Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Tagged: Robert Knight

1970s, Pop

Never My Love

First released by Robert Knight (released February 1967).
Hit versions by The Association (released June 1967 US #2/MOR #1/CAN #1/NZ #6), The 5th Dimension (US #12/MOR #1/R&B #45/CAN #9 1972), Blue Swede (US #7/CAN #7 1974), The Addrisi Brothers (US #80 1977).

From the wiki: “”Never My Love” was a pop standard written by siblings Don and Dick Addrisi. Growing up, both Don and Dick played parts in their family’s acrobatic group, The Flying Addrisis. In the 1950s, they got in touch with Lenny Bruce about starting a singing career and moved to California. They auditioned for parts on the Mickey Mouse Club, but were rejected. Soon after, however, they signed to Del-Fi Records and recorded several singles which produced a modest chart hit for them in 1959, ‘Cherrystone’. The brothers enjoyed greater success as a songwriting duo.

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1960s, Pop

Everlasting Love

Originally recorded by Robert Knight (US #13/UK #40 1967 |UK reissue #19 1974).
Hit versions by Love Affair (UK #1 1968), Carl Carlton (US #6/R&B #11 1974), Narvel Felts (C&W #14 1979), Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet (US #32/UK #35 1981), U2 (AUS #2/POL #3/NETH #10 1989), Gloria Estefan (US #28/UK #19 1994).
Also recorded by David Ruffin (1969).

From the wiki: “‘Everlasting Love’ is one of two songs (the other being ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’, by The Temptations, Rita Coolidge, Hall & Oates & UB40) to become a Top 40 hit in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. The original version of ‘Everlasting Love’ was recorded by Robert Knight, at Fred Foster Sound Studio, Nashville. His producers, Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, aimed to record him in a Motown style with an especial reference to the Four Tops and the Temptations, intending the song to serve as B-side for another titled ‘The Weeper’.

“Cason believes he may have drawn the phrase ‘everlasting love’ from the Biblical verse Jeremiah 31.3 which begins: ‘Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love’. According to Cason, the recording ‘had some different sounds on it that, for the time period, were kind of innovative. The string sound is actually an organ and we used a lot of echo.’ Ultimately, ‘Everlasting Love’ was released as an A-side for Knight, and it peaked at #13 in 1967 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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