‘Kiss You All Over’ is a 1978 song performed by American group Exile, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. It was included on the band's third album, Mixed Emotions (1978), and featured lead vocalist Jimmy Stokley and guitarist J.P. Pennington on vocals. On the American Top 40 broadcast of May 26, 1979, Casey Kasem reported that Chapman stated his source of inspiration for ‘Kiss You All Over’ was ‘It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me’ by Barry White. The song was a number one single in the United States, but proved to be Exile's only big hit in the pop market (they would later have great success on the country music charts).
You don't see this very often: a #1 pop hit by a country group from Kentucky written by the leading glam rock songwriters from the UK. A very unusual song, "Kiss You All Over" combines elements of rock and disco, which was the stylistic sweet spot of 1978. It was the first song Mike Chapman wrote on a keyboard instead of guitar; the instrument could replicate strings, which gave him a new sonic arsenal. In an interview with Billboard, Chapman said: "It's a very unusual song and is very much about what music in the US is all about in 1978. It's MOR (Middle Of the Road) soft rock, slightly disco though not pure disco, and has a sensuous lyric line that Americans love. Americans are big lyric listeners and listen to every word."
It held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks (starting September 30), and Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1978. The track also reached number-one in at least three other countries. In the United Kingdom, the song was released on Mickie Most's RAK Records, and peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The strings are played with a synthesizer in a backing track. In 2010, Billboard ranked the song tenth on its list of "The 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time".
This song appears in the films Happy Gilmore (1996), Man on the Moon (1999), and Employee of the Month (2006). In Employee of the Month, two characters discuss the song after listening to it. The song has frequently been used as backing music for TV scenes involving various degrees of smooching or similar lip-caressing activities. The most creative use of ‘Kiss You All Over’ would have to be the Canadian Broadcasting Company's use of the song in a 2007 montage of hockey players kissing the Stanley Cup.
Lead vocalist on the number, Stokley was ousted from the band in 1979, his health declining thereafter until he died at the age of 41 in 1985. After the success of "Kiss You All Over", soft rock singles from the albums Mixed Emotions and All There Is had lower chart positions, in comparison. The band moved into country music in the 1980s, after their own composed pop singles, despite failing, would become hits for other acts such as Alabama and Huey Lewis and The News. The music change worked for Exile, as they would have over ten #1 hits in the U.S. Country market.
Labels – Warner/Curb Records (US), RAK Records (UK)
Songwriters – Mike Chapman, Nicky Chinn
Producer – Mike Chapman
SONG LYRICS
When I get home, babeGonna light your fire
All day I've been thinkin' about you, babe
You're my one desire
Gonna wrap my arms around you
Hold you close to me
Oh, babe I wanna taste your lips
I wanna be your fantasy, yeah
Don't know what I'd do without you, babe
Don't know where I'd be
You're not just another lover
No, you're everything to me
Every time I'm with you, baby
I can't believe it's true
When you're layin' in my arms
And you do the things you do
You can see it in my eyes
I can feel it in your touch
You don't have to say a thing
Just let me show how much
I love you
I need you, yeah
I wanna kiss you all over
And over again
I wanna kiss you all over
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Stay with me, lay with me, holding me, loving me, baby
Here with me, near with me, feeling you close to me, baby
So show me, show me everything you do
Cause baby no one does it quite like you
I love you
I need you, yeah
I wanna kiss you all over
And over again
I wanna kiss you all over
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in