Everlasting Love
"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since covered numerous times. The most successful version in the UK was performed by Love Affair and the highest-charting version in the US was performed by Carl Carlton. Other cover versions were performed by Town Criers, Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet, Sandra Cretu, U2 and Gloria Estefan.
The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded by Knight in Nashville, with Cason and Gayden aiming to produce it in a Motown style reminiscent of the Four Tops and the Temptations. When released as a single in the US, the song reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. Subsequently, the song has reached the US top 40 three times, most successfully as performed by Carl Carlton, peaking at No. 6 in 1974, with more moderate success by the duo Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet and Gloria Estefan. Robert Knight's and Carl Carlton's versions both peaked during the last two weeks of November, 1967 for Knight, 1974 for Carlton.
In the UK, "Everlasting Love" was covered by the Love Affair: it achieved No. 1 status in January 1968, eclipsing the Robert Knight original. Also in 1968, a cover by the Australian group Town Criers reached No. 2 in the Australian charts. In the 1990s "Everlasting Love" reached the UK top 20 three times via remakes by Worlds Apart, Gloria Estefan and, most successfully, a charity single by the cast from Casualty that reached No. 5 in 1998. In 2004, Jamie Cullum's version peaked at No. 20. Thus, "Everlasting Love" is one of two songs to become a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and the only song to become a UK top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
Robert Knight version
The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded at the 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 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: Kenny Buttrey, 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 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."Debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 dated September 30, 1967, "Everlasting Love" had already reached No. 1 in Philadelphia and Detroit by the time of its top 40 debut on October 21, 1967. Cason admitted that the single "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 No. 13 on the chart dated November 25, 1967 then dropped off the Hot 100 over the next three weeks. The R&B chart peak of "Everlasting Love" was No. 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 No. 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 No. 19.
An airplay staple on American oldies radio stations, 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 favorite version of the song: "I just think Robert's was the one that had the magic in it."
Charts
| Chart | Peak position |
| Canada Top Singles | 26 |
| Sweden | 6 |
| UK Singles | 40 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 13 |
| US R&B | 14 |
Love Affair version
"Everlasting Love" was recorded by Love Affair in 1967. According to the band's lead vocalist Steve Ellis: "We had two managers, David Wedgebury and John Cokell, who both worked at Decca 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 - 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, Clem Cattini, Alan Parker, Russ Stableford, 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, arguing that "there just wasn't time for the group to learn the arrangement, so we used session musicians", a UK release for the Robert Knight original version being imminent.
Debuting on the UK Top 50 dated 3 January, 1968, "Everlasting Love" by the Love Affair rose to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for a two-week stay from 31 January. The track was also a Top 20 hit in a number of other European countries in 1968.
When the Love Affair appeared on the ITV programme 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 adverse 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 number 5 in the UK and the additional success of "A Day Without Love" made Love Affair the UK's top group in singles sales for 1968, apart from the Beatles.
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.
Charts
Certifications
Carl Carlton version
recorded "Everlasting Love" in October 1973 at the Berry Hill studio Creative Workshop, which was owned by Buzz Cason; however, Cason was not involved in the recording of Carlton's version - the singer had himself chosen to record "Everlasting Love", which he knew via the version on David Ruffin's 1969 album My Whole World Ended. Produced by Papa Don Schroeder and Tommy Cogbill, Carlton's cover features Hayward Bishop on drums and percussion, Cogbill on bass, and Reggie Young on guitar. The recording was engineered by Travis Turk. 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's original recording of "Everlasting Love" was issued as the B-side of the 1973 single "I Wanna Be Your Main Squeeze"; the track 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 No. 6 peak that November, almost reaching the R&B Top 10 at No. 11. It was Carlton's only top 10 hit on the Hot 100.
Carlton's version of "Everlasting Love" is the most successful US release of the song. It remains an airplay favorite on American oldies radio stations. According to Broadcast Music Incorporated, 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.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet version
"Everlasting Love" was recorded as a duet 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 and featured on both Smith's Everlasting Love album and Sweet's ...And Then He Kissed Me, "Everlasting Love" as a single featured a two-track B-side featuring Smith's "Still Thinking of You" and Sweet's "Billy and the Gun", 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." 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 Dick Sweet learned of Smith's recording of the song, arrangements were made for "Everlasting Love" to be recorded as a duet: Chertoff remained as producer of this 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 Peter Solley sessions, would eventually comprise the ...And Then He Kissed Me album.
The single was released in June 1981 in the US, July in the UK, and August in Australia. 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" 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 No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1981, affording Sweet her only Top 40 showing and Smith his second and last. It also appeared on Billboards Hot Adult Contemporary chart peaking at No. 31. The single was also a mid-chart item in the UK at No. 35; in Australia it reached No. 41 mainly due to its being a local Top 10 hit in Adelaide at No. 9. In 1982, the Smith/Sweet version of "Everlasting Love" became a Top 10 hit in Switzerland and Denmark. The song received a positive review from the Austin American-Statesman which described it as "one of the best ... superbly produced with a crystalline intensity Phil Spector . A fine arrangement & the vocal of the incomparable Rachel Sweet make a pure delight."
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".