Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Touch/Feel.”

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Eddie Levert is known for more than his sixty-plus year career with the legendary R&B group, The O’Jays.  He’s also known for his talented sons, Gerald and Sean, two of the three-member R&B/New Jack Swing group, Levert, popular in the 80s.

After seven studio albums and songs like the top five pop hit, Casanova, Gerald embarked on a solo career in 1991. He enjoyed much success with hits like I’d Give Anything (To Fall in Love) and the R&B chart-topping duet with his father, Baby Hold On To Me.

But it was on his 2001 album, Gerald’s World, that the single Made To Love You appeared. It didn’t receive a wide release, but still stands the test of time as an anthem for holding steadfast to your relationship, especially through the bad times.

FUN FACTS

• • Gerald wrote and produced songs for other artists such as Patti LaBelle, Barry White, Stephanie Mills, Anita Baker, Teddy Pendergrass, James Ingram, Freddie Jackson, The Rude Boys, and New Edition.
  • In 1997, Levert teamed up again with fellow singers Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill, to form the supergroup, LSG. The trio released the album Levert-Sweat-Gill the same year, selling over two million copies.
  • On November 10, 2006, Gerald Levert was found dead in his bed at his Cleveland, Ohio home when his cousin tried to wake him. Initial reports stated that Levert had died of an apparent heart attack. In February 2007, an autopsy report conducted by the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office concluded that Levert’s death was caused by a fatal combination of prescription narcotics and over-the-counter drugs. He was 40 years old.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Promise/Oath/Vow.”

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The music world lost one of its brightest stars on March 20, 2020.

Kenneth Ray “Kenny” Rogers passed away under hospice care of natural causes. He was 81.

In a career which spanned more than sixty years, Kenny moved from teenage rock’n’roll through psychedelic rock to become a hit country-pop crossover artist of the 1970s and 1980s. His songs appeared in top-selling motion pictures and television movies, including movies based on some of his songs and, in which he starred.

The multi-award winner was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. He worked with some of the biggest names in the record industry, charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including two number ones—Lady and Islands in the Stream), and sold more than 165 million records.

My love for Kenny Rogers goes all the way back to 1967 when he was with the First Edition and had hits like Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) and Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town… and my age was in single digits. 😀  He recorded songs that were special to me in every decade after that, especially the 80s when I met and married my late husband.

None of the words of this week’s prompt actually appear in the title or lyrics of 1981’s Through the Years, but it was a very special song for us. The song looks back at a relationship “Through The Years” and mentions the ups and downs, but the singer proclaims to his loved one: I’m so glad I stayed right here with you / Through the years.

Rest in peace, Kenny, and thank you for the music through the years.

FUN FACTS

• • Kenny Rogers topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.
  • Rogers was the fourth of eight children and is said to be of Irish and Native American heritage.
  • On his 50th anniversary TV special, Rogers performed a version of Through the Years with his two friends Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton which also included archive footage of him working with both on various projects through the years.
  • Through the Years reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1982, remaining in the Top 40 for eleven weeks and went to number one on the adult contemporary chart, becoming Rogers’ fifth single to top this chart.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Give/Get/Take/Receive/Send.”

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Released in 1969 on the Brunswick label, Give It Away is the debut album by American soul group The Chi-Lites.

Seven of the album’s eleven songs are originals, including the title cut. It reached #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on R&B chart, making it the group’s first top ten hit.

FUN FACTS

• • Four of the songs on Give It Away were Motown standards and one was a song made popular by Johnny Mathis, The Twelfth of Never.
  •  Led by lead singer, Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites scored eleven Top Ten R&B hits from 1969 to 1974.
  • The group was formed at Hyde Park High School in Chicago in the late 1950s as the “Chanteurs”. The original members were Eugene Record, Robert “Squirrel” Lester, and Clarence Johnson. This quartet introduced themselves at the Hyde Park High School “Senior Varieties” talent show. They later recruited Marshall Thompson and Creadel “Red” Jones from the Desideros to form the Hi-lites.  Noting that the name Hi-lites was already in use and wanting to honor their home town they changed their name to “The Chi-Lites” in 1964.
  • Eugene Record was the musical group’s sole songwriter and lead singer. Record never collaborated with members outside his singing group.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “North/South/East/West.”

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As a female pop singer, Kelly Clarkson has expressed frustration that for years her appearance, particularly her weight, has been a constant topic of discussion. This led her to write a song that said “Yeah, you’re right, I am a whole lot of woman, and it’s okay. I came with a brain, and I came with drive and passion and sensuality, and these things that are awesome. If you can’t handle it, that’s totally cool, but you’re not tall enough to ride this ride, then move along. It’s fine.”

Clarkson, who grew up in Texas, remarked in a profile on The New York Times that the song’s inspiration came from the challenges of being a financially secure woman looking for a man after internalizing the paradoxes of growing up in the South. Clarkson says that in the South women are told, “We want to educate you and we want you to be intelligent, but not too intelligent to where you’re intimidating; we want you to be beautiful, but not too sexy to where you’re a slut; we want you to be successful but not so successful that you make someone feel uncomfortable.”

After a conversation Clarkson had with the NOVA Wav duo–Denisia Andrews and Brittany Coney–in a session in Los Angeles, the anthem Whole Lotta Woman was penned.

Whole Lotta Woman is from Kelly’s eighth studio album, Meaning of Life, and to promote the album’s release, Clarkson debuted Whole Lotta Woman in a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 31, 2017.

FUN FACTS

• • The song lyrics allude to the size of Clarkson’s waistline, her attitude, her self-worth, and her mouth using references to Southern cooking and singer Tina Turner.
  • Members of the American soul band Earth, Wind & Fire, led by bass player Verdine White, were invited by Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman to play on the track.
  • Critical reception of the song was mixed. It reached number 142 on Billboard’s US Digital Songs chart.

Alas, I was incapable of choosing a favorite video, so I posted THREE! 😀 😀 😀 No harm, no foul though. They’re all live performances from 1) a Nashville studio session, 2) the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, and 3) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Watch one or watch all three…they’re all amazing!

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Listen/Hear/Talk/Speak.”

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Anita Baker’s 1990 album Compositions, won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards, and includes one of my favorite baker songs, Talk to Me.

The song is about the determination of men to be strong and silent, not showing emotions or sharing feelings about what they’re going through in tough times. The song is representative of the woman in a man’s life who knows he’s going through something and it’s damaging everything in his life. She simply tells him to talk to me.

FUN FACTS

• • The song was released as the lead single in support of her fourth studio album, Compositions.
  • The album peaked at #5 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in 1990, making it Baker’s third platinum selling album.
  • Talk to Me became a top five R&B hit, peaking at number three on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles and number four on Adult Contemporary Songs.
  • Anita Baker is regarded as one of the most popular singers of soulful romantic ballads during the height of the quiet storm period of contemporary R&B in the 1980s.
  • Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five platinum albums and one gold album.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.