Having played a couple of weeks of songs with love in their title I was thinking that maybe I should change the theme. But I’m having too much fun to stop now, so here is a third set of love songs for you to, hopefully, enjoy.

All of these were already on my list, but as this first one was suggested in a comment last week after I played a Free track I thought I’d begin this week with it – Paul Rodgers’ vocals are always worth hearing:

Bad Company were an English ‘supergroup’ formed in London in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke (both ex-Free), guitarist Mick Ralphs (ex-Mott the Hoople) and bassist Boz Burrell (ex-King Crimson). Paul Rodgers vocals were, as I said, their trademark and they made a set of great albums in their first incarnation. Feel Like Making Love was a track on their second album, Straight Shooter, which came out in March 1975: I can still remember buying it as a gift for myself for getting through my final exams at uni – a month of hell deserved a reward! It reached #3 in the UK, the US, and Canada, going Gold in the UK for 100k sales and in Canada for 50k, and triple Platinum in the US for 3m. This was the second single taken from it, and it peaked at #20 in the UK, #5 in Canada, and #10 in the US.

From one great rock band to another for my second tune:

Love Over Gold was the title track of Dire Straits’ fourth album, which was released in September 1982 and topped the charts in the UK, Australia, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, making #6 in Canada and #19 in the US: Platinum and Gold discs aplenty! Critics (those geniuses) remarked at the time that it was a ‘brave’ record, as it came in at just over 41 minutes but only contained five tracks. When one of those is the 14 minute masterpiece that is Telegraph Road I see no reason to quibble! The first single taken from it was Private Investgations in late August, which reached #2 in the UK. I remember it very clearly: we were on holiday in Italy at the time and went for a late evening pizza, as you do. The song was played over their sound system and I instantly recognised Mark Knopfler’s voice. Our waiter saw me stop to listen and told us that he was a big fan of the band, and would be buying their new album as soon as it came out. From those chart placings it appears that we both helped it to #1 in our respective countries. The video I am playing is from the band’s first live album, Alchemy, which came out in March 1984 and reached #3 in the UK, #26 in Canada, and #46 in the US. It was a double album, recorded the previous July at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Love Over Gold wasn’t on the first release on vinyl and cassette, having been issued separately as a single to promote the album, though it was then included on the CD version. The single made #50 in the UK.

I appear to have gone into reflective mode, following that one with this little gem:

Obviously that wasn’t an official video, but I couldn’t find one so chose to go with some nice illustrations for the lyrics. Van Morrison included Warm Love on his Hard Nose The Highway album, his seventh, in August 1973, though the song first came out as a single in April of that year. The album was recorded at his own studio, built next to his home in Fairfax, California, and the American connection presumably explains the backing vocals on this song being by Jackie DeShannon. Her voice goes well, I think. The album reached #22 in the UK and #27 in the US, but fared best in Canada, where it made #18. The single only charted in Canada, where it reached #66, but somehow chart placings feel irrelevant for such a beautiful, heartfelt song.

Where to go next after such a thing of beauty? How about another, my all time favourite Stevie Wonder song:

I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) has been covered numerous times, notably by Art Garfunkel and George Michael, but for my money no one has got close to Stevie’s original. As the clip shows it was a track (the closing one) on his Talking Book album. This was his fifteenth, released in October 1972, though I tend to regard it as his second ‘grown up’ record, after Music Of My Mind earlier that year. His growing maturity as a songwriter is very much to the fore on this one, as he was leaving behind his ‘Little Stevie Wonder’ days. Talking Book reached #3 in the US, #12 in Canada and #16 in the UK. This song was co-written with Yvonne Wright, who despite the name was unrelated to Syreeta Wright, Stevie’s then-wife. The performance is very much a one man effort, though: all of the instruments and voices are Stevie. It wasn’t released as a single, either A- or B-side, but the two from the album that were – Superstition and You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – both made #1 in the US and got to #11 and #7 respectively in the UK.

Before you think I’m going soft in my old age, I’m closing with one of my favourite bands. This a great song and the views in the video are spectacular:

I played this one for a Song Lyric Sunday post in December, but will always enjoy an excuse to play it again. It was a track on Permission To Land, the debut album by The Darkness, which was released in July 2003 and peaked at #1 in the UK but only #36 in the US. Despite that its US sales are impressive, at 710k and Gold, compared with 1.5m in the UK, where it went 4x Platinum. Love Is Only A Feeling was the last of five tracks from the album to be released as a single, in March 2004, and it got to #5 in the UK, though it didn’t make the US chart. This is an album that I bought and played to bits, and I still love it today. I have all of their records, and am looking forward to their next one, which is scheduled for release later this month with the intriguing title of Dreams On Toast. Four tracks have already come out, and it is looking promising! The band are from Suffolk, in East Anglia, which is known as a fairly flat county: this video was recorded in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, in Australia, as you don’t get hills like that in Suffolk!

That’s it for today. As always, I hope you enjoyed these. I’ll see you again in a couple of days, and I have a little treat coming for you: another in my occasional Classic Album series. I’ll say no more for now, so you’ll have to come back to see which one it is. But it is a very safe bet that it won’t be anything by Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, or Lionel Richie, so that narrows the field down a little. Until then, enjoy your week 😊