including the title, from dialogue in the film, and conceived a riff with chord changes to match the punches in the boxing scenes.
"Eye of the Tiger" reached number one on the charts of many countries. In the US, it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks, spent 15 consecutive weeks in the top 10, and was the second-bestselling single of 1982. It was certified platinum in August 1982, for sales of two million copies. In the UK, "Eye of the Tiger" sold 956,000 copies and was number one on the UK singles chart for four consecutive weeks.
At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards, "Eye of the Tiger" won Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Song of the Year. At the 55th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Original Song. It has been used without authorization in several political campaigns, which Survivor has opposed.
By 1982, the American band Survivor had released two unsuccessful albums and were concerned they would be dropped by their record label. That year, the director and actor Sylvester Stallone enlisted them to write a song for his film Rocky III, after Queen denied him permission to use "Another One Bites the Dust". Stallone asked for "something street" with a pulse to match the punches of the boxing scenes. He sent them a copy of the montage used in the film's introduction, depicting the boxer Rocky Balboa and the ascent of his rival, Clubber Lang.
"Eye of the Tiger" was written by guitarist Frankie Sullivan and keyboardist Jim Peterik. They conceived a riff based on chord changes to mirror the timing of punches. The title was taken from a line spoken by the Rocky character Apollo Creed: "You had that eye of the tiger, man, the edge ... You gotta get it back." Stallone took the phrase from the 1969 film A Dream of Kings.
Survivor initially planned to title the song "Survival", and had the chorus: "Rising up to the spirit of our rival / And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night / And it all comes down to survival", with "survival" rhyming with "rival". Peterik said: "That ['eye of the tiger'] hook is so strong, and 'rival' doesn't have to be a perfect rhyme with the word 'tiger'. We made the right choice and went with 'Eye of the Tiger'."
Survivor recorded a demo at the Chicago Recording Company on February 1, 1982. Sullivan was so destitute that he used a guitar with a broken headstock he had glued back together. The band attempted to capture a drum sound similar to that of the Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham. Stallone loved the demo and insisted on using it in the film. Survivor rerecorded it for the album and single releases. The music video was filmed in San Francisco.

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Survivor - Eye of the Tiger​





 
"Some Girls" is a song by the British pop band Racey. The song was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, produced by Mickie Most, and released in 1979 on the RAK label as their third single.
The song was a big hit for Racey in Britain and Ireland, reaching number two in both countries; in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, it reached number one.
Racey are an English pop/rock group, formed in 1976 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, by Clive Wilson and Phil Fursdon. They achieved success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with hits such as "Lay Your Love on Me" and "Some Girls". Their 1979 song "Kitty" was an international hit in 1981 for Toni Basil when she reworked it into "Mickey".


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Racey - Some Girls - 2002​



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Racey - Kitty​



For many years it was rumored that the name was changed to Mickey on speculations that Basil had developed a crush on the Monkees' drummer and lead vocalist Micky Dolenz after meeting him on the set of their film Head, for which she was the choreographer. However, that claim has been denied by Basil, who said that she "didn't really know Micky at all".
In January 2020, Basil released a re-recording of the song as "Hey Mickey" to digital and streaming platforms.
On August 31, 2017, Basil filed a multi-claim lawsuit against Razor & Tie Direct, Forever 21, Disney, Viacom, VH1, and South Park. Basil alleged that the defendants had commercially used the song "Mickey" without a license and damaged her right of publicity, claiming excess of $25,000 in damages. Basil also filed a lawsuit against AMC on May 12, 2020, for the unauthorized use of "Mickey" in a trailer for Preacher. On August 27, 2020, a California state of appeals court affirmed dismissal of Basil's case.
The music video was directed, produced and choreographed by Basil herself. The cheerleaders featured in the video were members of a championship squad from Carson High School in Carson, California. The cheerleading uniform Basil wore in the music video was the one she actually wore in high school. According to Basil, "They didn't put anything in the budget, I did everything myself. And this is the actual cheer sweater from Las Vegas High."

