‘Everlasting Love’ is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since covered numerous times. The most successful version in the UK was performed by Love Affair and the highest-charting version in the U.S. was performed by Carl Carlton. Other cover versions were done by Town Criers, Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet, Sandra Cretu, U2 and Gloria Estefan. The original version of ‘Everlasting Love’ was recorded by Knight in Nashville, with Cason and Gayden aiming to produce it in a Motown style reminiscent of the Four Tops and the Temptations.
In the UK, ‘Everlasting Love’ was covered by the Love Affair: it achieved No. 1 status in January 1968, eclipsing the Robert Knight original. Also in 1968, a cover by the Australian group Town Criers reached No. 2 in the Australian charts. In the 1990s ‘Everlasting Love’ reached the UK top 20 three times via remakes by Worlds Apart (No. 20 in 1993), Gloria Estefan (No. 19 in 1995) and, most successfully, a charity single by the cast from Casualty that reached No. 5 in 1998. In 2004, Jamie Cullum's version peaked at No. 20. Thus, ‘Everlasting Love’ is one of two songs to become a Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (the other being ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’) and the only song to become a UK top 40 hit in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
‘Everlasting Love’ was recorded by Love Affair in 1967. According to the band's lead vocalist Steve Ellis: "We had two managers, David Wedgebury and John Cokell, who both worked at Decca [and] had access to all the imports on the Monument label. We rehearsed in a factory in Walthamstow and one night they turned up with 'Everlasting Love' by Robert Knight. I loved it and so we set about putting it down on tape."
Love Affair used session musicians rather than the band itself on their version. The only member of the group who performed on it was their 16-year-old vocalist Steve Ellis. In an interview with Shindig magazine, Ellis said, "The general opinion seemed to be that I should do it with an orchestra and then give it a Phil Spector-type production. Obviously, I felt odd without the band being in the studio but it was for the good of all involved. Two takes and it was done. The band were not too concerned about this approach to things." Love affair went onto achieve five more UK Top 20 hits on which the group did get to perform. Mike Smith would eventually attribute the non-utilization of the actual musicians in Love Affair to the need for expediency, arguing that "there just wasn't time for the group to learn the arrangement in time, so we used session musicians", a UK release for the Robert Knight original version being imminent.
Debuting on the UK Top 50 dated 3 January, 1968, ‘Everlasting Love’ by the Love Affair rose to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for a two-week stay from 31 January. The track was also a Top 20 hit in a number of other European countries in 1968. When the Love Affair appeared on the ITV programme Good Evening I'm Jonathan King host Jonathan King asked group bassist Mick Jackson if the band had actually played on their hit recording of ‘Everlasting Love’ and Jackson admitted the track had featured Ellis backed by session musicians. Steve Ellis has stated that Jonathan King was aware of the background of the Love Affair hit and ambushed Mick Jackson to invoke controversy, although Jackson would state: "We announced it ourselves because there were rumours about it in the business and we heard a Sunday newspaper was going to blow the story". Jackson also stated: "At first we didn’t worry that much when the story about us not playing came out... Then the thing escalated and people all over the place started slagging us. We got to regard it as a terrible nuisance, every time we opened a paper there was someone having a go at the Love Affair." The bad press had little if any negative impact on the band's popularity: their follow-up to ‘Everlasting Love’, ‘Rainbow Valley’ – another Cason/Gayden composition introduced by Robert Knight – reached number 5 in the UK and the additional success of ‘A Day Without Love’ (number 6) made Love Affair the UK's top group in singles sales for 1968, apart from the Beatles. (The Love Affair singles continued to feature Ellis fronting a session ensemble with no other group members participating.)
Label – CBS
Songwriters – Buzz Cason, Mac Gayden
Producers - Mike Smith, Keith Mansfield
SONG LYRICS
Hearts gone astray, deep in hurt when they goI went away, just when you, you need me so
You won't regret, I come back beggin' you
Won't you forget, welcome love we once knew
Open up your eyes then you realise
Here I stand with my everlasting love
Need you by my side, girl to be my bride
You'll never be denied, everlasting love
From the very start, open up your heart
Feel that you're part of everlasting love
Need a love to last forever
Need a love to last forever
Where life really flows, no one really knows
Till someone's there to show the way to lasting love
Like the sun it shines, endlessly it shines
You always will be mine, if eternal love
Whenever love went wrong, ours would still be strong
We'd have our very own everlasting love
Need a love to last forever
Need a love to last forever
Open up your eyes then you realise
Here I stand with my everlasting love
Need you by my side, girl to be my bride
You'll never be denied, everlasting love
From the very start, open up your heart
Be a lasting part of everlasting love
Whenever love went wrong, ours would still be strong
We'll have our very own everlasting love