As last week’s set of love songs seems to have gone well I thought I’d play some more this week. After all, we all need a little bit of love now and again, don’t we, and it seems to be something much lacking in the world right now. So here are some more tunes for your listening pleasure. Looking at the set list, I am struck by the thought that these are all fairly old – but that doesn’t stop them being good!

Today’s first tune is from a band who were short-lived, but gave us some classics to remember them by, like this one. The video is a mash up of two concerts with the original audio behind them, but it has some great memories:

Cream released Sunshine Of Your Love on their second album, Disraeli Gears, in November 1967. The album peaked at #5 in the UK and #4 in the US, though it made #1 in Australia. Cream, comprising Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, were together from 1966 to 1968: they gave us four albums, though the final one, Goodbye, was released in February 1969, two months after they had disbanded. They also made five live albums and somehow their record company has turned these into ten compilations down the years, proving that it is hard to keep a good band down. This was the second single from the album, released in December 1967: it only got to #25 in the UK but reached #5 in the US and #3 in Canada. As classic rock songs go, this one is right up there among the best for me.

I actually played this next one just four months ago, but I’m working on the assumption that no one will remember! I love the song – always have – so I’m being completely self-indulgent in playing it again:

For the uninitiated, that was Caravan with Love To Love You. Apologies that had to be an audio-only clip, but the live performances I could find were from some fifty years after the record came out and I wanted the original version. Caravan were formed in Canterbury, and were a major part of what became known as the ‘Canterbury scene’ which was noted for the development of prog rock bands, notably Soft Machine. As the clip shows, Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly) – to give it its full title – was a track on their third album, In the Land of Grey and Pink, which was released in April 1971. It wasn’t a chart hit but sold steadily throughout the Seventies – I had a copy – and it got them a lot of radio airplay, especially when this song was released as a single. I only ever saw them play live once, at around that time, and they were great, a real mixture of catchy little tunes and longer prog pieces, which in themselves were collections of tunes built into musical suites: for instance, the second side of this album is listed as one track of over 22 minutes, though it comprises eight shorter sections. If you want to hear more, I suggest the title song from their previous album, If I Could Do It Again I’d Do It All Over You. Who said prog bands take themselves too seriously!

Another one from the early Seventies next, and for the same reason as the previous one I’m afraid it has to be an audio only version:

Little Bit Of Love was released as a single by Free in May 1972, reaching #13 in the UK and #119 in the US. It then became the opening track on the band’s fifth album, Free At Last, which came out the following month and peaked at #9 in the UK and #69 in the US. Despite its name that wasn’t actually their final album – that was Heartbreaker, in January 1973 – but it was the last one with the original line up of Paul Rodgers, Paul Kossoff, Andy Fraser and Simon Kirke. Internal differences and Paul Kossoff’s addiction issues were at the root of the break up, and Rodgers and Kirke brought in two new members for that final album. They then formed Bad Company, who went on to great success as I’m sure you know.

I had a couple of love songs by this next band from which I could choose. This is probably the less obvious one:

10cc released The Things We Do For Love as a single in December 1976: it got to #6 in the UK, #5 in the US and #1 in Canada, selling more than a million copies in the US. The track was then included on their fifth album, Deceptive Bends, which was released in May 1977, peaking at #3 in the UK and #31 in the US. Despite the prior success of the single the album only made #78 in Canada – I guess anyone who wanted the song already had it! You have probably realised that the other song of theirs I could have played is I’m Not In Love, which was a massive hit almost everywhere, but I prefer this one.

I’m closing today with another that I have played before, but as that was in September 2020 and it is such a classic pop song I think it is worth hearing again:

Everlasting Love was originally recorded by, and was a US hit for, Robert Knight in 1967. Love Affair’s version was released in December 1967 and became their first hit, spending two weeks at #1 in the UK charts in February 1968. The major selling point for the group was Steve Ellis, who was just 16 at the time of recording, and had a remarkably mature voice for one so young. My parents subsequently gifted me their debut album, The Everlasting Love Affair, which, as well as their first three hit singles, also contained very good versions of The First Cut Is The Deepest and Handbags And Gladrags among others. They were known largely as a ‘pop’ band, and therefore a little ‘uncool,’ but I think Steve’s vocals deserve a better appraisal than that.

And that’s where today’s set of love tunes comes to an end, and it is only as I bring it to a conclusion that I realise these are all UK bands – apologies to the rest of the world! I hope you have enjoyed them, though, and maybe even recognised some of them! I’ll see you again in a couple of days, but until then have a lovely week and take care 😊