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"Georgy Girl" is a song by the Australian pop/folk music group the Seekers. It was used as the title song for the 1966 British romantic comedy film Georgy Girl. Tom Springfield, who had written "I'll Never Find Another You" for the Seekers, composed the music and Jim Dale supplied the lyrics. The song is heard at both the beginning and end of the film, with markedly different lyrics (and with different lyrics again from those in the commercially released version). It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song but the prize went to "Born Free". It was performed at the 1967 Oscars ceremony by Mitzi Gaynor.
The song became a hit in late 1966 and early 1967, reaching number one in Australia and number three in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was the Seekers' highest-charting single, reaching number one on the Cash Box Top 100. "Georgy Girl" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100; "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees, kept the song from number one. The song's U.S. success prompted the Seekers' British album Come the Day to be retitled Georgy Girl for its American release.

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The Seekers - Georgy Girl 1967​


The Seekers - Georgy Girl {2013}​



In 1971 Saori Minami recorded a cover of the song for her second album Shiokaze No Melody.

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Georgy Girl - Saori Minami​

 
"You to Me Are Everything" is a song by British soul group The Real Thing, released as a single in 1976. Written by Ken Gold and Michael Denne and produced by Gold, "You to Me Are Everything" was the Real Thing's sole number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top in July 1976. The song was re-released ten years later titled the "Decade Remix" which returned the song to the chart in March 1986, reaching number five.
The song has been covered by a number of artists, including Sonia and Sean Maguire, whose versions also charted in the UK.

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You to Me Are Everything - The Real Thing​



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  • This is a song with which everyone who has ever had a broken romance will identify. Although he could shred with the best of them, "Empty Rooms" is basically a slow bluesy type track, and is widely regarded as Moore's greatest guitar solo. It was co-written in 1984 with keyboard player/guitarist Neil Carter, who said the vocal track was originally laid down by Glenn Hughes - one-time bass player with Deep Purple - but this "obviously never made it out of the studio". Of the track itself, Carter said "I always joke that song has bought my house, but I suppose it probably has over the years!"
  • "Empty Rooms" was released as a single in both 7-inch and 12-inch formats, although the radio edit really doesn't do it justice. Gary Moore died suddenly in Spain on February 6, 2011 aged only 58, leaving more than a mere room empty, but also leaving us many fine live recordings of this rock classic.
  • In Happy Together, an interview with Gary Moore and Phil Lynott by Derek Oliver published in a May 1985 issue of Kerrang!, Moore said of this song, it is "very personal. It wasn't written because I felt sorry for myself, it was something I went through at one time - something that everyone goes through at one stage or another."
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Gary Moore - Empty Rooms​



 
"Hold On" is a song written and first recorded by the Canadian singer and songwriter Ian Thomas, on his 1981 album The Runner. His version reached No. 28 on the Canadian pop singles chart.
In 1982 the Latin rock band Santana, featuring lead vocalist Alex Ligertwood, covered the song for Santana's album Shangó. It is the second track on the album and was released as the album's first single. The song reached No. 15 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, making it Santana's tenth most successful US hit. It also peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard rock chart. On the Cashbox chart, it reached No. 9.
In Canada, "Hold On" peaked at No. 4 for two weeks
The music video, directed by John Mark Robinson, features Carlos Santana at a masquerade ball with his then-wife Deborah King as the intended object of his affection, his bandmate Orestes Vilató as his accompanying friend, and actor Henry Darrow as the prize wheel spinner.

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The Ian Thomas Band - ''Hold On''​



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Santana - Hold On​

 
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Breathe was an English pop band formed in London in 1984. The band enjoyed chart success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with hit singles "Don't Tell Me Lies", "How Can I Fall?", and "Say a Prayer". The group's biggest hit was "Hands to Heaven", which reached #2 in the United States in August 1988.
The members of Breathe were childhood friends who attended Yateley School, a comprehensive in north-east Hampshire. During 1982 they formed a five-piece jazz-infused outfit called Catch 22, performing covers and the occasional original song. The lineup consisted of David Glasper (vocals), Marcus Lillington (guitar & keyboards), Phill Harrison (bass), Michael Delahunty (bass guitar), and Ian Spice (drums). In a 1990 interview, Glasper offered the following recollections:

I was 17 when the band started, so the other guys were two years younger than myself, 15 ... we had bands that we loved, but it was so far apart in musical tastes... It was just this confusion of different styles. Marcus and Phill were into things like Led Zep and Floyd, that area. I was into things like the Eagles, Little Feat, some soul stuff. Spike was probably into heavier, sort of rock music. So we had all these different kind of styles, which at first was just like a terrible mixture... So we played around our local area quite a lot and that helped kind of formulate or create some kind of style.
After Phill Harrison left Catch 22 to join the Fire Brigade, the band became known as Breathe.



