The Dave Strickson Music Archive

Sunday, 5 June 2022

You Light Up My Life - Debby Boone

"You Light Up My Life" is a ballad written by Joseph Brooks, and originally recorded by Kasey Cisyk for the soundtrack album to the 1977 film of the same title. The song was lip synced in the film by its lead actress, Didi Conn. The best-known cover version of the song is a cover by Debby Boone, the daughter of singer Pat Boone. It held the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for ten consecutive weeks in 1977 and topped Record World magazine's Top 100 Singles Chart for a record 13 weeks.

Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin

"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" (German: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer") is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper). The song has become a popular standard recorded by many artists, including a US and UK number one hit for Bobby Darin in 1959. Dick Hyman recorded an instrumental version in 1955. "Mack the Knife" was introduced to the United States hit parade by Louis Armstrong in 1955, but the song is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version at Fulton Studios on West 40th Street, New York City, on December 19, 1958 for his album That's All (with Tom Dowd engineering the recording). Even though Darin was reluctant to release the song as a single, in 1959 it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles chart, and earned him two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best New Artist. It was listed as a Cash Box Top 100 number one single in 1959 for eight weeks. Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it would not appeal to the rock and roll audience; he subsequently acknowledged his error. Frank Sinatra, who recorded the song with Quincy Jones on his L.A. Is My Lady album, called Darin's the "definitive" version.

Smooth - Santana

"Smooth" is a collaboration between Latin rock band Santana and Matchbox Twenty vocalist Rob Thomas. The song was written by Itaal Shur and Thomas, produced by Matt Serletic, and sung by Thomas. In the United States, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks; it was the final number-one hit of the 1990s and the first number-one hit of the 2000s. "Smooth" is the only song to appear on two decade-end Billboard charts. "Smooth" is ranked as the third-most-successful song ever on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs listing. It won three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. The song reached number one in Canada and the top 10 in Australia, Austria, Ireland and the United Kingdom.