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Breathe - How Can I fall​



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Breathe - Hands To Heaven​

 
"Easy Lover" is a song performed by Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire and Phil Collins of the band Genesis, jointly written and composed by Bailey, Collins, and Nathan East. The song first appeared on Bailey's 1984 solo album, Chinese Wall. Collins has performed the song in his live concerts, and it appears on his 1990 album, Serious Hits... Live! (with Fred White and Arnold McCuller both sharing to perform Bailey's original part), his 1998 compilation album, ...Hits, and his 2016 career-spanning compilation The Singles. It is Bailey's only US top 40 hit as a solo artist.
The song was a No. 1 hit in several countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it spent 23 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including 7 weeks in the top 10, and peaked at No. 2 during the weeks of 2 February 1985 and 9 February 1985, behind "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Foreigner. On the UK Singles Chart, it reached No. 1, staying there for four weeks The single sold over a million copies in the U.S. and was certified gold, as the RIAA requirement for a platinum single disc was not lowered to one million units until 1989. In addition, "Easy Lover" has been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Music Canada. Despite Collins' popularity in Australia, its lowly position on that country's chart was because of a record company dispute.
"Easy Lover" won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Overall Performance in a Video in 1985 and was Grammy Award nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1986
The song was also used in the 2006 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, on the fictional radio station Flash FM.
n 1984, Phil Collins was hired as the producer for Philip Bailey's solo album, Chinese Wall. According to Collins, Bailey approached him at the end of the sessions for the album and asked him to write a song together. In "Phil Collins: My Life in 15 Songs", a 2016 interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine, Collins said of the song: "So we just started having a jam one night, and went round and round and turned it into a verse and a chorus. We recorded it that night so we wouldn't forget it. That song doesn't sound like any particular era. It's just fantastic."

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Phil Collins - Easy Lover 1990​



Phil Collins - Easy Lover 2004


The song was used by the World Wrestling Federation as the theme for the first WrestleMania in March 1985 at Madison Square Garden.
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WWE WrestleMania 1 Theme Song "Easy Lover"​

 
One of These Nights is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Eagles, released on June 10, 1975, by Asylum Records. The album was the band's commercial breakthrough, transforming them into international superstars. In July that year, the record became the Eagles' first number one album on Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, yielding three Top 10 singles: "One of These Nights", "Lyin' Eyes" and "Take It to the Limit". Its title song is the group's second number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The album sold four million copies and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. A single from the album, "Lyin' Eyes", was also nominated for Record of the Year, and won the Eagles' first Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards in 1976. The band embarked on the worldwide One of These Nights tour to promote the album.
One of These Nights is the last Eagles album to feature the original lineup of Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Bernie Leadon (along with then-new member Don Felder). Leadon left the band after the album's tour due to his dissatisfaction with the band's shift from country towards a more mainstream rock sound and was replaced by Joe Walsh. The seventh track, "Visions", is the only Eagles song on which lead guitarist Don Felder sang the lead vocals, despite his desire to write and sing more songs.



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Eagles - One of These Nights​



 
"The Best of Me" is the debut solo single by David Foster, released in February 1983. The ballad was later included as the title track for his debut solo album with the same title, released in November 1983. The song was composed in 1982 by Foster, Jeremy Lubbock and Richard Marx. It has since been recorded by numerous artists, the most notable being Olivia Newton-John, whom Foster chose as his duet partner when he re-recorded the track in 1986, and Cliff Richard, who chose it for his 100th single milestone in 1989.
David Foster re-recorded the track with Olivia Newton-John for his 1986 self-titled solo album. It was released as a single and made No. 6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
English singer Cliff Richard selected the song for his milestone 100th single in 1989. Released on 30 May 1989, the song debuted at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and stayed there another week in its 7-week run on the chart. It was certified silver by the BPI for sales over 200,000.
Before releasing his 100th single, Richard invited 2,000 British fans to the London Palladium for a preview of six songs from his forthcoming album (which would be Stronger), to vote on which one they liked most as the possible 100th single. Ironically, "The Best of Me" came second to "Stronger Than That", but Richard had also revealed by mistake that the latter was composed by Alan Tarney who had written most of Richard's biggest hits since 1979. Regardless, it was enough confirmation for Richard to choose "The Best of Me" with its fitting lyrics as a tribute to his audience. Coming third in the vote was "I Just Don't Have the Heart", ahead of "Joanna" and "Lean on You".
The Best of Me was beaten to and kept off the top spot by Jason Donovan's version of Sealed with a Kiss, produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Richard's I Just Don't Have the Heart was also written and produced by SAW and, according to a contemporary Record Mirror article, if it had been decided to release the SAW song first, as Richard's 100th single, ".. it is wholly possible and quite probable that they'd have delayed Jason's single to allow Cliff easy access to the top spot." I Just Don't Have the Heart was released as the follow-up single in August and reached no.3 in the UK.

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David Foster and Olivia Newton-John - The Best Of Me​



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Cliff Richard - The Best Of Me​

 
"The Next Time I Fall" is a song written by Bobby Caldwell and Paul Gordon and recorded by a duet of Peter Cetera and Amy Grant for Cetera's 1986 album Solitude/Solitaire. It reached number one on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In February 2020, it was listed on a Billboard pop music list of top 25 love song duets.
Upon its release as a single, Cash Box said the Cetera/Grant team achieved "... sparkling results. Grant’s harmonies perfectly compliment Cetera’s trademark ballad stylings in this strong duet.
Songwriter Paul Gordon recalled working on the project with Bobby Caldwell. "Bobby had just moved into a new apartment, and all he had was a drum machine and a chair. We spent a couple of inspired days knocking out that song. It was a lot of fun working with Bobby." The feeling was mutual for Caldwell: "Yes, writing with Paul was a great experience. Sometimes these collaborations click and sometimes not, but this was a smooth and painless venture."
Gordon explained that Caldwell did the vocals on the demo and that they wrote the song for Cetera to sing. "And even when he was no longer in Chicago we decided to stick with him." Caldwell confirmed, "We did indeed write the song for Chicago and their lead vocalist Peter Cetera. We had his voice in mind, but Paul and I were unaware that he was leaving Chicago at that time, and when we heard the news our hopes were dashed. However, a short time later, I got a call at home from Cetera himself who stumbled upon our demo cassette tape of the song in producer/arranger David Foster's office. He loved the tune and wanted to record it as a duet. It was simply meant to be—the song landed with the singer we wanted." Gordon also felt the project had a happy ending. "It was an accidental duet, meaning it was never intended to be a duet—but the producers found ways to make it a duet, which ended up working out pretty well."
Now, it was a matter of Cetera deciding who would be his singing partner. "'I was looking for somebody who wasn't that logical a choice,' he explained. 'Actually, I was going to use an "unknown" singer until someone at my record company suggested Amy Grant,'" who had thus far only been known for Contemporary Christian music. "I thought she was a great choice because she was looking to make a pop crossover, and I like what she stands for. She was real excited about the idea, too." However, Grant still had reservations. Caldwell noted, "Cetera really wanted her to record the duet with him, but she was so devoutly religious that she wanted to vet the songwriters before she would commit to recording the song. I had to go to A&M Records to meet with her. Obviously, I was on my very best behavior that day [he laughs]. I'm sure Paul had to go through the same process."
After the song was recorded, a music video was filmed at the Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California, under the direction of Dominic Sena. The clip consists of shots of Cetera and Grant's lip-syncing that are interwoven with footage of the movements of a large group of dancers. The video made it up to at least No. 7 on the Cash Box list of top 40 music videos.

Peter Cetera, Amy Grant - The Next Time I Fall
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